An Experiment in Pocket Squares

(Dedicated to my friend – Geary Johnson – who used to say – “bring one for show and one for blow”)

There is a great pocket square influence out in the world that has me intrigued!  I confess I’m new to this “square” scene – but I like what I see.  I like the dash – the pop of color.  From Mad Men to Maximinimus to The Elegantologist  – pocket squares are a colorful mini explosion on the upper left quadrant of the well-dress guy.

I took a walk through Dillards and Macys here in Florida.  All I found were solid color silk and poly squares.  They were nice, I bought one pale blue one, but there was nothing fancy or eye-catching, so I just put the idea of pocket squares away.

Then, a few weeks ago I came across a blog posting by Giuseppe over at An Affordable Wardrobe and he had this fantastic idea of cutting a pocket square from an old shirt that he liked.  

The idea stuck like glue - so I decided to try something – thinking “Why can’t I just get some remnant pieces of fabric from a fabric store and cut these squares out myself?”

My wife came along and gave me guidance on types of fabric.  I was pretty much thinking I’d stick with cotton and see where that would lead, although silk was always in the back of my mind.  I picked out a handful of “1/4 squares” 

Basically, all I did was cut out the squares a quarter inch larger than the pocket square that I was using as a template.  Since these were cotton fabric, I ironed them flat before cutting.

Here’s the set I came up with.  I think the colors pop – and that’s what I was looking for.

As a test-bed, I tucked these colorful gems into this large window pane Flusser linen-cotton jacket I picked up at Stein Mart for next to nothing.

Colorful pocket squares on the cheap - what do you think?

See ya!

The Art of Manliness did a bog-post on how to fold a pocket square… check it out here.