Have you ever wondered how to style your outerwear (including overcoats, gloves, and scarves) to maximize your style while staying warm? There are correct and incorrect ways to best pair your outerwear with your gloves and scarves, and mastering these will make it much easier for you to look stylish each day.
Classic Winter Accessories
Scarves
When it comes to scarves, there are many different lengths that you might find when shopping. Having a scarf that’s just around 70 inches long is usually the ideal length. Unless you need the excess length for your height if you’re a very tall gentleman, stay away from scarves that fall too far below your waist. Remember to consider the drape and thickness of the scarf before trying to tie anything too ornate. For a more sophisticated look, opt for a more moderate length of scarf, as opposed to something that’s too thick or too fuzzy. Often, the longer and thicker a scarf is, the more casual you’ll appear.
At Fort Belvedere, we extensively tested various scarf sizes to find the one just right for you. The most common size is 150 centimeters by 30 centimeters (60 inches by 12 inches), and we found that this was simply too short for most men, which resulted in insufficient protection. There are also larger versions measuring 180 centimeters by 35 centimeters (about 71 inches by 14 inches), and while we liked the length, we found that the width started to feel constricting. We settled on an ideal format of 180 centimeters by 30 centimeters (71 x 12 inches). We found that this offers optimal warmth and comfort. Be sure to check out the unique scarf options offered at Fort Belvedere here.
Gloves
The importance of a proper fitting glove is crucial; if a glove is too tight, it’ll fit too snug and feel very uncomfortable, but if it’s too large, it’ll look sloppy and bring down the entire outfit. You’ll want to measure your dominant hand to make sure that you’re getting the right glove size. If you’re opting to wear leather gloves, you may be tempted to search for a size that’s a little bit bigger than what you actually need. This usually happens because things feel much more comfortable when they’re a little bit loose. However, it’s important to remember that leather does stretch, and it’s okay to have something that fits close to the hand but not so tight that you couldn’t even make a fist.
Choosing The Right Colors
To make sure you’re staying stylish along with keeping warm during the winter season, it’s important to know what kind of color options you should consider for your gloves and scarves. If you’re just starting out, make sure that you have the core foundational colors in your overcoat wardrobe; brown, navy, and charcoal gray will offer you the most versatility for your outfits, as you can dress them up or dress down throughout the season. With all the colors that are available to us when it comes to clothing, it’s tough to know where the limits can be sometimes.
There are some people who don’t really mind how they’re perceived at the impression that they might give off when they get dressed and leave the house every day. These are the kind of people that could wear every color in the crayon box and think it’s completely normal. Although we like to see gentlemen have fun and experiment with multiple colors, it is important to consider the environment of where you’re trying to wear them.
Matching Your Outfit with The Occasion
Is this a more formal outing you’re attending, or a more casual and colorful party? If it’s along the lines of the latter, then it would be much more acceptable to wear multiple colors, stop traffic, and have some fun. For example, if you are attending a business meeting and you’re wearing a navy single-breasted overcoat, infusing a few pops of color with this kind of ensemble could be acceptable. Wearing something like our reversible scarf in burgundy or the alpaca scarf, double-sided in charcoal and gray would be a fantastic option with a navy coat.
If you happen to go out to dinner, and you choose to wear a burgundy overcoat over navy trousers, you can wear the reversible scarf in navy blue and red silk wool with polka dots and paisley (pictured further above in this article). With both of these examples, you can see that the wearer is able to incorporate the base color of the overcoat while still allowing the scarf to stand out on its own and be a great conversation starter.
Injecting Some Patterns
The key to making sure that all of the patterns you are trying to wear will work together is to make sure that the patterns are of different size density. I happen to remember a time when I was wearing a striped shirt and a striped tie, and both of the stripes happened to be of the same scale. When I completed tying my tie and I looked in the mirror, I felt like I was wearing wallpaper. There was no line of demarcation, and if not for the tie being a different color, an onlooker would not even have known that I was wearing a tie.
This also reflects what could happen if you’re wearing an overcoat with a plaid pattern and a scarf of the same color and pattern size. In doing so, there will be a loss of dimension and depth to your overall outfit. To fix this, try wearing a scarf of a different color altogether. If you’re going to opt for a pattern, make sure that the pattern is a bigger or smaller size than what is on the coat.
Gloves, in particular, are a fun and effortless way to elevate your overall look. One way to pair your gloves and scarves is to keep your colors consistent. If your gloves and scarves are in the same color tone, everything else will look harmonious. The goal is to not make your outfit feel like a uniform, but to make sure everything else looks unified. To keep things simple, you can try using colors like blue, black, or brown. Using neutral colors such as these will make infusing other colors or patterns much simpler.
Depending on the color or pattern within your coat, you might want to incorporate other colors in your gloves and scarves. When wearing a charcoal overcoat, you actually have a few different options on what you can wear. For example, a camel-colored overcoat looks great with a lot of different earth tones. Try wearing it with the orange bronze rust suede leather gloves and then add the reversible scarf in dark green and red silk motif.
A plaid overcoat might appear tricky to try to pair scarves and glove options with. If you’re uncomfortable with pattern mixing at this point, try picking a scarf with a nice, bold color that will complement the overcoat you’re wearing. Try the alpaca double-sided scarf in light blue and gray, then add the gray peccary gloves. Remember, depending on the occasion, you can have a little bit more fun with some whimsical colors and try mixing patterns.
Conclusion
Depending on the occasion, a scarf that falls no longer than your waist is ideal. A scarf that’s about 70 inches and a moderate thickness is usually going to be the best bet for you when you try to wear a scarf for various occasions. Your gloves should not feel like a boa constrictor on your hand, nor should they feel too loose; you want them snug but not so tight that you can’t make a fist. You can always add a lot of personality to your outfit by adding colors in your scarves or your glove choices. Just be sure to have them blend appropriately with the overcoat choice that you have. Solid and neutral choices will always be safe, and mixing colors and different patterns together will work, as long as you make sure that you have different size density.
Outfit Rundown
I’m wearing a bold big checked Navy sport coat. It’s got functioning buttons and has some flecks of grey and some bright blue. I’m also wearing a white cotton pocket square and some taupe socks. I chose to wear the turtleneck because it incorporates nicely with the blue within the sport coat that I’m wearing. It’s a neutral color and it’s something nice and warm, great for the fall-winter season.
I chose to wear the gray trousers because they complement the gray stripe within the plaid of the jacket. The taupe socks also help ground the brown shoes and the gray pants that I’m wearing, as well the pocket square also adds a brighter element to the overall sport coat.
Dear Kyle,
Sven seems to be running out of ideas and I suggest that you get in his good books by proposing a series on Gentlemens Sayings, and contributing the first yourself: Cheats never prosper.
You can illustrate this with a the fate of the poet Longfellow who stole two poems from Felicia Dorothea Hemans, Casabianca and The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, changing the main character of the former from a boy to a girl and stressing the stern and rock-bound coast of the latter to combine them in The Wreck of the Hesperus, but then suffered the same fate when the Andrews Sisters set The Village Blacksmith’s “Under a spreading chestnut-tree // The village smithy stands” to music as “Don’t stand under the chestnut tree with anyone else but me, anyone else but me, anyone else but me” shortly after Glen Miller had mimicked it as “Underneath the spreading chestnut tree . . . ‘neath the spreading chestnut tree” which incorporated a dance in addition to a tune and Longfellow’s lyrics.
You could perhaps also explore the theory that Johnny Preston stole “By the shore of Gitche Gumee . . Hiawatha stood and waited” from Longfellow for “On the banks of the river, stood Running Bear . . . ” for Part 2
He needs to slow down and pause a bit. Seems to run from one sentence to another way too fast. Raphael paces his talk correctly and is therefore clearer and easier to follow.
Thanks for the constructive feedback!
Agree with this comment! Very monotone in his presenting style, needs to watch and listen to Raphael (and Preston!) who have excellent voice and tone control and superb presentation skills!
Please consider this in the proper light. Several years ago I purchased a pair of Peccary gloves from your company. I provided my size with the order and payment and was notified the size was sold out. I responded and was informed another size or perhaps the next size would be fine.
They sent me a pair of gloves upon their recommendation of size. Well it’s not fine, not to the degree of not usable but not what I intended. The return shipment cost, the wait for my size to be available once more, together with the aggravation persuaded me to simply drop it. Suspect the incentive of a sale overid other considerations. Not the biggest sum of $ however not chump change for a pair of gloves.
Dear Guy, I can see you bought a pair of inlined peccary gloves in size 9 in 2013. We always want our customers to be happy, so if something does not fit or is simply not to your liking, we take it back and we do not charge for returns at this time. We understand returning things is not fun, but unfortunately, we cannot let customer keep the items and give them a full refund.
That being said, we have switched our tanner and maker of our peccary gloves and they are much superior now than they were in 2013 when we first started our shop.
I will be happy to let you know when the unlined gloves are back and I am sure we find a solution for you to return the old gloves.
Can there be too much similarity with scarf and gloves if both are of the same solid color shade (say, dove grey or petrol blue)? Compare the adage of never wearing too similar pocket square and tie combination? Would a saving grace be a faint pattern (the scarf being the same solid color than the gloves, but e.g. with a herringbone pattern). Or is the problem solved by the fact that the scarf and the gloves are inevitably made of different material (leather vs. wool)?