My husband looked so incredible this morning. He was wearing the palest grey jersey shorts, an orange-red pre-owned Benetton polo, a present for him bought off eBayUK 4 years ago, and navy summer slides from LLBean. With his bronze skin and dark hair he just looked smashing. So I became obsessed with what I liked about the look, because I am often inspired by men’s outfits, and have been ever since seeing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
and that movie began the desire for a Wide Wale Corduroy Jacket. You can just see the shoulder of the desired jacket in this next photo on the far left -
Robert Redford and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
and the hats – the hats were desired also.
But back to my husband’s outfit - trying to figure it out what I loved about it and working with what I had, here’s my version -
As for the multi colored wood bangle (ASOS) - it was added to interpret a little multi colored logo on the chest of his Benetton polo which somehow seemed key to the look. At first this racing patch was all that was found online to show you -
from best2patch.com
But after a little more digging, this was found -
which is it - exactly. And that is exactly the same tomato red of his shirt.
As it turns out this small multi colored Benetton logo was hard to find because it was very short lived. It was first used in late 1990 and only lasted a few seasons. So according to at least one Benetton blogger and aficionado this makes husband’s shirt no longer simply pre-owned but it upgrades it to vintage collectible.
So the inspiration of the logo for the multi colored wooden bangle -
Moving on - there was something about the red, navy, plus pale GREY (vs. white) palette that looked so fresh. If you think about it, substituting grey for white is one way of taking the nautical trend into fall. And by the same logic, substituting black could take it into winter.
But there was also something nice about his look having to do with the red being an orange-red, because when a true red was tried, it didn’t have the same effect -
this
not this
And so it just goes to show, you can find inspiration anywhere, as long as you are not a snob about it. Interior Designer Michael Smith says he doesn’t care where he gets his inspiration from – he doesn't care if it is a window display at Target, he jumps on it. It’s true. Inspiration is inspiration, and to reject it because of its origin is only to limit yourself.
