On the list of divisive menswear, somewhere between skinny jeans and cummerbunds, sits a duo capable of evoking visceral reactions among sartorial snobs: the tonal shirt-and-tie combo. It’s the sort of look that calls to mind the pink-on-pink garb Robert De Niro wore as Sam “Ace” Rothstein in 1995’s Casino. While the film’s costume designers John Dunn and Rita Ryack (with an assist from Giorgio Armani) knocked the looks out of the park, such monochrome styling hasn’t historically been a signifier of “good” taste.
For much of the past century, the dominant aesthetic in men’s business and formal attire has favored high-contrast pairings. After all, neckwear is one of relatively limited opportunities to play with color and pattern, albeit with guardrails that enable even the most conservative of dressers to feel comfortable rocking whimsical ties. (Need proof? Take a closer look at some of Hermès’s silk prints).
Matching one’s tie to one’s shirt, however, requires dismantling the old framework, if it’s to feel at all au courant, and no designer presented a bigger endorsement on the fall runways than Todd Snyder. His collection embraced systems of dressing, but the overall effect was far from the sartorial straitjacket associated with any particular uniform, be it self-imposed or socially dictated. The opening head-to-toe-navy look, featured here, immediately drove his thinking home, referencing the bleu de travail of French tradesmen and balancing a wider-than-standard cotton knit tie with utilitarian separates rendered in an unexpectedly drapey wool.
Just in case the trend needed further validation, Pierce Brosnan stepped onto a London red carpet this summer in a caramel-tinted, double-breasted ensemble from Brioni, a brand synonymous with pushing the boundaries of the “accepted” color palette for tailoring. The message is clear: It’s time to let texture and hue do the talking.
Top: Todd Snyder’s fall 2025 collection; Snyder’s Italian-cotton open-weave knit tie, $118.
