Parking outside a shopping mall entrance located near the men's department of a popular department store used to mean easy in and easy out of the store. After all, men were not caught up in the fashion trends. Aisles were not crammed with eye-catching displays. Today that same aisle is filled with displays of shirt and tie combinations.

One kiosk had three levels of colors for the eyes to feast on. On the first row were shirts in a variety of colors with an equal array of colorful designer neckties circling the kiosk. The second level featured an array of men's standard and thin narrow neckties that would also work with the shirts on the first level. Finally, the top level featured shirt and tie combos standing up displaying style choices from classic to trendy.

With ties and shirts being displayed with such prominence, maybe you no longer want your shirt and tie collection to look like a display case. A few tips from the world of design will empower you to abandon those display kiosks and search for your own shirt and ties.

Matching Fashion Advertisements with Your Interests

First, look at the ads in the Sunday newspaper supplements. Second, save the ads. Waiting rooms are filled with magazines. Begin by looking at the pictures. What pictures attract you? Now, if you happen to have a good visual memory, which most of us don’t try to remember what colors and patterns are used in ads that you like. A more realistic approach is to begin a collection of pictures containing colors and patterns that you like. This is a trick that visual artists use.

Developing Your Aesthetic

In a recent art class, students were asked to do this assignment. The title of the assignment was “Develop Your Aesthetic.” And that is all that that fancy word means. What appeals to you is your aesthetic. Collect as many neckties as you can, then look at them. Chances are very good that they are similar. Select a handful of your favorite pictures to take to the store, put on your suit jacket, and go shopping for ties.

But it can’t be that simple. But it is.

Now you probably won’t find an exact match to your pictures but chances are good that you will be able the find colors and patterns similar enough to the pictures you have been collecting.

Pushing the Envelope

Once you have had success with this method, and once you are feeling braver, try collecting and studying ads that you don’t like. If the ads are in magazines, they work artistically. Too much money is spent on those ads for them not to work. Now, select a handful to these, put on another suit coat and trying selecting shirts and ties that match these ads. Chances are good that you will stumble on combinations that you never dreamed would work together.

Don’t try this is you don’t want to draw attention to yourself. Wearing a mens necktie outside your aesthetic comfort zone will elicit a response from people. People will notice.

Using Your Visual Aesthetic to Shop for Men's Neckties by strangelittlebird is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://hubpages.com/hub/Using-Your-Visual-Aesthetic-to-Shop-for-Mens-Neckties.