Hi. I’m Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. And today I’m going

to talking about suit colors. Not suit style, not suit cut, not suit patterns, just suit

color.

So oftentimes I'm asked, “What is -- if I'm going to own one suit what is the one

color? What is the fabric that I should select?” And my answer, the vast majority of the time

is charcoal grey.

Charcoal grey is probably the most versatile suit color on the planet. You can wear it

to a funeral, you can wear it to a wedding in the same day. You can wear it to a job

interview. It's just dark, it's not black. In fact it's -- some people will mistake it

for black. But when you’re out in the light, especially natural light, you’re going to

be able to see that it is lighter than black.

And because of that, it doesn’t have as many of the problems with black, that black

has being so stark. And charcoal grey, it just goes with so many shirt colors, so many

shirts -- so many patterns, textures of fabrics. Charcoal grey in a worsted wool fabric is

the most versatile suit fabric. And one that I highly recommend if you're going to go -- and

this is going to be your first suit.

Now, the one right behind it and because it's so common, especially in North America, is

navy blue. Now, navy blue can have the effect of, especially on young men, it can make them

look younger. Although this isn’t always a bad thing if you're a little bit older.

And navy blue isn’t as formal as charcoal grey, but throughout North American and many

parts, I would say most of the world, a navy blue suit is going to get make you buy it.

And I would say it comes very close next to charcoal grey.

So if you have a navy blue suit or if you happen to choose between two suits and the

navy blue fits you better, not a problem, go with the navy blue. It’s going to be

just – just a tad bit less versatile but I'm splitting hairs here. So charcoal grey,

navy blue easily the two suits that I, 99% of the time, recommend as the first suit for

a man wherever he comes to me looking for something like that.

Okay. What are the other fabric colors that you need to be looking out for and to understand

them? Black. Black is very common. But that doesn’t mean that it should be. And black

I think is overused.

Black is great if you have black hair and you have a dark-colored skin. I think a black

suit on a man like that looks great. But if you have a light-colored skin and light-colored

hair, black can be easily overpowering. And black comes from the history of more -- you

see it in formal wear. And it transitioned into suits and many people out there will

argue that black is not there for a good choice for a suit and should be reserved for formal

wear. I'm not that stark on that but I do believe that if you've got a choice, go with

the navy or charcoal grey before you go with black.

And again black for me is more for men with a black hair because it better frames the

face. And it's not overpowering especially if you got a little bit darker skin, then

it’s not going to suck the color out of you. Because it’s got such a stark contrast

between the skin, black can, especially under unnatural lighting, suck, you know a little

bit of the color out of skin. It just doesn’t look always that great.

But after black, medium grey. This is something that I see as underused. And I'm not saying

that, if you already owned a charcoal grey or navy blue suit, a medium grey is a great

second or third or fourth suit. And so medium grey, Cambridge grey it’s sometimes called,

is going to be -- you can clearly tell this is great under all types of lighting.

And medium greys are great because they're not as formal as charcoal greys; but for most

business settings and, you know, even for weddings, especially ones that are outside,

medium grey fits great. And because grey is such a neutral palate, it’s going to go

with a wide range of shirts. So like the navy and like the charcoal grey, medium grey can

pretty much match-up with a wide range of shirts. So it's so very versatile.

So going for medium grey, you can look at light greys as well. Light greys are great

for summer wear. And the lighter color -- and again the very neutral palate makes it match

a wide range of shirts and the lighter color allows it to just to feel right when it comes

to cold weather [0:04:34] wear. You can -- I like a light grey suit with – that’s unlined.

And what I mean by unlined is that the jacket doesn’t have an inner lining. And this works

really nice whenever the weather is hot and it allows you to breathe a bit more. So that’s

the light grey. Again I really like it for a summer wear not so much for the winter wear.

When we’re talking about summer wear, let's talk about tan. Tan is another fabric that

if…

…you're in tropical area you want to go for a lighter weight and tan is great because

it’s going to stand out. And it is pretty neutral palate that’s going to go with a

wide range of shirt fabrics. And tan in general is – it’s harder to find, but it is going

to suit many men.

There are certain types of, especially if you wear it with a dark-colored suit, it maybe

you know, it can create stark contrast there, which maybe a bit overpowering for men with

light hair and light skin. But if you pair it with a light-colored pattern shirt, then

all of a sudden, you’ve got a great combination that even a red-headed man -- or I'm sorry

– yes, a man was red hair and with light skin, he can pull it off.

All right, after tan let's look at brown. We’re staying in the same family. Brown

has some negatives connotations with it. It was said, I think Winston Churchill, you know,

brown looks like – well, not -- I’m on YouTube here so I can't say the yes word.

But you know he did not like it. And there was – you’ll also hear the saying, “No

brown in town.”

Well, Ronald Reagan brought back the brown suit. He was the big fan of it. And if you

look around, I looked good on a brown suit simply because I have very dark brown hair.

And if you can mimic that in your suit and you’ve got brown hair, you’ll look fine.

Black hair, not so much. Light-colored hairs, not so much. I like brown because it -- the

color in general instills a sense of trust. And I find that if you’re in the business,

for a second or third meeting, wearing a brown suit works well. It's a little bit off the

beaten path, it helps you stand out.

So moving from brown we’ll talk about blue. And I already know, I know I already talked

about navy blue. I'm talking about a true blue. So this is a blue under different lighting

conditions that it will look blue, such as kind of my suit here. This one actually has

a little bit of pattern in it but you will clearly see this is a blue suit.

Blues were great especially for odd jackets. But when it comes to suits, they're going

to stay out a bit especially when you’re in a sea of navy, you’re not going to be

able to see that blue. I like blue suits. I think they make men look younger but they

should be, probably a third or fourth suit, not one of your top two. Unless you’re in

Europe, then you get – I think that can be a second suit.

All right. So in summary, we’ve talked about charcoal grey, we’ve talked about navy blue,

we’ve talked about black, we covered medium grey, we covered light grey, we covered tan,

we covered brown and we covered blue.

And I didn’t really talk about white. And in just quick summary, go look up Tom Wolfe.

White is something that you really need to know what you’re doing and I guess -- unless

you’re getting invited to one of Puff Daddy's parties, you're not going to be wearing a

white suit very often. If you ever do, wear it in a summer, make sure it fits.

All right this has been Antonio Centeno with Real Men Real Style. I'll see you around.