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Can a black suit go with a grey Fedora?

Detective_Noir

One of the Regulars
Messages
174
Location
Kansas
hi i have a black 3 piece suit with black pin stripes and i was wondering if a grey fedora could fit with the attire... its a dobbs fifth avenue new york tear drop crown and the color is pearl and the band is a lighter black or dark grey but i was seeing if it could match
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,078
Location
London, UK
The grey is possibly a better choice with a black suit - too much of one colour can end up looking 'costumey'. Elwood and Jake worked it, of course, but you might not care for that comparison. :huh:
 

Pompidou

One Too Many
Messages
1,242
Location
Plainfield, CT
Wearing all black is hard because after about one use and wash, you get a whole bunch of different shades, and it doesn't look right anymore. I think anything but navy blue goes with black, but I'm partial to red.
 

Matt Deckard

Man of Action
Messages
10,045
Location
A devout capitalist in Los Angeles CA.
I think it works pretty well at times. I'm still more keen on the look of a black hat with black suit but gray isn't bad.

IMG_9854-vi.jpg
 

stylesnob

New in Town
Messages
6
Location
San Francisco
The grey is possibly a better choice with a black suit - too much of one colour can end up looking 'costumey'. Elwood and Jake worked it, of course, but you might not care for that comparison. :huh:

Very much agreed! Black suit and black fedora looks a bit bland, boring, and too uniform-like in my opinion. Gray goes well with black!
 

Evan Everhart

A-List Customer
Messages
457
Location
Hollywood, California
hi i have a black 3 piece suit with black pin stripes and i was wondering if a grey fedora could fit with the attire... its a dobbs fifth avenue new york tear drop crown and the color is pearl and the band is a lighter black or dark grey but i was seeing if it could match

My first adult sized suit which I got when I was about 14 years old, was an old German suit of my grandfather's (he picked it up before he came over), it was a dark blackish suit with very bold inch spaced white chalk-stripes, a DB 6/2 4 buttoning. I used to always wear it with my Dad's Dobbs 5th Avenue pearl-gray fedora with a black silk gross-grain ribbon hat-band and black wing-tips or a pair of my grandfather's black and cream spectators. The look is classic and I've got plenty of old family photos of my great uncles and grandfather dressed to the nines in pre-war Hungary and Poland dressed like that. Grandpa always used to wear stuff like that too. Anyway, that's my two cents, and a pearl gray fedora or homburg hat will Never be out of place. It is simply the most versatile hat which you could possibly own or acquire!
 

LoveMyHats2

I’ll Lock Up.
Messages
5,196
Location
Michigan


Geez, I was wearing a black suit with my grey fedora today! I have a black fedora but I normally wear the grey unless I am going to attend something very formal.
 

avedwards

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,425
Location
London and Midlands, UK
Black suits were not that common in the UK and North America in that era (they were however quite common in continental Europe), so the answer to your question is not really.

That said, grey hats were very common and would have been worn with more or less anything, as most people only had one hat and grey is a very versatile colour. I'm sure some people would have worn them with black suits, even though it may not have been as common a look as a grey hat with a navy or a grey suit.
 

hbenthow

Familiar Face
Messages
66
Location
Columbia, Ms.
Black suits were not that common in the UK and North America in that era (they were however quite common in continental Europe), so the answer to your question is not really.

Interesting. I had thought that black suits were quite common in America back then. They seemed very common in photographs and in the movies of that era. Maybe I was mistaking gray or dark blue suits for black ones.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,078
Location
London, UK
Interesting. I had thought that black suits were quite common in America back then. They seemed very common in photographs and in the movies of that era. Maybe I was mistaking gray or dark blue suits for black ones.

That is the challenge with B&W photography: charcoal greys, deep blues, very dark greens and very dark browns can all look 'black' in B&W.
 

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