Neil Gorsuch Sure Doesn’t Know How to Pick a Necktie; If You Have a Low-Contrast Face, Like His, You Can do Much Better!

Neil Gorsuch, the newest addition to the U.S. Supreme Court’s lofty bench of nine justices, is undoubtedly one of the finest and most competent jurists in the land. But with respect to attire--specifically, in the matter of picking a necktie for, say, special occasions--I’m afraid this judge extraordinaire doesn’t seem to have a clue.

[Yes, some aspects of Neil Gorsuch’s ideology are antithetical to mine. Yet, I must admit, I was extremely impressed by the gravitas he displayed during his Senate confirmation hearings this past March.]

Discussion of the clip below, which is from early February when, following his nomination by President Trump, Gorsuch began calling on prominent U.S. senators, as do all Supreme Court nominees prior to their confirmation hearings. The moment you launch the video clip--I’m afraid it’s only three seconds long--your eyes will be captured by Gorsuch’s extremely high contrast tie. Of course, you will then look at his face but only momentarily because the low center of gravity of his overall attire (thanks to that attention grabbing neckwear) will force down your gaze and keep it there.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts on men’s attire, you’ll see my point. If not, and for tips on how someone who, like Gorsuch, has a low contrast visage can sharply enhance their appearance and add a glow to their face, start with the November 27, 2011, post and then look at some of the more recent ones bearing the label “men’s attire.” You’ll find the ones featuring Sen. Bob Corker to be particularly useful.

A request to any reader who has a hotline to Justice Gorsuch: Please convey the following offer to the illustrious judge: “Even though I do not share some of your extremely conservative ideology, I’ll be thrilled to give you a free coaching session on how to sharpen your appearance. The only cost to you: the roundtrip fare from Houston to Washington D.C.”

© Copyright 2017  V. J. Singal

 

 









 

Another Tip for my Caucasian Readers on How to Create a High-Impact Attire: Capitalizing on One of the LIGHTER Colors in Your Facial Skin

In my post of February 4, 2014, I showed Sen. Bob Corker, arguably the best dressed of all our current male U.S. senators, donning a tie whose color was at the dark end of the range of natural hues in his face. Well, the clip below, from a recent interview on CBS “Face the Nation” (still my favorite among all the Sunday morning television talk shows), has the senator wearing a tie whose dominant color is somewhere at the mid-point of all the colors visible on his face. And he looks good, just as in all of my previous posts featuring him. 

 

The objective of this post, along with that of last February, is to demonstrate that when picking a tie, a typical Caucasian man has a very wide choice of colors that are (i) intrinsically pleasing, and (ii) will make the person look splendid because that entire range of colors is in keeping with the principle of matching contrasts discussed in my previous posts. Alas, the situation is far less favorable or “colorful” for people of color--men like me--whose relatively dark facial skin seriously limits their choice of neck ties.

© Copyright 2015  V. J. Singal

 

Tip for My Caucasian Readers on How to Create a High-Impact Attire: Capitalize on the Colors in Your Facial Skin When Selecting a Tie

My first post on how to select an appropriate tie (November 28, 2012), which had an accompanying video clip of Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee to illustrate my point, focused on how someone with light hair could look sharp by picking a tie of somewhat matching color (i.e., matching the color of his hair) and then anchoring the rest of the attire around it. The harmony thus created significantly enhanced the person’s facial glow and his overall appearance.

Well, an alternate starting point for picking a high-impact attire is for a man to select a tie that matches one of the hues that are in his facial skin and then anchor the rest of the attire around it. The video clip below shows Sen. Bob Corker wearing a tie which matches the dominant color of the upper half of his face. Note that this particular approach is especially easy for Caucasian men. Why?  Because of the gradation of pinkish and reddish hues that usually exists on the face of the typical Caucasian, thus allowing him to pick a tie from a wide range of matching and pleasing colors.

My compliments to the exemplary Sen. Corker, a man who knows how to capitalize on the silver gray of his hair and the range of colors embedded in his facial skin.

© Copyright 2014  V. J. Singal

 

 

Male Attire: A Tip for Chinese (and other Similarly Light-skinned Men with Black Hair) on How to Look Sharp

This post is especially directed at people of Chinese origin, and for two reasons:

(i) they now constitute a significant % of this blog’s readership.

(ii) As I learned recently from the BBC, Chinese men preponderantly dye their hair black regardless of age. According to that news report, the dyeing of hair in China is close to being mandatory, with the government picking up the cost of hair color etc. for Party officials.

Recall my previous posts on attire, especially those of November 27, 2011, and November 28, 2012), in which I’ve written about the “principle of matching contrasts,” according to which men and women look their best when the contrast of their clothes matches the level of contrast of their face. Thus, in the case of Chinese men, who invariably have a high contrast face thanks to their very light complexion and lots of black hair, the wearing of high contrast clothes will sharply enhance their appearance and heighten the glow from their face. [Example of high contrast attire: a dark jacket, white shirt, and a bright tie that is strikingly different in color to both the jacket and shirt.]

A low to medium contrast attire, on the other hand, will diminish their visage and subdues the glow from their face. Yet, from recent news footage on PBS and elsewhere, I find even highly educated and well dressed Chinese, Korean, and other fair skinned East/ SE Asian men donning clothes whose contrast is drab, cheerless, and unimaginative.

My point is best illustrated by the two video clips. In the first one, you see a North Korean news announcer who has a very high contrast face, as do most Chinese men. But his attire? A bit too subdued because of the tie being of hues similar to those of his jacket. A bright tie, contrasting strongly with both the jacket and shirt, would have been far more flattering.

Same story for the second clip. With barely a couple of exceptions (and on of those exceptions is, yes, China’s newly elected leader!) all of the men are wearing clothes that are dull, timid, and insipid.  In short, the attire of these other dignitaries does not do justice to their high contrast faces.

Within a few weeks, I hope to post a video clip showing a Chinese man with an attire that is exemplary, i.e., that has an appropriately high-contrast.

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

For Gray-Haired Men: Selecting a Tie That Matches Color of Hair and then Anchoring Rest of Attire Around It

This is really a follow-up to my post of Nov. 28 last year, when I featured a video clip of Sen. Bob Corker looking sharp, thanks to his donning a tie that matched his silver-gray hair and then anchoring the rest of the attire around that tie. That video clip is the first of the two below.

The video clip at the very bottom is new. Taken from a recent edition of PBS NewsHour, my favorite daily news program, it shows correspondent Raphael Pi Roman (interviewing famous Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez) doing an even better job than Corker and therefore looking more appealing. To elaborate: While Roman, too, has selected a tie that somewhat matches the color of his hair, the rest of his attire presents a contrast that is somewhere between low and medium, as it should be. For his bright white shirt and silver-gray tie, Corker’s jacket is a bit too dark, thus slightly overwhelming his low contrast face.

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

Male Attire: First Selecting an Appropriate Tie and then Anchoring the Rest of the Attire Around It

Republican Sen. Bob Corker is much in the news these days because of his leadership role in helping fashion a solution to the so-called “fiscal cliff.” [In fact, he was interviewed just this afternoon on NPR.]  Well, did you know that he is also a sharp dresser, that he knows a thing or two about what sort of clothes will sharply enhance his appearance—specifically, his facial glow? Just click on the video clip below (taken from a recent segment of PBS Newshour, my favorite news program) and see for yourself.

Analysis:  In the case of people whose hair is of a light color, one easy and really effective way to heighten their facial glow is to first select a tie that matches the color of the hair and then anchor everything else--jacket and shirt--around it, making sure that the contrast below the neck is of about the same intensity as the contrast above the neck. (I am referring to the “the principle of matching contrasts,” something I never fail to mention in my seminars on “Some Simple Verbal and Nonverbal Skills for Creating a Highly Favorable First Impression” and which is also discussed in previous blog posts.) In the clip below, you can see that Senator Corker has done exactly that, picking a tie whose color matches his silver gray hair. Exemplary!

Note that while donning the same tie and dark jacket, had Sen. Corker worn a dark shirt, the extremely high contrast level of the attire would have overwhelmed the contrast above the neck, thus eclipsing the face.

  

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

 

My Answer to Yesterday’s Quick Quiz

To make sense of this post, you need to first read the previous one, which asks you to identify two things that the Morningstar analyst could have done to elevate his first impression even before he started speaking.

Answer: The first thing is he could have had a wide smile, what I humorously refer to as the “all-32 teeth-showing” smile. Why? Because a wide smile--with upper teeth clearly showing--conveys warmth and enthusiasm. Most people have an almost “visceral attraction” to others’ dental enamel.

The second step Mr. Hottovy could have taken to instantly convey a highly favorable first impression: Donning a high contrast attire since he has a high contrast face, thanks to his light complexion and black hair.

© Copyright 2012 V. J. Singal

A Common Mistake by Caucasian/ Other Light Skinned Men When Selecting a Tie: The Perils of an Attire with Contrast that Far Exceeds That of Face

The problem, stated perhaps much too cryptically in the above title, is best explained by the first of the two video clips at the bottom of this post. And let’s begin by describing the subject in the video, who happens to be Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. He has what experts call a “low-contrast face,” as do all men who have a very light skin and possess blonde/very light brown hair or no hair at all. [As a corollary, if Erdogan had lots of brown hair, his would be a “medium-contrast” face, and if he had lots of black hair, the term to describe his natural features above the neck would be “high contrast,” as is the case with most young Chinese males.]

Now let’s turn to Erdogan’s attire in the first clip. The clothes present a very high contrast, thanks to the design of the tie, what with its alternating (and bold!) black and white stripes. The result: an attire that easily dominates the rest of him, so much so that his face--which is what ultimately should attract and hold the observer’s eye--retreats into the background, almost falling off the picture. Why is this happening? Because, with the “center of gravity” of Erdogan’s overall appearance having been lowered to a spot below the neck, the observer’s gaze too is forcibly pulled down, to his chest area! It’s extremely important to note that Erdogan would have had a similar problem of the face being overwhelmed by a high contrast attire if he had worn a plain tie but one that contrasted very strongly with the rest of his clothes--for instance, a bright red tie, a white shirt, and a very dark jacket.

Let us now click on the second video clip. Notice that this time, as you look at him, your gaze is NOT pulled down below the neck. In fact, the glow emanating from his face is heightened thanks to the appropriateness of his attire. Yes, his tie-shirt-jacket combination does have an inbuilt contrast but the level is low, matching in intensity the low contrast of his face. You might well ask, what if Erdogan had swung to the other extreme, donning an attire with absolutely no contrast, such as a light blue shirt, light blue tie, and light blue jacket? Well, that’s not a good idea either because such an attire, while not pulling down the center of gravity from his face, would look boring and unimaginative and fail to add to the glow from his face. The unfavorable impression that results from a timid, ultra-low contrast attire will be the subject of a later blog.

The key lesson in all this: when choosing an attire, remember the overall objective, which is to heighten the glow from you face and thus hold the observer’s attention to it. The next time you step into an apparel store to buy a new tie, do not be seduced by a tie’s intrinsic beauty.

© Copyright 2011 V. J. Singal

Beware of Donning Badly Soiled Neckties—They Ooze Ugliness; Video Clip of a Highly Regarded Talking Head Wearing One

In yesterday’s post, I wrote that is not uncommon to see even men of prominence wear badly soiled neckties – ties that have acquired a clearly visible dark and ugly hue around the knot because of the wearer constantly tying and untying them with unclean hands.

Well, to see a video clip of a glaringly soiled necktie, click here. It will transport you to a recent appearance by the Kauffman Foundation’s Tim Kane on PBS’s highly regarded “Nightly Business Report.” Incidentally, Tim Kane is someone whose commentaries I always look forward to because they are so pithy.

http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/pentagon_bureaucracy_harming_security_110104/

“Oh, Please Don’t Touch The Tie! Just Tell Me What’s Wrong.” – The Problem of Soiled Ties

Last October, just as I was getting ready to be introduced before my presentation on “Simple Verbal & Nonverbal Skills for Creating a Highly Favorable First Impression” at the Project Management Institute’s Global Congress 2010 North America held in National Harbor, Md., I quietly asked a woman seated in the front row whether my hair looked combed and whether the tie and shirt collar were in alignment. [During the previous 15 minutes or so, I had been struggling with some of the equipment in the room.] Apparently, everything was not okay with the way I looked because this person raised her hands with alacrity to center my tie, at which point I instantly recoiled and blurted out “Oh, please don’t touch the tie!”

Since there wasn’t sufficient time for me to run to the men’s room and fine tune my attire, I quickly took out a clean handkerchief, placed it on the knot of the tie, and said to that helpful woman, “OK, now go ahead and straighten it,” thus ensuring that she wouldn’t be touching the knot with her bare hands. And while she was engaged in all that manipulation, I politely explained to her and to the couple of others looking on in bemusement that one should never ever touch a tie, especially the length that goes into the making of the knot, unless one’s hands have been freshly washed. Why? Because each time you tie a knot with even mildly unclean hands, the natural oils and any dirt on the fingers leave a stain on the tie—a stain that is, of course, indiscernible at first but which, with repeated tying of the knot with oily or dirty hands, will develop into a dark and ugly patch.

Indeed, it is not uncommon to see men who are in high positions and frequently grace television don ties that are clearly soiled around the knot. See video link in next blog post. [BTW, if you have not noticed anyone wearing soiled ties so far, you certainly will after reading this blog post.]

Solution. So, what is a man to do? Because ties don’t take kindly to dry cleaning, and since there are supposedly only a handful of highly reliable dry cleaners in the nation when it comes to ties, here is my two-part solution, something that I have been practicing for over 15 years: First, just before putting on a tie, wash your hands with soap and water and then dry them thoroughly. Second, when untying the knot, simply use a fresh, clean tissue or something equivalent as a membrane between your fingers and the tie. This will obviate the need to wash and dry your hands when removing a tie.

Let me know if you have a better idea.

Men's Attire: Wearing an Exactly Matching Tie and Pocket Handkerchief Is Not a Good Idea!

Click on the short video clip below. Because Mr. Tim Tebeila--a highly successful South African industrialist featured earlier this year on PBS--is donning a tie and pocket square (or pocket hanky) that match exactly, the “center of gravity” of his visage falls sharply--to some level below the neck! In other words, the subject’s tie-pocket hanky combination is so conspicuous that it has become the dominant element in his overall appearance, and his face--which is what ultimately should attract the observer's eye--retreats into the background, almost falling off the canvas. Bottom line: If the tie and pocket hanky are of identical color(s), the combination will almost always outshine and overwhelm the wearer’s face and should be verboten. In his latest book, Alan Flusser, one of America’s foremost designers of men’s clothing, writes: “Wearing a matching handkerchief and necktie is a sure sign of an unsophisticated dresser.” Yet, in their show windows, several (misguided) retailers of men’s clothes in many a downtown, including Manhattan, continue to deck the suits with exactly matching ties and pocket squares. When will they learn?

Video clip illustrating a matching tie and pocket hanky