Can you wear a striped tie with a striped shirt?

In very few cases, yes. It would have to be either an exact match or a matching contrast…..otherwise no.

Unless it’s for a function, don’t think any specific rules apply – just pull it off in style, and you’re fine.

You can definitely wear a striped shirt and a striped tie. It’ll probably look best if one of the patterns is subtle, and/or one of the patterns has a neutral tone to it. Obviously your eye is the ultimate judge, don’t wear anything you’re not confident in!

A healthy dose of confidence can rock anything, my friend…

And there is now a clothing police?

I was going to say something about permission also. Fashion has to be started by someone. Why not you?

Definitely. I’ve done it many times. This is just one example I quickly found in an image search.

Yeah..the only stripe “no no” I’m aware of is stripe pants and stripe shirt, haha

While I certainly don’t believe fashion must conform to a set of rules made up by someone else, there are general style guidelines most people consider canonical. For example: You “can’t” wear a striped shirt with striped pants.

My dad always said (in the professional context) make sure your belt and shoes match color. It makes sense, but there are always exceptions to rules.

@Ezra; did you look at PW’s link? I thought it was a very elegant combo (and note cuff links.) It looks like something the British PM would wear. Striped pants and striped shirt sounds like one of WC Field’s outfits.

@Gail: Yes, it was lovely. Perhaps I will post a picture of the combination I wore. The colors don’t match as well. :(

@ezra:Post, post.

the outfit that started it all?

Lurverly, but why no shot of your face? Curious minds want to see.

haha I didn’t think it was necessary. Pimping myself out on fluther wasn’t on today’s agenda… Perhaps tomorrow…

Ezra, speaking as an artist whose principal strength is color:

look at the simplicity and definition in pw’s ensemble, which is grandly elegant,
and then look at the rather mixed complexity of your own. Be bold, be brave, but
don“t try to mix two complex patterns of approximately the same density and with
too-close coloration. One rule of good design
in any area is that you want some well-defined “scale change” – which keeps stuff
from getting confusing. Small stripes in p’s shirt contrast in a definite way with the big fat prime-minister stripes on his big fat prime-minister tie. And the colors are essentially the same. Try that. Show us the next permutation now that we’re hooked.

OOps I denigrated “too-close coloration” and then pointed out that the model of goodness
has colors that are “essentially the same”. Let me try again. PW’s colors are identical
(though one garment is paler). Your colors are non-identical, but similar. Confusing.

Hope this isn’t too bossy.

I totally agree with Susan. The first example works well because of the severe contrast in width and frequency of the stripes and the general likeness of the colors. Your example is very confusing as the stripes are fairly similar and far too many colors are involved. This severe contrast in colors works best with solid shirts. In this case, it tends to look messy.