Menswear: Emerald Green 2013?

To celebrate Pantone choosing Emerald Green (17-5641 to be precise) as its colour of the year for 2013 I thought I’d do a scour of some of the available key menswear items in this supposedly oh-so-trendy colour. But did I have any luck finding anything that any self-respecting man would actually wear or will we all be walking round like leprechaun’s if we try to adopt the trend?

Firstly, I have to say, I wasn’t exactly inundated with choice and once I started to have a look at what was on offer I quickly decided that maybe that was a good thing. Some of the shades of emerald green were quite a strain on the eye and certainly shouldn’t be worn anywhere near anyone with even the faintest hint of a hang-over, unless they are wearing shades.

Emerald Green 2013: Knitwear

As it’s still quite cold in the UK and we haven’t even had our icy/snowy/slushy spell yet – I am constantly worrying that I don’t have enough knitwear to get me through the season in a remotely comfortable and stylish fashion. So maybe I’d look to remedy this by seeking out a wooly delight in emerald?

Well the best I could find is this emerald green wool and cashmere sweater by Marni, available at Mr Porter (above). Though I am sure this particular jumper is made with the finest wool and cashmere and is lovingly created but I can’t help thinking that the second picture (below) is a much better way to wear it. I.e. cover it up!

Emerald Green 2013: T-shirts & Shirts

Okay then so moving swiftly on….Next up I thought I’d take a look at t-shirts and shirts. Firstly let me just say – I defy anyone to show me a shirt in emerald green that doesn’t look absolutely hideous or like it is from some incredible-hulk-at-the-office type fancy dress outfit. To tell you the truth I even struggled with the t-shirt and at one point thought that showing a Hibernian FC ‘Hibs’ shirt might be the best sartorial example I could find. Then I came across Ralph Lauren at ASOS (not literally mind).

Worn in the right way, buttoned-up and with the right amount of cheeky charm; the average guy might just about get away with this emerald green polo shirt. Or maybe it’s hideous and the cute model is just working it really well?

Emerald Green 2013: Trousers

Would anyone dare wear emerald green trousers outside of Sloane Street? Jil Sander seems to think so in the only example of an upscale fashion label going near the colour for their trousers. Me personally, I wouldn’t touch them with a barge-pole but maybe they would look okay on the right person – drunk, in Temple Bar, Dublin; on copious amounts of Guinness and wearing a matching leprechaun hat! Although I doubt this was Jil’s inspiration. Available at Menlook.

Emerald Green 2013: Underwear

You’ll be pleased to know that the worst is over (well in my opinion anyway) and we are moving on the less offensive items. We are onto underwear…

These striped socks from Saville Row tailor Richard James at Sock Shop are for me the way to nod to the emerald green trend. Discretely and in limited abandonment. They are socks after all, so there is limited amounts to say other than I own a pair of Richard James socks and they are very comfortable.

 Emerald Green 2013: Accessories

With a colour, so er, vibrant as emerald green, accessories sounded like the perfect way to add a little of the colour without going overboard. Whilst I steered clear or scarves and gloves (can you imagine!) I thought that a neat little pocket-square would look quite nice in the shade. This example from Fox and Brie at Etsy is perfect.

Emerald Green 2013: Outerwear

The piece de resistance for me though came very late in the game, courtesy of Lou Dalton’s Autumn Winter 2013 show at London Collections Men 2013 earlier today. This fantastic coat is the real classy way to wear the colour in 2013. Okay, okay it’s not strictly 100% emerald green but it’s as near-as-damn-it close as you are going to see of anything menswear related that is so well considered and un-leprechaun like! I’d snap this coat up in an instant.

Image Source: Londoncollections.co.uk

So there you have it – Emerald Green 2013 menswear – I’m not really sure that the ‘Pantone Colour of the year is going to be the menswear colour of the year, judging by what I have seen so far. Although for women it might be another story as demonstrated by Naoimi Watts on the cover of Vogue Australia.

 Image Source: Vogue Australia