Red Knitted Polo Sweater, Striped Oxford Shirt, Beige Wide-Leg Trousers, Black Loafers

Early afternoon on the Lower East Side under a sky that never quite committed, half the block still shuttered, scaffolding down the length of the sidewalk. He is leaning on the rail because it is there. The polo sweater is a knitted red, its collar sitting up over the shirt underneath, sleeves pushed back to the forearm. The shirt is a blue-striped Oxford, collar out, cuffs turned back over the knit. The trousers are beige, pleated, wide the whole way down, and they break long over slim black loafers.

It works because the red is the only colour in it and everything else stands back: blue and white at the collar and the cuffs, beige from the waist down, black at the floor. The stripes show at the two places the eye already goes, which is why a pattern under a solid reads as a detail and not as noise. Swap the Oxford for a white tee and it turns into a Saturday. Swap the loafers for white sneakers and it drops a level, which some blocks call for. The collar stays out for all of them.