Should You Wear Patterned Pants?

One of the trends to grace runways for spring 2014 was all over patterned pants, breaking countless men?s fashion rules. Camouflage, checkered, floral and even strange fruit prints are all in vogue. Now that patterned pants have become a trend, does that make it okay to wear them?
Patterned pants are one of those ridiculous trends that do not translate well to real life, despite designers thinking that it is a good idea. Printed pants do not fit in with the current men?s fashion landscape. Honestly put, patterned pants will look ridiculous on most men. They are the type of item that you buy because you see them on manikins, wear them for a season, then hide them at the back of your wardrobe and destroy all photographic evidence of you ever wearing them.

They look like pajamas

The main reason why you should not embrace the patterned pants trend is because you probably own patterned pants which should never make it out of the house: pajama pants. As rarely feature on men?s bottom-half clothing, if you try out this trend most people will think that you were too lazy to get dressed in the morning. There are a few prints which resemble pajama pants most closely, such as tartan and cartoon designs, which should be avoided even if you decide to step into some patterned pants.

Keep it classic

If you must embrace the patterned pants trend, against better advice, there are a few rules you need to follow. Most importantly, do not pair your patterned pants with another patterned garment. Clashing prints can be kitsch when you have a tie and a shirt of different designs, but it does not work when the pattern migrates to your lower half. Keep your look clean by having the rest of your pieces in block colors. For instance, you may pair geometrically printed pants with a plain navy tee shirt and a cream colored blazer. Other than your pants, your outfit should be as bland and inoffensive as possible to provide some relief. Purge your outfit of accessories- a tie or too much jewelry will be too over-the-top. Make sure your pants are tailored and slim-fitting, or they will look too much like lounging pants.

Try shorts instead

A less garish take on the patterned pants look is to go with patterned shorts instead. As there is less material, your outfit is less attention-grabbing. Patterned shorts are not that unusual in summer, although the for this summer may be a little different to those seen in previous years. Do not go with clich?d Hawaiian print shorts; they exude the awkward tourist look rather than beachy charm. You might want to try floral prints which are as far from Hawaiian as possible, or repeating geometric . As with the rules for patterned pants, keep the rest of your outfit plain so that people do not have to shield their eyes when they look at you.