Wearing Floral Shirts

Wearing casual shirts is part of what makes summer great, right up there with backyard grilling and long weekends. And few casual shirts hit that warm-weather sweet spot quite like floral prints.

Floral prints are bold, but they’re quite easy to wear with a pair of jeans, chinos or shorts. But it gets a little trickier to imagine mixing them in with suits, sportcoats or anything else from your tailored wardrobe. But there is a way—provided you’re wearing said suit or sportcoat to a casual occasion or business setting, as a floral print shirt is anything but formal (and undeniably fun).

With Suits
The trick here is to match the floral shirt with a casual suit fabric, particularly something associated with spring or summer. The natural tendency for linen and cotton to wrinkle give them a built-in casual appeal that works well with a floral print. A smaller floral print can more easily blend in with a suit, as it may just look like another patterned shirt from a distance.

With Sportcoats
The guidelines for wearing a floral shirt with a sportcoat are similar, though the casual nature of a sportcoat involves bigger, bolder floral prints. If you’re going to make the shirt the center of attention, try to keep the rest of the look toned down: a cotton or linen sportcoat in a cool tone and a neutral-shade pair of chinos will get the job done.