Everyone loves a great Christmas sweater.  They’re festive, colorful, and instantly adds fun to any Holiday party.  Now, not many guys have one (or want to), so  we’re going to look at a few outfits from the regulars at Street x Sprezza and see how they use both traditional Christmas patterns and normal sweaters to create an outfit for those upcoming Holiday parties!

Vincent

This is the simple, mature go to for your holiday party.  Vincent wears the “goes-with-everything” gingham shirt and combines it with the other staples of a man’s wardrobe: olive chinos and a navy v-neck sweater.  Bonus points for cuffing and slipping on some sick suede captoes!

If you’re out with your friends or just staying in with the family, you can definitely wear this outfit.  You can swap the chinos for jeans, or even throw on a blazer or leather jacket to add some extra pop!  The trick to this simple yet diverse outfit lies in how neutral the colors are. Yes, the pants are green, but they aren’t bold.  This outfit isn’t exclusively for holiday parties; you can wear it on dates, to school, or anything in between.  Vince isn’t a flashy dresser, but he knows how to look good.

Adam

Adam takes Vincent’s outfit and kicks it up a notch, Christmas style.  He does away with his neutrals and goes for bold, thanks to his bright red pants, Christmas socks, and silk bowtie.  Keep this outfit for holiday parties and nothing else.

Personally, I’d suggest a textured bowtie or even ditching the bowtie entirely for you beginners; I’m sure the pants alone are plenty bold enough.  However, this outfit just shows that you can have fun with your clothes, especially during the holidays!

Spencer

Spencer gives us a cool alternative to the chino/sweater combo.  He really gets into the season with a true vintage 1940’s Christmas sweater.  The details alone on this piece are to die for. Out of the rest of the gents on this post, I’d say that Spencer is the most casual yet the coolest one.  He keeps the outfit vintage with a 1940’s loop collar shirt (look at that collar man), 1940’s style jeans, and Chippewa boots!  It works since he grounds the vintage sweater in some vintage workwear accoutrements.  Well done.

If you want to wear a sweater but don’t want something as formal as dress slacks or chinos, dark denim is always the way to go.  Additionally, you could even swap the boots for some oxfords if you wanted to!

Rajesh

Raj is a classy mother f***er.  It takes some balls to dress up a Christmas sweater and do it well.  He always opts for tailored clothing and instead of khaki or navy trousers, Rajesh went with the awesome purple Fulton Chinos From Banana Republic.  Tapered to his skinny legs and hemmed right at the ankle, the purple chinos mesh wonderfully with the signature Christmas red and blue in the sweater.  As you can see, perfect tailoring and masterful color matching can help you pull off anything.  It also helps that his sweater isn’t “ugly”. There are no reindeer, Santa Claus’, or Hotline Bling Drake on it at all; it’s just a nice pattern.

In case you’re wondering, Rajesh is originally from Maryland.  That’s why he can wear tassel loafers sockless in winter.  Also, his Christmas sweater is from H&M!  You don’t have to go true vintage or spend a lot on a “not-so-ugly Christmas sweater”.

Ethan

Like Vince and Adam, I’m not wearing a typical Christmas sweater, but I am wearing a pattern that works well in winter:  Fair Isle.  You’ve probably seen variations of this sweater all over the internet, giving off a Nordic winter vibe.  While this pattern can be worn with denim and a slick Basic Green Jacket, my sweater vest version works the best with a suit.  It’s whimsical and a little dandy, but fits my vintage-meets-modern style well.

They key to making a pattern like this work in a sartorial outfit is to keep everything else grounded. The sweater has blue, white, and red and my suits follows, grounding the outfit in an overall navy blue color.  You could repeat this Fair-Isle/Suit look with a brown or grey suit as well, as long as it’s solid; I wouldn’t wear a window pane suit with this sweater.

Even though it’s important to keep an outfit grounded to avoid excessive pattern mixing, you can still have fun with your tie! Here I’m wearing a green tie with a red pattern.  It’s quite a small scale, which works with the generally large pattern of the Fair Isle.  As I’ve said many times before,  scaling and mixing your patterns by size will help you wear multiple patterns in your outfit!

This is rapidly becoming one of my favourite suits, and I’ll write a review on it soon! Keep on the watch!

Shoes are always the telltale signs of what look you’re going for.  Spencer added boots for a workwear aesthetic while Raj wears loafers to go for a classy yet casual chic.  Call me old fashioned, but nothing is cooler than a brown cap toe.  I know I wear these shoes a lot, but they’re my favourite shoe; they really do go with everything, from a tailored suit to your go-to pair of jeans.

What was your favourite outfit from the guys?  Any ideas what you’re going to wear on Christmas or your holiday party?  Let us know by commenting below!

Always a pleasure,

Ethan W.

Photography by Ethan W. and Vince H.