The Customizable Pocket Square
Courtesy O'Harrow
O'Harrow Clothiers, Claire Moseley's young Los Angeles-based brand, takes classic staples like pocket squares and button-down shirts and gives them a much needed tune-up. The company, which Moseley created after President Obama said, "I like your pocket square," during a brief encounter, shares both a reverence for tradition and a willingness to deviate from it with the commander in chief.
"We aren't your grandfather's white hanky," says Moseley. "We use fabrics with nontraditional patterns and textures, which has yielded a new generation of pocket square."
The brand's big innovation, in addition to sourcing unexpected materials and dyeing techniques like Japanese shibori prints and French toile, is to bring down the size from the usual 1-foot-square accessory to 9 inches by 9 inches. This means the squares are easier to fold and fit into the trimmer suits now popular and better complement skinny ties. As for choosing your square, Moseley recommends going for a pattern if you plan to wear a solid-colored jacket. For instance, the Salt & Pepper, a microdot-printed cotton in reversible gray and white, is a versatile basic starter square that can be worn with gray, black, or blue jackets. For more dressed-up occasions, the Italian cotton plaid Black Stallion and the silk glen plaid First Day are Moseley's picks to pair with a black or ivory tuxedo jacket.
O'Harrow also has some great customization options. Customers who take advantage of the Custom Pocket Square program can have them stitched in special fabrics that the customer provides (a favorite concert T-shirt, granddad's old scarf), or they can change the thread colors on existing patterns. Because everything is nicer with a little personalization, we strongly recommend getting any square monogrammed. The old-school crest monogram is singular enough that it's bound to attract the attention of passing presidents. [$29; oharrowclothiers.com]