Pocket Square

A pocket square does no work at all. Take a hemmed square of cloth, 12 to 17 inches on a side, fold it into the breast pocket of a jacket. A second fabric shows above the pocket edge. Nothing holds it there except the fold and the friction of the pocket. So the cloth decides everything about how you wear one.

Fabric and fold have to agree. Linen and cotton hold a crease, so they sit up in a flat straight fold or a two point fold and stay there all evening. Silk slides and will not keep an edge, so it wants a puff. This means you pinch the center, push the body down into the pocket and let the corners fall. Size follows the same logic: 12 to 14 inches is enough for a silk puff. By comparison, 16 to 17 inches of linen gives the bulk to fill a deep pocket without sinking. A hand rolled edge, where the hem is turned and stitched by hand into a small ridge, adds the body that keeps silk standing rather than collapsing.

One rule separates a square that works from one that does not. It runs opposite to what people expect: do not match your tie. A tie and square cut from the same cloth read as a set that arrived together rather than a choice made. Pull one color out of the tie, the shirt or the jacket lining and let the rest differ. Set against the metal in this family, a tie bar and cufflinks fasten something and this fastens nothing. A square changes an outfit more per dollar than anything else here.

Any jacket with a breast pocket takes one. White linen in a flat fold is the square to own first, since it is correct at a funeral, an interview, a wedding and a Tuesday. Color and print earn their place at occasions rather than at work. Jackets without a breast pocket rule it out completely. And a square turns into noise once its pattern competes with the tie, so let one piece carry a print and keep the other plain.

Feel the hem between two fingers. A hand rolled edge sits slightly raised and a little irregular, where a machine hem lies flat and even. The raised one holds a fold far better. Iron linen and cotton to a sharp crease, steam silk and never press it, since heat flattens a rolled edge into a ribbon. Should a silk puff sink out of sight within the hour, the pocket is deep rather than the square wrong, and a folded strip of tissue behind it fixes that. Store squares flat or loosely rolled instead of leaving them in the pocket, which sets the fold and fades a line where the light hits.