With the changing of the season - and Steph's post on her personal fall trend, I've got to throw in my two cents on my personal trend of the moment: scarves!
This often neglected accessory is usually more of a utility item that is saved for particularly cold nights or that ski retreat weekend. It's usually in some awful crimson wool blend that itches and has reindeer and snowflakes all over - unmistakably the calling card of some crafty relative.
But thanks largely to the bandit/afghan craze in street style in the past few years, scarves are reinstated as a legitimate, fashionable accessory both guys and girls can rock.
If you need some convincing, I did a little experiment. I put on a ho-hum pair of Gap jeans and a Hanes white t-shirt and then put on some of my favorite scarves to see how they worked. The result? Well, I think that the scarves single-handedly enhanced the look altogether. Granted, it's a bit of a metro look, but you get the idea right?
So scarves are practical, stylish, and now more than ever, they're at almost every clothing retailer! I find H&M carries the most economic/trendy options (run between $5-$15) but these will last you about a year before getting a little threadbare. Club Monaco has consistently amazing scarves, but wait for their end of season sales to score GREAT deals on them (regular retail is $79.50, sale price is usually $19.99 - that's 75% off people!).
If you're comtemplating your first scarf purchase: go to Banana Republic and pick a solid color scarf in a light wool (think of a light wool sweater). I like bright oranges, rich purples, and sporty blues for solid colored scarves. This adds a fresh pop to any outfit.
For the more adventurous: try a lightweight, wrinkly scarf in linen or very light cotton (they would be like 24 inches wide if you pulled it out and ironed it, but scrunched together it's actually not that big). You can drape them in a bunch of different ways - play around with it to find which you like the best. Colors in shades of off-white, beige, brown, and light grey or green are what I gravitate towards these days for these kinds of scarves.
I'm not the biggest fan of the afghan-style scarves, but I think that the afghan print is still "in" for now. If that's what you're looking for, I'd encourage exploring bolder color combinations (beyond black and white) - I especially like teal+grey and beige+brown color combinations. Diesel has cool on sale now for $30
As the colder weather comes, thicker fabric scarves in wool/cashmere come in exceptionally handy. I find that in the bulkier fabrics, colors in the range from l off-white to light grey look super fresh on a cold winter night - so you can look for those as they start stocking up for the winter season.
All in all - I think the scarves are much more than something that white people like - they're an accessory that every guy should own multiple of to take his wardrobe to the next level.