+1. And wearing black and blue together can work beautifully, but it is way harder than the article makes it out to be.

Yeah, I absolutely agree with this. I think part of the issue is that “navy” means different things to different people. I have no problem with blue/black or cobalt/black or dark blue/black, but to me navy is the dark dark blue that’s very close to black and you have to hold them next to each other to tell it’s not. I don’t like that combo together, but any other blue + black work for me.

But mostly as long as it looks intentional it works, too. A friend of mine has a colorblocked black/navy dress. While the colors are too close for me to wear if I were picking separates, since they’re both in the dress, it looks intentional. So black/navy colorblocking in one item, or print, looks different (and works better, IMO) than wearing black and navy separates. So I would not paid a navy pinstripe item with a black item.

But there’s enough black/navy around these days too that I don’t think someone’s lost their fashion sense (or ability to see color) for wearing it.

I agree. True navy can look very close to black, so I wouldn’t mix them.

I think what risks making the outfit unprofessional is that pinstripes don’t pair well with other things.

Agreed. I can sympathize with starting out in finance not making much money and suddenly needing 4-5 suits, but this is what sales at ann taylor/jcrew and outlet shopping is for.