The fashion sin I keep seeing repeated these days at T.U. is the brazen misuse of color. Maybe as temperatures drop and folks need to add more and more layers, it seems less important or more difficult to stick to one color scheme–but I promise, it is important and anyone can do it.
Have you ever taken any kind of art or design class? Fashion being an art, it makes sense that we fashionistas should follow some of the same guidelines as art theorists; for example, the color wheel. It is a simple tool designed to help people understand how colors best work together.
In the color wheel, primaries are each matched with their complementary color directly across the wheel. These matches are the most high impact, striking color combinations. They are highly encouraged in art and design, and I recommend them in fashion as well. Red/green, Yellow/purple, and Blue/orange (or for our purposes, peach or even tan) are the money pairings.
Less sound match-ups include colors that fall adjacent to each other on the wheel. You wouldn’t put magenta and red and coral in one outfit, right?
Another common mistake is tricking yourself into believing that two shades are so close they practically match. Ninety-nine percent of the time they do not match, in fact, they are so close that they clash the bajeezus out of each other and look horrible. (Tough love, sorry.)
The only time you might stand a chance of getting away with this is if one color is in a head accessory and the other is in your shoes. Unfortunately, if you are of short stature, this probably will not work for you, because they key is distancing the two pieces. My best advice is to always play it safe: if they aren’t a perfect match, forget about it.
Lastly, in these cold winter months, black is your best friend. Base an outfit in black and it is really hard to go wrong. It clashes nothing (I mean it, even most brown/black combinations are acceptable these days) and as a bonus, it gives the illusion of length and looks ultra-sophisticated. White is off limits till the Spring Fling time-frame, but a nice cream or khaki can also be the foundation of a soundly colored outfit.
Dress warmly this season, but don’t go into color overload and remember the color wheel–your third grade art teacher would be proud.
