A little while ago, Carrie asked for a rule of thumb concerning combining brights.
Here it is: Wildly Wonderful Wearables explains color harmonies. Actually, it’s more of an art lesson than a rule. To combine colors in a way that looks natural, try using one of the common color harmonies illustrated there; blue and purple is an analogous color scheme, two colors next to each other on the color wheel.
Two other considerations:
- How much color is in your own personal coloring? For example, mine is fairly neutral (brown eyes, fair skin, gray hair). Typical color schemes for me include 2 neutrals and 1 color.
- What is your style personality? Jennifer and my older daughter both have more colorful, adventurous style personalities and will combine colors accordingly. (Jennifer’s favorite is apple green and red!)
One final thought: today is the day to wear bright shoes with a neutral outfit.
What are some of your favorite color harmonies?
It’s so hard for me to come up with rules or guidelines for combining colors! I like all your points, Rebecca, and your related posts. I would add:
1. Don’t go 50-50 with 2 bright colors. One color should be visually “bigger” than the other, either in size or quantity.
For ex, my Easter outfit: Orange & white polka-dotted knee-length shirt dress with aqua 3/4-sleeve cardi and aqua slides. The orange & aqua were similar values (see #2) but there were 2 aquas and 1 orange.
2. I like to do cool & warm together, and within that, they can be differing “values” (I’m forgetting all my color theory words), ie. one darker and one lighter. If they’re an equal intensity esp. if they’re both a medium value, it can appear to clash.
For ex. (and pix would really be better here):
Apple green (which is “light”) with orange or turquoise (“dark”).
Yellow with orange/turquoise/magenta.
Aqua and apple green with red (yay!) or magenta.
3. All bright colors look good with chocolate brown IMHO!
So, to combine all 3 points: A magenta top, chocolate brown knee-length shorts, and lime green scarf/sash belt! Wishing for pix…….
Those are all great points, Jennifer. You aren’t the only one wishing for pix!
I absolutely love bright colors. Most of the time I wear a single bright color as the focal piece of my outfit, with everything else being in neutral. Sometimes I wear two bright colors together (a fashion mistake, I know), but the limit is 2. Most of the time they would be on opposite sides of the color wheel, and in the event they’re not, at least they are adjacent. For example, one of my favorite combos is a bright canary yellow puffer with a kelly green tee and jeans. If multiple bright colors are worn together, they’d better be on the same part of the body. A bright yellow top and bright green pants just don’t go together.
This post and these comments are very interesting and enlightening. Thanks for answering me question!! 🙂
I’m really taken with that all bright colors go with chocolate brown observation. Really works for me.
Surprisingly, that was a new thought to me. I think it works, though. I was still working on the thought that all pastels go with chocolate brown. And all brights go with white.
But all brights do not go with black, that still tends to look dated. And alot of brights look downright yucky with khaki.