Here is a new episode of (Très) Bien Habillé , the weekly video to look good.
And to look good… You have to know how to combine colors well.
Except that colors are complicated.
It's so complicated that most of the advice you're given is either overly complex
In either case, someone who knows nothing about it is no further ahead .
It must be said that there are so many possible combinations that the very idea of establishing a theory “which foresees everything” is somewhat doomed to failure.
However, there are still two or three concepts to know that can greatly facilitate your task.
So here is my challenge for the day: explain to you in five minutes, in broad terms, how the colors work together. With simple, but tangible concepts .
Let's go !
1. The most common colors in humans
First step to simplify the task: rather than trying to establish a theory that works for ALL colors, if we already focused on what is concretely sold on 90% of pieces, and worn by the extreme majority of men?
When you look closely, there are something like eight color "families"
Obviously, the best-selling ones are more or less the easiest to wear, that's logical.
I guess no one will be surprised: blue and gray (and their most common shades) are probably the easiest colors to wear.
2. What works with what?
Now, before even looking for "the beautiful one", the "ideal marriage"...
We will already try to avoid putting two colors side by side without them clashing.
Now, as I told you earlier, I don't think that a theory
So rather than trying to do the work for you, we're going to do it like skiing or climbing: we're going to assign a degree of difficulty to the colors.
In other words, I'm trying to prevent you from accidentally skiing on a black slope when your skis are not yet parallel, and I'm going to tell you "the blue slope is that way, buddy!" .
And what makes a color more or less “easy”? Well the easier it is, the more likely it will work with another color, at random.
The less chance there is of it working, the more difficult it is.
Second group: I already have a feeling that not everyone will agree. It includes: white (and very similar ecru-like shades), common shades of brown, and certain greens.
So I decided to separate them into three "groups":
- Group 1: the “ultra-easy” ones (to mess up with them, you almost have to want to).
- Group 2: the “rather easy” ones, which require a slightly discerning eye to combine them. But it's okay, frankly.
- Group 3: "less easy", which remain common and simple colors to wear, but which really don't go with everything.
In group 3, we have the shades of this catch-all that we call "beige" (that's what makes it complex), burgundy and wine lees, and the famous black, very widespread and popular, and yet not so simple.
It goes without saying that beyond the "groups" that I have made here, there are plenty of other colors worthy of interest. They are just less common and less easy to wear. It is undoubtedly what we can call, with little ambiguity, a “strong color”.
Once you have that in mind, you can experiment a little more calmly by combining different shades.
Afterwards, if I only stopped at the explanation of the shade and the “colors” that go between them, I would only give you half of the pieces of the puzzle. Because the other factor, just as important, is contrast.
3. What is “contrast”?
If you're talking about fashion, it's one of the terms you're going to hear a lot.
Simply put, a contrast is “something that stands out compared to what’s next to it.”
And therefore, it piques the eye and attracts it.
There you go, it couldn't be said any simpler.
Well, this is typically a caricatured example of strong contrast (especially in color).
4. How do we contrast?
But to make it something useful and applicable, you have to go beyond this definition, and understand exactly how colors contrast.
You will almost have to adopt the look of a graphic designer, because there are three elements to look at: hue, clarity, and saturation.
Another caricatured example: white on black, this is the maximum clarity contrast. But there is neither hue contrast (since white and black have none), nor saturation (since there is no hue to de-saturate).
See the advice I gave you about “groups” of color? In reality, they only take into account the hues that go together, but not the effects of lightness and saturation.
That's the other half of the puzzle.
When denim fades and loses its pigments, it not only becomes “lighter” (which brings it closer to white), but also less saturated (which brings it closer to gray, “non-color”).
5. “Harmonize” the colors
Once we understand what a contrast is, we very naturally understand what its opposite is: “harmony”.
But be careful not to be trapped by the positive connotation of the word: we could just as easily have spoken of “colors that blend together” to use a more neutral term.
A perfect example at SEH Kelly : a taupe jacket and a gray shirt in shades that strongly “match” each other. Is it automatically better than a contrasting ensemble? Not necessarily.
In other words , two colors that harmonize are colors that contrast little, if at all.
They are very close in hue, in clarity, in saturation, or on two or even three of these parameters.
Where contrast excites and piques the eye, harmony holds it and relaxes it.
And now I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is that that's the end of what this video is about.
The good news is that the practical tips from this will be covered in next week's episode , and they will be much easier to understand now that you know all this. 😉
Be well!
PS: In this video, I wear...
- A BonneGueule cashmere sweater.
- A BonneGueule “kimono” double-breasted jacket .
