I have a bit of work at the moment with men's makeovers , but I thought it would be nice to publish this extract where I come back to the overthinking of some people who want to "dress in the right colors":
Good evening,
I have a quick question, the rule and common sense dictates that we go from the lightest to the darkest. Example: White shirt, gray jacket and black coat.
But doing the opposite is possible, right? Without overdoing it either. That means I'm not going to wear a white coat with a gray jacket and a black shirt. But putting on a black shirt first with a nice gray coat can be nice, right?
All this to say that doing the opposite is not particularly to be avoided, is it? Going from darkest to lightest without contrasting too much can be good when it's a minimum of control.
I think it would be interesting to explore this question further because I don't think it should be avoided: many people do it and it's not particularly bad.
In any case your articles are very interesting and above all detailed. Personally I really liked the articles on “ style rising in the East ” and the last article (buying guide) is very good also it allows you to discover certain original pieces like on coggles.com.
Good luck and good evening to you.
Beware of overthinking with colors
Anthony,
When I read this, I see two important points to remember:
● Once again, when it comes to color, watch out for overthink which is never far away. I'm always amazed at how color matching causes so many questions... even though it's a much easier component to master than you might think. And which must above all be intuitive. It is much more productive to think seriously about the balance of your wardrobe, the style you want to work with... rather than wondering if it is possible to match this or that color.
● I read between the lines a worry about making a mistake in the wrong color combination. So I repeat: color disasters are very rare: you really have to do it on purpose to match colors any way you want. Besides, the assortment is often the thing that my clients manage best intuitively before their makeover, unlike the cut or the style. So, don't worry about the color : there is really very little risk of making a mistake.
Let's come to the question itself. I will be clear: it is obviously possible to have a dark base and to superimpose light on top, but this is typically the kind of maneuver that I do not recommend: it is complicated to do, whereas you can have a better result by making it much simpler (from lightest to darkest).
A few words also about the black shirt : I was recently sent one as a gift, and definitely, it's a real pain to put into an outfit. Not only does black make you look tired, but it's also tricky to wear a top layer with that damn black shirt (aside from a black jacket, obviously).
I intuitively gravitated towards gray... but it never looked as good as with a simple white shirt. Not to mention the very surprising remarks from a few friends: “you know, I think it’s really nice to wear a black shirt in the evening” . Completely unexpected and bordering on the incomprehensible! I came to the conclusion that really, wearing the black shirt is a lot of effort invested for a result that will never be excellent!
But how to wear black?
Well, for those who would still like to try the experiment, here are my simple recommendations to apply:
- black does not tolerate cheap materials very well : manage to match your black piece with beautiful materials: it is essential.
- avoid too strong a color contrast with black : stick to beautiful midnight blues or anthracite grays.
With Gill, we agree that the dark/light question is relevant to balancing your skin tone. But it's up to you to see what color you really want to highlight.
If you want to get out of the dark, here are some simple and effective combinations:
blue/gray, beige/gray, white/gray, blue and purple too... but in small doses.
Neutral colors and strong colors
Gill also has a very interesting thought, I’ll let him speak:
Gill:
In general, you have 80% neutral colors... and 20% strong colors which will provide a slight contrast.
The converse is not true: 80% strong colors for 20% neutral colors = disaster.
For example, if you want to wear pink, well, you will wear a pink t-shirt... but the rest of your outfit must necessarily include neutral colors (gray, white, etc...). It's all a question of contrast and the result depends enormously on the material you use (the Burberry Prorsum summer 2009 shows are a reference on this subject).
And don't forget that:
- put a lot of dark with a little light = more for winter... since the day is a little dull, and you will spend 80% of your time in the "night".
- putting a lot of light with a little dark = summer... wearing different colors makes sense in this context.
So seriously, why want to make it more complicated?
More info on colors?
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