hip and curvy

Or maybe you don’t know.  But it really isn’t necessary for everything you wear to match.

Sound strange?  Perhaps.  Hear me out, though (or, rather, keep reading).  Your outfit does not need to consist of perfectly coordinated items of clothing, chosen because the colors are exact matches.  The yellow in your shirt does not need to exactly match the yellow of your cardigan.  Your brown slacks do not need to be the very same shade of brown as your brown jacket.  The blue in your tank top doesn’t have to be the same blue as the one in your tunic.  Everything does not have to exactly match.

Now, don’t get me wrong here.  I am not saying that you should actively try to make sure that your colors don’t match.  Nor am I saying that it is a good idea to put together an outfit of oddly unmatching shades of the same color–like turquoise blue, navy, sky blue, and cornflower blue all in the same outfit.  (That may or may not turn out well.)

What am I saying, then?  Well, my point is that your items of clothing should go together…but not necessarily match exactly.

This probably sounds confusing to a lot of people.  So, let’s take a couple of practical examples.

Many of us have button-down shirts similar to the one pictured at left.  But, not all of us know how to pair them with other items in our closets.

In this example, the stripe is blue and white.  But, it is not necessary to match the blue or the white when choosing a shirt to go under the button-down or a sweater or jacket to wear on top.  You just need to select items that go together well with the blue and white stripe.

Not sure what would work?  Here are some possibilities:

None of those items really match that blue and white stripe, do they?  Yet they all would go together with that shirt rather well.

Here is another example, one that involves a more intricate pattern.  Take a look at the shirt below:

 When shirts have more detailed patterns, some people find them more difficult to work with–and often end up pairing them just with jeans, as in the photo.  But, there are many other possibilities.

What you need to do is take a close look at the colors in the pattern.  Here is a close-up of the detail in the shirt:

 As you can see, the shirt is made up of various shades of bluish-grey and there is also some white and black in there.  This tells us what color families we can can work with when it comes to choosing other pieces of clothing to wear with this shirt.

Now, this does not mean that we are limited to these exact shades of bluish-grey (as well as black and white); rather, this means that we should keep near these color families.  For instance, we could opt for a dark navy sweater, a steel grey thermal or jacket, or even pretty much any shade of denim trousers.

Let’s try one last example.  Maybe you have a shirt like this one that Salma Hayek is wearing here:

Lots of colors in that shirt, aren’t there?  Seems like it would be simple to pair with a jacket or a sweater…but somehow, for many women, it isn’t.  Some women seem to get stuck on the idea that whatever jacket or sweater they might put with this type of shirt must match exactly.

For instance, some women would think that a green jacket would have to match the lime green shade near the top of the shirt.  Or that a pink sweater must match the pink in the flower petals.  And so on.

Let go of this idea, ok?

Instead of thinking “exact matches,” think “color families.”  Instead of thinking “Will it match?” think, “Will it go together?”  Think “Does this look good?”, not “Is my outfit perfectly coordinated?”

Not only will you look good (and well put-together), but you will spend less time stressing over your clothing choices.  Plus–who knows–you may just come to realize that you have quite a few more possible outfit options in your closet than you ever realized!

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