Color choice is a difficult aspect of fashion. When done well, it creates a cohesive, effortless look. Here are some general tips to achieve that: Avoid matching too much. This helps balance out the look. Limit your palette. Using too many colors can make the outfit seem busy. Stick to a few colors that work well together. Neutral colors are versatile. Colors like black, white, grey, navy, and beige are easy to pair with other colors and can add variety to an outfit. Consider the color wheel. Colors opposite each other on the color wheel complement each other.
In terms of your clothes, color harmony doesn’t mean every piece has to be perfectly matched, or that you need to memorize a list of do’s and don’ts — it simply means pairing colors together in a way that looks soothing, deliberate, and balanced. The point of harmony is that the color of your clothes recedes, and you become the focus. In a disharmonious look, the gaze darts back and forth among the colors, the clothes seem loud, and even the nicest garments look cheap. The beauty of harmony is that it’s based on a handful of easy, essential laws that can be learned and practiced.
Principle number one is value harmony — the way light and dark values interact in your clothing. Clothing that is all light, or all medium, or all dark in value is soft, sophisticated and harmonious. Clothing that combines extreme light and dark values is dramatic and architectural — it can look stunning on people who have a lot of natural contrast in their coloring, but most people who combine extremes look messy. So begin with a sense of how much contrast you want to wear today. A beige sweater with cream-colored pants and ivory shoes will give you a peaceful feeling, while a white shirt with charcoal gray pants and black shoes gives you quiet confidence.
The second secret to foolproof matching is to stay within the same temperature. When cool and warm tones are adjacent to the face or body, it creates a visual battle. Stay in warm tones such as camel, soft terracotta, olive, and golden mustard for an earthy, sunny effect. Or try cool tones like steel gray, soft rose, icy blue, and silver-taupe for a cool, crisp look. You can mix temperatures, but you need to do it thoughtfully. For instance, a cool scarf may add a pop to an all warm ensemble. But for everyday purposes, it’s better to play it safe and stick to the same temperature.
Third, we have color harmony, or the placement of colors on the color wheel. Harmonious colors that are adjacent to each other (analogous), such as blues, blue-greens and greens, are calming and easy to look at because they are composed of similar wavelengths. Colors that are opposite each other (complementary) like oranges and blues have a more active and interesting relationship and can provide visual interest and contrast, but can also be jarring if used in excess. The safest and most flattering way to incorporate color into most daytime looks is to start with a core or anchor color, then complement that with a variety of neutrals that match that color’s warmth or coolness, with a pop of a related or complementary color thrown in for interest. That gives the look space to “breathe” but still looks polished.
As you practice these ideas, it becomes second nature to recognize color harmony. You see it in window displays, in people walking down the street, and especially in mirrors as you try on clothes under different lighting conditions. The selection process becomes more peaceful, less of a trial. You learn which items are able to coordinate with others. It isn’t about having a perfect color scheme so much as it is about cultivating visual serenity that allows your personality to emerge without static.