One of the most frequent questions I'm asked by clients is 'what colours go well with one another?'
Firstly, I'll tell you about two technical ways of identifying colours that look great in combination.. and then I'll let you in on my more creative (and fun!) approach.
Contrasting (also known as complementary) colours are those that sit opposite one another on the colour wheel. The combination of these colours together creates a vivid and energizing effect, especially when using colours with maximum clarity.
Triad colours are a combination of 3 colours that are equal distance from one other on the colour wheel. The combination of these colours together creates a high contrast effect whilst preserving a sense of balance and harmony.
Colour wheels can be purchased at a low cost from Amazon, which you might find helpful as a visual aid when putting these colour pairing techniques in to practice.
Another way to identify which colours work well with one another is to look to nature. Mother Nature never gets it wrong!
Think how seamlessly a peacocks colours of teal, purple and blue work together. Or the pink, orange and red seen within a sunset. Or the blue, green and white of a tropical sea. You don't need a colour wheel to envisage the strength and beauty of those colours in combination!
Pinterest is a great tool for searching for images of nature which you can then save to inspire future outfits. Sometimes a particular image will prompt me to find items within my wardrobe to recreate the contained combination of colours. More often than not this pushes me to pull items of clothing together which forms an outfit I've never worn before - a brand new outfit that hadn't cost a penny, that is the joy of shopping your own wardrobe!
As you can see from the images below, the images that spark my creative flare are varied and rather amusing - but they do result in an outfit containing colour combinations that look 'naturally fabulous'!
Go on, give it a go.. it’s rather fun dressing up as a fish for the day!
Wearing colour successfully is a result of wearing colours that suit you and wearing colours that look fabulous when combined! I can show you how to master both in a Colour Analysis session and/or within my Style Subscription.
Lindsay x