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So, I have been learning a lot about color coordination lately, as my fiance has been half coaching me in which shirt/skirt/shoe combinations don't look crazy. She tells me, like it's common knowledge that no colors from the triad of blue/brown/black mix. However, this doesn't seem obvious to me. In fact, I think some combinations of blue/black or blue/brown can look quite nice. For example, take a look at this dress, which I happen to own (which I wouldn't go out in): http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/n-biq04i/ut ... 00.jpg?c=2

Yesterday, I came home and showed her an outfit I had bought at sears: a white, button down shirt, a long, black, matte, silk, maxi skirt, and grey dockside shoes that arguably have a blue tint to them. I had tried on the outfit before showing them to her, and really liked the look. I thought it made me look handsome. But when I showed it to her, she was underwhelmed because of the color of the dockside shoes.

I confess that I have never understood color coordination and when things clash, and have only ever found out through being told by others. That being said, I do have a very strong aesthetic sense, and can at least distinguish between outfits I think look good on me, and ones that don't. I can tell that being too garish or contrasting can be offputting, but most of these rules don't make sense to me.

So, my question is: are most color coordination rules simply just subjective rules imposed on us by other people, or do I really have a fashion sense deficit?

Yonkas wrote:So, my question is: are most color coordination rules simply just subjective rules imposed on us by other people, or do I really have a fashion sense deficit?

First off, if you have a "fashion sense deficit" welcome to the world of manhood. Very few guys are taught the art as kids.

As far as the "subjective rules" notion, I suspect that's the case in some instances, but there are also combinations which can be ruled out, or at least toned down, by the proper application of colour-theory. Find a colour-wheel someplace -- hopefully in hard-copy as computer screens tend to be really horrid when it comes to colour fidelity -- and read up on the mechanics of using one to select a wardrobe palette. This is the technicians' way of doing things; artists may perform the same operations in a different manner -- and this includes fashion designers.

Yonkas wrote:...So, my question is: are most color coordination rules simply just subjective rules imposed on us by other people, or do I really have a fashion sense deficit?

To some extent they're arbitrary, but some of these rules are based on color perception by the human eye. Colors that are close to each other, for example, don't usually match because the eye has difficulty distinguishing them and gets "stuck" on the task.

As to the, "blue/brown/black," triad, black belts and black shoes look OK on blue pants or skirts. A black top and a blue bottom (or vice versa) are probably OK as long as the blue isn't too dark: that is, violating the colors-too-close-together rule. Black and tan look OK, as do blue and tan, but some people think of black and tan as two different colors rather than shades of one color (brown).

Bright colors tend to clash more than dark ones, simply because the bright colors are more noticeable.

It's not good to mix patterns such as different plaids or plaids and polka dots because again, this tends to throw off the eye.

And on and on.

And there are always exceptions.

And women love obsessing about this stuff, and that may be why your fiancé's obsessing about it with you. My advice is to mostly just go with the flow and be happy you have a fiancé who's so accepting.

That last sentence, x 10!

I'm no good at this colour coordination game either.

My wife told me about not putting navy and brown together, so I avoid that. But what about other shades of blue? I have a khaki skirt, long and light and good for Scottish summer days (i.e. slightly warm ones, if we're lucky). My in-laws went to Tenerife on holiday and they brought me back a T-shirt. It's a fairly deep shade of blue with a khaki logo. So I wore it with the khaki skirt; the browns matched well. Apparently that was OK because the khaki in the skirt picked out the khaki in the shirt. But I thought brown and blue was a no-no? I don't really understand.

Brown and black: don't see the problem myself. Winston Churchill, no less, thought black and tan was a good idea, and who am I to argue with him? Joking aside, I have a black and brown patterned velvet skirt which is displayed somewhere hereabouts. I think it's great. It tends to raise a few eyebrows but not, I suspect, because of the colour combination. More likely that I am a man in a velvet patterned skirt, of any colours, but there's no accounting for taste.

Black and blue: if I wear my navy suit to work, I wear black shoes. No problem! But I wouldn't wear a black shirt or tie with it. I think black and navy is in the "too close" category: either match or contrast, but don't make it look like you tried to match but failed.

You can buy patterned tops or skirts which contain all sorts of colours which, in the absence of the other colours and the pattern would be a bad combination. I mean, a red shirt and a pink skirt would be pretty sore on the eye. But there are a bazillion outfits which use red, pink, and a host of other colours, and they're fine.

To repeat: I don't understand.

Light brown (such as tan or khaki) goes with dark blue because one color is much lighter than the other.

Dark brown and light blue would probably work OK too, although somehow that's not so appealing to me.

Dark brown and dark blue don't work well together because both are dark and so the eye has a hard time telling them apart.

Yonkas wrote:In fact, I think some combinations of blue/black or blue/brown can look quite nice. For example, take a look at this dress, which I happen to own (which I wouldn't go out in): http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/n-biq04i/ut ... 00.jpg?c=2

That's a fantastic dress and if it was mine i'd definitely go out in it (on the right occasion)

My wife claims she experiences physical pain and nausea when she sees colors that don't belong together.

Ralph wrote:My wife claims she experiences physical pain and nausea when she sees colors that don't belong together.

That seems extreme but possible. It's like those vision-shifting geometric patterns you see from time to time. Like the ones that seem to move although they obviously don't.