We’re all familiar with the color wheel, maybe your art teacher showed it to you at one point, or maybe you’ve even done some research on your own. But how does this translate to fashion? It’s important to use colors that balance well together, whether it’s warm, cool, or complementary colors. If you don’t remember: red, orange, and yellow are warm colors, and blue, green, and purple are cool colors. However, there are a multitude of shades of each color. One shade of green could be warmer than a shade of red. In fashion, generally, the shades are what matter. For instance, you can’t fully rely on all complementary colors always looking good together. However, you can use this as a guide, if you’re putting together an outfit using mostly greens, and need to add an accent color, you can expect that a shade of red will make it so that both colors stand out but don’t clash.
Personally, I am a fan of monochromatic outfits, I love how neat and thought out they look. You can also achieve this look by using all warm or cool colors, but you have to be careful with this to ensure that the shades don’t clash. Warmer shades are generally louder and brighter such as warm colors look on the color wheel. And cooler shades are darker and more toned down.
Usually, colors are chosen to reflect your mood or the season. Each color indicates a certain vibe, for example, orange, a more earthy color, shows a certain warmth and coziness, when paler, it can be very flattering for human skin tones. Orange is usually displayed in autumn color palettes, and while wearing this color you emanate confidence, energy, creativity, and friendliness. Lighter and darker shades of each color can switch the vibe of an outfit entirely, a lighter purple indicates softness, feminity, and delicacy whereas a darker displays more power, royalty, and elegance. In general, purple portrays a sense of luxury, mystery, and spirituality. Different color pairings can also switch the vibe of a look, green and yellow portray, warmth and friendliness, but green and blue show more tranquility and calmness. Green usually calms us and makes us think of youth and nature. Wearing green is a way to present yourself as safe, balanced, and reliable. Blue is one of the most versatile colors, often linked with beauty and serenity. Usually associated with skies and seas, blue indicates a sense of freedom, self-expression, wisdom, and joy. Yellow is a very exceptional color with a lot of meaning behind it, while yellow brings to mind the radiance of the sun, it encapsulates positive energy, happiness, and light. More gold tones display wealth, the Chinese associated this with royalty, bringing more sophistication to this color. Wearing yellow gives off spontaneity, opportunity, and enthusiasm. Finally, red, seen as the most dramatic color displays a sense of boldness and confidentness, paired with yellow, it creates a variety of lively hues, and paired with blue it creates deep, mystical shades of purple. This color brings excitement, energy, passion, and courage.
All together what’s most important is whether you think the colors in your outfit work or not. While different styling may enhance your look, at the end of the day the only person you should be trying to impress is yourself.