At this point we’re safe in borrowing a couple of advices from interior design: to make patchwork and quilted blankets you need to pair fabrics that are similar in weight or thickness (otherwise your pretty squares fight eachother and will be pretty no more), while to jazz up an all white room you can play with different textures to create some movement and some interesting points for you eyes.
That’s it, it’s about texture.
Nowadays even walls can tell you about layers.
What’s nice is that it takes little to dress up with layers, without freezing, catching a cold or a flu.
1) Yes, you can wear two pairs of tights, so what about a coloured base and a lacey one on top? Or a black base and some coloured leggings on top?
2) I’ve found short or 3/4 sleeved jumpers are also fun: your shirt sleeve peeks out of them, and it can be matching your jumper… or your shoes!
3) Open necks in your jumpers, so that you can show your turtle neck shirt underneath, or another peculiar shirt.
4) What about an extra scarf? If not aroun your neck what about in your braid?
5) And about a belt, to chinch that huge, super warm and life saver, jumper you love so much but that makes you look like the dumpling man? At least you’re showing your waist!
I could go on, but it’s all about your own taste and little, really little, tricks to spruce up your trouser-sweater combo.
But we still have the question: how DO I match things without having them clash eachother?
Start from colours. And you already know everything about colours, luckily! Anyway, if you’re stepping out of a monochromatic wardrobe, possibly total black (like I did) please know that black plus a vivid colour works always pretty well. Black+white+red it’s always a win, ask designers, it has to do with our strong psychological reaction to those colours; but we can take from here and say that a dark neutral plus a fair neutral plus a strong colour it’s good too. Don’t fret, one thing at a time, artists study theory of colours for years to master it, you don’t have to worry, start from your colours and work on one at a time 😉 You don’t even have to use them all, just stick to the ones you love most!
Let’s jump back to fabrics and to that thing I was saying, the other time, about total black: it’s nothing bad, but to make it interesting it needs some movement… you’re free to play with fabrics and materials, a vinyl belt it’s catchy, a frilly scarf makes everything look lighter, a black patchwork skirt is eye catching, etc etc.
And now let’s deal with patterns: if you want to mix them then my personal advice would be to mix a geometrical pattern (stripes, polka dots, chequers) with a fantasy one (floral, paisley), but not two from the same group (i.e. I’d do a striped top with a flowery skirt, but wouldn’t a flowery blouse and paisley skirt). Then we have patterns like tartan or argyle that are geometrical, ok, but have lots of different colours, so I’d leave them on their own…
Though if you want to try to mix all of them, again stick to colours, and remember another interior design advice: it’s easier to match lots and lots of different colours, so you don’t notice the one that it’s not perfectly according.
help me with my little project! 