Fitting Room Friday: Mix & Match

Happy Boxing Day. In honor of all the new pretties procured during the preceding winter holidays, please partake in the pursuing primer on mixing and matching.

Uniforms have a delightfully useful purpose. Identifying the person who delivers your mail, changes your bed pan, or brings you nourishment. Avoiding confusion between these services with a simple visual identification can only be called crucial. However, some things in life should not be oversimplified. You, for example: a many-tricked pony, incapable of being tamed by a single definition. It is reprehensible for you to wear the same blouse with the same trousers every time you retrieve them from your closet.

Let your wardrobe crossbreed. Have you seen what happens when cousins take a liking to each other? Allow some diversity into your ensembles and breed a prosperous wardrobe. Mixing & matching allows you to have a vast set of outfitting options without requiring an Imelda Marcos wardrobe scope. In essence, mixing and matching is a money saver, dispensing a new outfit rush without draining a dime for the fix. For debt, my lovelies, is never attractive.




Beginning Mix & Matching: Use Color as an Accent
Pair a muted neutral trouser with a vibrant color that suits your complexion. Or take a solid dress and pair it with a dramatically hued shoe. Matching is not a prerequisite. And layering during reduced temperatures is both practical and pretty.



Intermediate Mix & Matching: Yes Paula, Opposites do Attract
A story without conflict is boring. We don't necessarily want an outfit villain, but maybe just an outfit trouble maker. Someone in your ensemble that induces interest. Create some chromatic conflict by pairing one color with it's opposite or complement on the color wheel. Or dramatize a demure solid with a shameless pattern.



Advanced Mix & Matching: Or how not to look like Carmen Miranda
Despite what people who aren't right like me will say, you can weave multiple patterns into a single ensemble. The trick is choosing lead motifs and supporting ornamentation. Prima Donnas are singular. Keep all your patterns in the same color family for further sophistication. The more colors you introduce, the greater chance you have of looking like a chiquita banana advertisement.

Below is an ensemble example of the mix & match principles.

Whirliwig Cowlneck: The draping neckline on this buttery soft, solid peacock knit is prefect for peeking out under a cardigan or jumper. (It also tucks into a skirt beautifully)

Autumn Song Hoodie: Colorful, embroidered buds around your finger keepers give you a wealth of outfitting possibilities.

Level 99 Chloe Rinse: Dark denim goes with everything. They provide proverbial white space in your ensemble art. While extending your leg line far past its normal parameters.

Kenneth Cole Reaction Party Bell-a Mary Jane
They don't match, they go. They're a complimentary color to the green above and they reminisce the embroidered buds on the sweater.


Coupling the high waisted Skythed Lawns Skirts with a tucked-in Whirligig Cowlneck uses the principle of opposite, complementary colors: pairing persian green with poppy pink.

Layering the multi-hued Autumn Song Hoodie over the solid Familiar Places Dress provides yet another outfitting possibility.

1 hundred 98 cents = your own mix & match fashion look book cheat sheet.

Procure your own empire constitution. Your personalized fashion look book includes your own mix and match rules of conduct and much more.