I always receive emails like this: “I simply can’t match. I’m not colorblind or anything, I just can’t. I don’t want to wear jeans and tee shirts all my life. I like color, I like patterns, and I like wearing sexy things, but I feel like I’m just putting together random crap at times.”
These days, screwing up matching and coordinating clothing is pretty tough. Every style coordination rule has been tossed out the window. I see people walking down the street, and I think they must be color-blind. No, they’re not color-blind. The more outlandish a combination of color combo, the more people think it’s all the rage. Regardless, a well-dressed man matches and coordinates his clothing. That said, I want to discuss matching colors, color-blindness, and coordinating patterns.
Let’s first talk about matching colors. We’ll start with an easy one, black. Any color you want to combine with black will match and look fantastic. However, an issue may arise if you’re trying to match two blocks together. If you have a black jacket and a black pair of pants that were not bought together or sold as a pair, they may look a bit funny and not match exactly. You want to stay away from that. Pretty much anything else is going to be fair game.
One common misconception is blacks, browns, and tans can never be worn together. Black can be worn with tan, which looks fantastic. Black doesn’t look really good with dark brown, however. It seems awkward and doesn’t feel right, as the contrast is insufficient. You don’t want the colors to be too similar. Dark browns work great with light blues, pinks, and greens.
Light blue is an almost perfect color that matches pretty much anything. It looks terrific with browns and blacks and works with everything. If you wear a light blue shirt with a black jacket, you could pair that combo with light gray pants to look amazing. You could also go darker with slate gray or charcoal gray pants. You could also go with jeans.
To start the discussion about color blindness, check out the chart. If any images match the top left image, you are color-blind. Color-blind people have a tough time with red and green. But I must be honest; many of us struggle with specific colors. If I’m in a store and see navy blue, I sometimes think it’s black. At times I have to hold something black up next to it. Tan and taupe are kind of the same situation for me. If you struggle with a specific color or are color-blind, build a base wardrobe around the essentials. The essentials are black, gray, and white.
Think about it. Pretty much everything matches black, everything matches gray, and everything matches white. These three should be the foundation of your wardrobe. And so if Grandma gives you a shirt and…
