How much colour is too much colour?
Monotonous clothing is boring and we don’t do boring things, do we? NOPE! We at Man’s Life decided to inject some cheer to not only our wardrobes but also our lives—with the right amount of COLOURS. A very simple way of incorporating colours in your daily wear is to use Colour Blocking—a way to style clothes using two or more colours from the colour wheel! You use solid colours to create a distinct style using bold tones to create a visual statement. Heads will turn!
The primary requirement to start colour-blocking in clothes is to understand the colour wheel. A colour wheel is an illustration of colours in a circle that shows the relationships between, primary, secondary and tertiary colours.
Colour-blocking uses this colour wheel to understand colour theory—colours that look good together. The three rules of colour matching are:
1. Use colours that are opposite to each other on the colour wheel. Those are called complementary colours.
2. Use analogous colours, which are the shades that are next to each other on the colour wheel. You can pair the middle colour with the two colours on either side too!
3. Use the triadic colours. Colours that are four colours apart on the wheel.
Once you have mastered the colour wheel and better understand the terms used, colour-blocking is a piece of cake. Here are a few tricks on how to colour-block your clothes effortlessly…
Novices who are getting inducted into the world of colour-blocking can start easy by using two colours from your wardrobe. You can start by pairing neutral colours like black and beige or grey and white. If you are somebody who likes things a little bold, try pairing complementary colours together like yellow and purple or blue and orange.
One of the cardinal rules of colour-blocking is sticking to only solid colours! While prints on prints and solids with prints work otherwise in clothing, they cannot be used for colour-blocking since there is no distinct differentiation of tones when it comes to prints.
Clothes aren’t the only way to colour-block. The use of accessories in various colours to complete any outfit is another way of approaching this trend. You can use shoes or hats or even bags of a certain colour to complete your colour-blocking look.
Finding multiple pieces of certain colours in your wardrobe can get painstakingly difficult. Worry not, a lot of fashion brands out there are making our lives easier by the day. Getting yourself a T-shirt or sweatshirt that is already colour-blocked makes putting together an outfit a lot easier. Pair this multicolour panelled piece of clothing with something basic like blue or black.
While we do recommend pairing from the colour wheel, not all colours are meant for you. Before colour-blocking decide on the colours that best suit you and work around them to create fabulous and fashion-forward looks for yourself.
We don’t hate neutrals, but we do love the occasional colour in a man’s outfit. Feel free to play around with what you have in your closet to create outfits that will make you grab eyeballs!. Life’s too short to be wasted wearing boring colours!
[Image Credit: Shutterstock]
Shraddha Shetty