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Coordinate Men's Clothing: Colors and Pattern Matching

by: Leroy Fong

It is common for most men to face dilemma in mens fashion coordination. Our typical questions are:  

How to match colors for mens dress shirts and mens dress pants?

How to coordinate checks with stripes?

What are the colors suitable between my suits and ties?

Are the colors and patterns matching my suits and ties?

These questions kept popping up because men generally has a poorer power of visualization than women. Men can not imagine the way things look like based on the colors and patterns through imagination. So there is a strong reliance for pictures to provide guidance for men's dressing.

Therefore, I will attempt to address these concerns and provide the fundamental information necessary to achieve the best coordination. When we look at color coordination, there are two aspects to focus on: Coordinating mens clothing against our complexion and creating color harmony between different hues and shades.

For dealing with colors involving our complexion, we would not want to wear colors that brings out the negative aspect of our complexion. For example, if you are very fair with light colored hair, then you should not be wearing pale colored shirts like yellow or white that will wash out your facial complexion further. Instead choose earthy colors to warm up the face with vibrancy.

Color combination between clothing would require the understanding of hues and tones. It is the similarity and contrasting criteria of hues and tones that brings the harmony when combining these colors. We must learn how to use the vivid colors against the dull and light colors to accentuate different parts of your men's clothing. It catches attention and yet not steal the focus away from your face.

For mixing pattern, there is coordination between pattern of same design and patterns of different designs. The ultimate challenge is mixing three or four patterns together but not looking ridiculous at all. The fundamental art of working with patterns is the understanding of scales and sizes of patterns so that you can merge them together without creating tension or strong clashing vibration.

Overall, the aim of coordination for colors and patterns is to achieve naturalness as well as bringing out the best blend that brightens up the man’s overall look.

In order to learn the art of achieving the best coordination, we would have to play around with our clothing to realize the concept. Thereafter, mixing and matching colors and patterns would just come as a natural flow in you. It is through the consistent trial and error that we build up our knowledge of what goes with what and how we can best coordinate them.

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