Why should outerwear be darker?
I've seen it said that (usually, not always) outerwear should be darker than innerwear. Empirically, I've come to agree that this is true. For example, a navy blazer with a white shirt usually looks good, but a light-colored jacket over a dark shirt often does not. It's not just dressy clothes, either: An unbuttoned shirt over a plain tee is generally works better with a white tee and a colored shirt.
Can anyone explain why this is? And, how and when can this "rule" be broken successfully?
36 Replies
ignore that some of these fits look dated in terms of slimness, the inspo albums are fairly old, but the colors work - seeing a ton of dark blue/black/gray with camel overcoats here https://imgur.com/a/camel-tan-overcoats-5tvym8l
As for why I'll let the people who know what they're talking about provide input, but here's ~40 images pulled from various inspo albums showing options for how it can be done 🙂
let this be a 'rules' sandwich so
wear what you like, because there are plenty of examples in which it does work (it lends itself to riviera style well)
the answer that usually comes up is it's more "formal" to wear a light shirt over a dark jacket, especially once you add a dark tie - take that however you may. though there is a lack of ties in what kyn posted
one take is art-based; on a canvas darker colors tend to 'advance' towards the viewer while lighter colors tend to recede and, in the absence of any obvious textures, i find that can also happen in clothing
Rule (of thumb). It's a guideline for fashion neophytes. In reality it's not a hard rule
basically that.
you can use the high contrast to make more interesting fits but honestly you can go off eye test/whatever inspiration you've got.
ex both of these are good because of the high contrast, but i wouldn't say one is "better" than the other solely because of how the colors are set
Wait...that's the opposite of what I was taught in art class. I thought foreground = lighter, warmer, brighter and background = darker, cooler, grayer
End of the day there's no big immutable Scientific Law for these things tbh.
Yes, and I'm not saying there is. But at the same time, "darker jacket, lighter shirt" is easier to make work, and I'm trying to understand why. Is it just custom, or is there something else at play?
Prob custom and vibes
Mix of it
Do you have examples of where you think it doesnt work
Some of my early #waywt pics, probably.
yeah, but I was hoping for something more explanatory than "vibes"
I feel like something like this is difficult to discuss in abstract and better to compare actual outfits
Because if you talk about it in abstract it's difficult to get further than 'it depends' and 'vibes'
I've tried to find good examples, but it's hard. For example, you can find lots of pics of navy blue sausage casing shirts where the dark blue shirt is only one thing that's wrong.
i had stoner art teachers blame them
But here's an attempt to ground it: I looked through recent fits in #waywt-highlights and counted:
56 outfits where the outer layer is darker
5 outfits where the outer layer is lighter
11 outfits where the layers are about the same
33 outfits that didn't have multiple layers
but i think just from the two i posted, the white shirt to me looks like it's receding within the depth of the dark brown jacket on the first whereas the black turtleneck is jumping out in contrast to the beige on the second
bit seriously it's vibes
there's merit in fins the why for reproducing good fits but i think it's best done fit by fit
I also looked at recent fits from @sioku , who posts a lot of great fits with a clear, consistent personal style, and knows how and when to follow and break the "rules". He had:
40 outfits where the outer layer is darker
10 outfits where the outer layer is lighter
11 outfits where the layers are about the same
9 outfits that didn't have multiple layers
So even though he's "breaking the rules" more often, he's still wearing a darker outer layer 4x more than the reverse, as compared to 11x for #waywt-highlights.
lol I had a stoner art teacher who I got stoned with.
Maybe one thing to do would be to look through @sioku 's fits and classify them further. For example, do the "rule breakers" tend to be more "casual"?
short answer yes (or at least 'less formal' compared to people wearing ties and such)
honestly, from what i know of you, your best bet might be putting shit on and seeing what happens
I have. And, basically, I learned to agree with MFA. Light over dark usually doesn't work, especially with dark dress shirts. But sometimes it does
I'm just trying to understand why
i think there might also be some cultural context independent of how things look that causes people to think this way
you're asking good questions @jfarrell468 ! i haven't checked the whole combo, but i think what also matters is what type of garment the outerwear is
for example, a dark overcoat is cool for formal stuff
but then if you wanted to be preppy a polo coat is the way to go. and inherently, a polo coat IS a lighter color
its more than just "light outerwear" is its a polo coat where the light caramel, and some times peachy color is a big part of it
and for me at least, i style it accordingly
i tend to wear preppy stuff or maybe like casual 80s/90s stuff with it
an A-2 leather jacket was historically made from dark brown leather
you CAN find it in lighter colors or have in navy blue or something
but the original is dark
and it just makes sense to wear with military stuff sometimes. like chinos! but chinos will typically be khaki and so inherently the a-2 will be darker than the pants or even the rest of the outfit
but if i wanted to wear the a-2 with a going out look, with grey flannels and a turtleneck, suddently there is less contrast
i know you're already hinting at this with the main conversation but its always more than just "dark outerwear + light shirt+, its always a very specific look for me
though thats just me hahaah maybe others see things are more interchangable
Yeah, custom and tradition clearly play a role. But I find it interesting that the same rules seem to persist even in new contexts. For example, these two outfits both have similar "composition" (dark over light) and color palette (navy and white).
If I had to completly guess, it's because, in less casual outfits at least, where you're not trying to subvert or surprise, you want balance, because much of the point is to be interesting in an inoffensive way. Because light colors tend to stand out more, they have heavier visual weight, so you want your larger items of clothing to be darker for visual balance or harmony.
That said, this isn't really a guideline I think about (and my outfits probably suffer for it). And that's just a guess. I also tend to find people's usage of "vibes" unsatisfying.
Yeah, "tradition and vibes" is a non-answer IMO. I was trying to see if there's something more grounded.
Well, I actually find tradition to usually be a good answer. To me, cultural memory + some weird quirk of the way humans think about art = 90% of vibes
Answering this would require a thesis lenght response. The short version is that our aesthetic tastes are at least partially determined by our cultural background. Thats why stockings, high heels and puffy sleeves read as very feminine and also a bit eccentric when employed in contemporary menswear, but in the France of Louis the 14th outfits incorporating these details looked perfectly normal, masculine and even "good" to french courtiers at versailles.
There were rationalizations back then about these things
like high heels accentuating a mans calves, which was considered sexy - therefore high heels were considered masculine
I get that its unsatisfying and even a bit scary to realize how much of our daily lives just depend on cultural norms and how flexible these are
sorry for getting to academic about this 😅
Dress is inherently tied to culture, and culture is often practiced thru vibes. I get that it's not a satisfactory answer for ya but the reason "why don't I do X" is usually "because I'm not used to X"
While vibes is obviously a very common shorthand i think a more satisfying formulation might be that "culture often builds upon some sort of historical precedent which narrows down the options available to participants in that culture to provide some semblance of order and distinct choices"
Basically one important function that one might ascribe to culture is to narrow down the amount of possibilities to a relatively manageable set of options while simultaneously hiding that these choices are at least in part arbitrary
sorry
i need to go to sleep
I tend to engage in sophistry when tired lol
Honestly, the cultural ties and connotations are what makes fashion interesting to me
its mostly for color balance and preference
someone w a preference to a darker color pallete would keep it dark
while someone with a lighter preference would usuallt do the opposite
for people that dont like too much contrast would go half a shade up or down
like a mid tone grey, pairing it with light grey or dark grey instead drastically of deep tones (black or navy) or lights tones (white or ivory)