Need Help Understanding Color Theory for Better Outfit Coordination!
Hey everyone,
I’ve been struggling with color theory for a long time, and I’m hoping some of you can help me figure it out! Despite watching countless YouTube videos and trying to use the color wheel, I still can’t seem to match my shirts with my pants or coordinate my outfits with accessories.
I feel like I’m missing some fundamental understanding of how colors work together. For example, I get confused about what shades are complementary, how to balance bold and neutral colors, and how to avoid clashing.
If you’ve got any tips, easy-to-understand resources, or practical ways to practice color matching, I’d really appreciate it. What worked for you when you were learning?
Thanks in advance!
Looking forward to your advice!
9 Replies
If you like something you should wear it and if you don't you shouldn't
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1221126313717268560
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1174030990226763799
This is one of those things you’ll just have to experiment and look for outfit inspiration that you like in order to find your own preferences because there’s no actual rules here that hold up to any scrutiny.
Free your mind from the prison of "color"
To build off of the "wear what you like" advice, I would say that you should try to think of color theory as a place for inspiration rather than prescriptive rules that have to be followed. Color and color theory is one aspect you can consider when putting an outfit together.
One potential way to approach it could be finding/buying a set of color palette swatches, picking a palette or two that you like then trying to build an outfit with that as inspiration. The palette resource you find may have descriptions of the palettes and their inspiration that would help you hone in on your individual taste. Whatever approach you take, just make sure that applying color theory feels additive to the process of finding your fashion rather than restrictive.
This discord is generally very anti-color theory, so you might not find the answers you were hoping to get but I'll entertain the question as well. My advice would be to start buying black clothes + neutrals. stay away from white or other contrasting colours in the details. once you've got that foundation set you can try on stuff that has a little more colour and you'll find out what works for you and what does not
it's worth figuring out less "what colors work together" and more "what colors work together to you?"
maybe take a look at #waywt-highlights or https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1325651502806601768 and see which fits you are drawn to (they're all good fits imo) then see what colors are present and how they're utilized
you might find it helpful to make a separate thread like these: https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1117803378521673768/1311006915727200257
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1325561917204336741/1325561917204336741 (this one is excellent imo as it includes the user's fits as a basis for comparison; it might help you to make that comparison to your own fits)
Instead of trying to understand color, I would aim for a style. If you dress in workwear, for example, almost everything is earth tones and will coordinate automatically. If you like techwear or avant garde stuff everything is black, so that's easy too.
Looking at this comment in the cold light of day I'm realizing I was way too pithy and it wasn't helpful. The other commenters have done a better job articulating what I was trying to drive at: It's more helpful to figure out your personal preferences than memorize a set of rules. Color coordination is more of an art than a science.
If you haven't already, I would recommend looking at the threads I linked, there's been good discussion on this topic in the past. In general, most people on MFAD agree with the general sentiment you've seen here.
save pictures of a lot of fits, and i mean a LOT, and figure out what's drawing you to them color-wise. are they doing high-contrast fits or monochrome? earth tones, primary colors, gem tones, etc.?
rules are not dogma. if you see a fashion rule you happen to like, try it; if you hate a fashion rule, don't bother. color theory can help harmonize an outfit, sure, but there's a lot to be said about applied practice (aka puttin that shit on)