How to Create a Style Mix that Works

An outfit that mixes different pieces of your wardrobe together in an unexpected way has the potential to look fabulous or frightful. Trying to hard to come up with a clever combinations can result in some truly regrettable fashion statements. Like the time all the fashion magazines were promoting the girlie/macho look consisting of a light flowing summer dress accessorized with heavy biker boots. Instead of looking like a fashion plate, this combination made the wearer look like she was having a serious identity crisis.

Steve Madden Kappy Flats $29.50

Take a closer look at an attractive outfit that combines pieces that appear to be very different in nature. At first glance the pieces may not look like they relate to each other, but when you look at things like texture, color, or silhouette you will find that there is some common thread (no pun intended) that pulls the whole look together.

While flipping through a clothing catalog an unexpected combo caught my attention. The stylist had paired a plain pair of pants with a white cable knit hooded sweater topped off with a black tailored jacket. At first the office appropriate jacket and a sweater inspired by a hooded sweatshirt seemed like an odd combination, but when I took a closer look at the ensemble I understood why it worked. The jacket and the sweater were the same level of formality The sweater material, a medium weight cable knit with narrow cables that didn’t look chunky, was clearly a step above your typical sweatshirt. The tailored jacket was made out of a wool flannel material, similar to a wool blanket, that gave off a slightly more casual vibe than a smooth tightly woven fabric would have. Everything about the outfit had the same slightly relaxed fit. The sweater ended at the waist and was not baggy or sloppy. The jacket tapered slightly at the waist but the fit was still relaxed enough to accommodate the sweater underneath without bunching it up.

Mixing different patterns in the same outfit is tricky. The pattern mix that looks so chic on a runway model could easily pass for a clown costume when worn by real women in the real world. One misconception that prevents chic women from mixing patterns more freely is automatically thinking of a pattern as a graphic design that’s printed on the surface of a fabric. A pattern can be anything from a one monochromatic design that‘s woven or knitted into the fabric instead of printed on top of it to the open lacy designs of a crochet sweater.

One of the most casual yet chic takes on pattern mixing I ever saw was on an coworker at an office I used to work at. She wore ballet flats in a brown leopard print with slim khaki pants (no unflattering pleats), a long sleeved T-shirt in a rich teal color with a chocolate brown crochet sweater in an open design that let the teal show through. The unexpected combination of a pattern in a crochet sweater and leopard print flats worked because the patterns weren’t close enough to each other to clash. The dark brown in the print of the leopard print flats tied in nicely with the dark brown color of the crochet cardigan creating a more coordinated look while the teal T-shirt added some colorful relief to all of those neutral browns. The clever combination of pieces showed me that it’s really very easy to mix things up without looking like a mess.