Combining Prints

Prints beloved!! Hyper trendy this season: dresses with huge flower prints, leopard, pants, blazer, Prince of Wales prints, they are all over the planet! The irony, though, is that we buy them and keep them inside our wardrobe, not knowing the appropriate time to wear them and with what!! Today we will try to find path to make them live without the traditional and so common black outfit such easy.

Prints are outsiders which enhance and pave the way to style.

Far too often we think prints and black, the latest being the milestone of the first : this is absolutely wrong, black definitively strangle other colors and there is more than one way to mix the prints 

Little reminder of the most usual prints:

• Stripes pattern 
• Polka dot pattern 
• Check prints
• Foulard or Paisley prints 
• Animal Prints
• Bird prints 
• Wax
• Flower Prints
• Ethnic Prints
• Geometric Prints 

The goal today is not to describe each of them in details, this will be part of another article in which I will emphasize how to choose the appropriate one for your silhouette.

Now we go straight in how to dress with your own ones to be stylish and unique.

So how to associate them?

There is several ways wether you decide to keep print as a  one and only piece printed in your outfit or put several different together. 

There’s only one single print in your outfit 

First art to embrace the print : remind existing colors 

It’s the easiest way , you spot one or several existing colors from your print and you build the rest of your outfit based on that or those colors. 

We have many variants in the remind of color art :

Monochrome

One of the color on your print will be the spot, everything around will based on that color. 

For example : a tan shirt with flower prints Red and Blue , you will dress as completely ochre, red or blue, I’m talking as the complete outfit, skirt and tights or pants, shoes and accessories in one of those 3 colors. 

Some of the options appear straightforward like here blue. 

In any case, the print item will shine and the color picked for the monochrome will set the pace according what you want to show, the blue get you more discrete when the red will get eyes turning around you. 

The so called monochrome will only be if all items have the same tonal value (same intensity).

For example, an absolute crush on this shirt, so much that you decide to take the skirt as well cause the complete look is so pretty …

But have you other options to wear it again? 

That’s not our philosophy right? Of course if you already have such pieces available then it’s another story and I highly suggest to follow the remind of color art!

And if you don’t have any shoes and accessories matching the colors, go for neutrals like beiges , camel or navy blue etc.

Second technique to combine prints : mix them with the neutrals

Include your print piece in a neutral outfit. 

Neutrals are :

• Beige,
• Cream,
• Ecru colored
• Camel, 
• Navy blue, 
• Grey,
• Burgundy,
• Denim (work really great with prints)

Reminder : black and white are not colors but to shortcut we embed them to neutrals today. 

Pairing with neutrals is a good option to tone down the strong printed piece while making it stand out.

The neutrals will give a more sober side to your outfit.

The print is also a strong piece, I really advise you not to wear it with other pieces…