If you are looking for a simple way to make your outfits pop, then you should consider using colour theory. Colour theory is a system that is used to create harmony and contrast in fashion and design. It includes the use of complementary colours (colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel), analogous colours (colours next to each other on the colour wheel) and monochromatic colors.

There are many different ways in which you can use colour theory in your everyday wardrobe. You can choose contrasting colours for a bold look, analogous colours for a more subtle look or monochromatic colours if you want to go with a neutral outfit.

Colour is everywhere, in your clothes, in your jewelry. Colour is life. Fashion and color coordination can make or break your carefuly planned outfit.

Here’s a bit of color theory with a fashionista bent.

Primary colors

These are red, blue and yellow. In theory, you can make any colour from these three primaries (except white, which is really an absence of color). In practice, it depends on what red, blue or yellow you start with, but we are not mixing paints here, so just remember that the primary colours are red, blue and yellow. You’ll learn why in the next step.

The secondary colours are the colours you get from mixing equal amounts of any two primaries. (If the primaries are pure, mixing all three will give you black.)

The secondaries are purple, orange and green.

Now why do you care?

Well, primaries and secondaries together give us complementary colours. The complement of the colour is the colour directly across from it on the color wheel, or if starting with a primary, the color made from mixing the other two primaries. So essentially a colour and its complement contain all of the primaries between them.

Red’s compliment is green (Merry Christmas!). Yellow’s complement is purple. Blue’s complement is orange.
This is as much contrast as you can get between colours of the same value (brightness or darkness). So if you want to make a bold statement, the primaries are a treat.

Enter the secondaries

The secondary colours are made by mixing equal parts of any two complementaries. So the secondary colours are green (yellow and blue), orange (yellow and red) and purple (blue and red).

Let’s say you have a yellow dress and you want this outfit to be a traffic stopper. If it’s for daytime, you can use bold purple jewelry and accessories. This classic combination of purple and yellow is eye catching. It can be sophisticated and definite or more playful, depending on the yellow and purple you start out with.

However, you don’t always want to be quite that much the centre of attention. What do you do to make more subtle fashion statements, but still use colours well?

The yellow and purple we used above are complementary colours. This means they are directly across from each other on the colour wheel.

The colours to each side of our main colour’s complement are the triad colours. (Triad because the colour you start with plus the two others make three colours total.) The triads are our friends for choosing jewelry or other accessories.

Let’s look at our yellow dress again. This time we’re wearing it to a business meeting. What would be appropriate jewelry? Gold on yellow is too close — it will tend to wash out. The whole outfit will look drab (more drab than if you didn’t use the gold jewelry).

Silver will work, particularly if the silver is a bit pale and the yellow of the dress if very vivid. But you don’t have to stick with gold or silver. There are many coloured gems and jewels out there. Try a sapphire necklace. The blue will nicely set off the yellow and both will sparkle. Or a red brooch. The red can tend towards orange for a brighter effect or towards blue for more contrast.

Now how about the vivid purple blouse you just adore? How to accessorize it? The purple is already such a bold colour.

Well, we’ll do exactly the opposite of what we have done with our yellow dress, since purple is yellow’s complement.

For our purple blouse, if you want to be bold and outrageous, go for bright gold (yellow) or just plain yellow jewelry.
Silver will not work with the purple since the blue of the silver is too close to our purple color (as the gold was on the yellow dress). Of course red is wonderful with purple, just showing that every rule is made to be broken (with discrimination and taste, of course).

We can team our purple blouse with a tan skirt (tan being a form of yellow) and dress it down for a business meeting. We’ll want our jewelry to be a little more subtle. In this case, rather than yellow, let’s use the triad colors to purple — orange or green. These may seem like bold choices, but remember you want your jewelry to be seen, not to blend into the woodwork.

How about an amber pendant? This would be sophisticated and would be set off wonderfully by the purple background without being garish.

Or an emerald brooch and earrings, or a green frog pin. The possibilities are endless within your basic color choices. If you stick with these color constraints, you will not go wrong.

Now let’s consider the classic grey business suit. You may be thinking that your grey suit is neutral, so you can choose any colour at all. This is rarely the case and can be the cause of that ensemble that doesn’t quite work.

Most greys tend towards blue (cool) or red/yellow (warm). So first determine if your suit is cool grey or warm grey. If you’re having trouble with this (and it can be tough at first), try holding it up to other grey items in your house. You’ll start to notice that it looks a bit redder (or yellower) or a bit more blue. This will help you determine the colour bias of your grey suit.

Most warm grey used in clothing is a reddish grey. This is because red complements the complexion. But you will find some yellowish greys, particularly in garments with very sophisticated colour.

Let’s say our suit is a cool grey, so for the purposes of our color choice we’ll consider it blue. The complement of blue is orange.

We want to keep this a business suit, so we’ll pick the triad to each side of the orange to start with. Red and yellow. This tells us that gold will be a perfect choice for our grey suit. Silver is too blue and would wash out the outfit.

You may have noticed that gold tends towards red or yellow. If you are using more than one accessory with the gold, determine whether the primary gold jewelry you will be wearing is reddish gold or yellow gold.

This is done just as we did with the suit itself, by comparing it with other colours.

If the gold is reddish, then keep your other accessories in the red and yellow range. If the gold is yellow, keep the other colours in the yellow orange range.

Note, the description “yellow gold” is for any gold that is not white (silvery). Yellow golds range from a deep red to a very pale yellow, so be sure to check each piece of jewelry when putting together your outfit. A red gold and a yellow gold next to each other will look subtly wrong, unless they are carefully combined in a single piece by a master jeweler. A lack of understanding about the tendencies of gold to be manifested as different colours results in fashion mistakes are that are hard to pin down.

So, let’s say we’ve chosen a beautiful golden horse pin as our primary jewelry piece. We look at it and realize that it tends, ever so slightly, towards red. This makes the rest of our accessorizing easy.

We’ll go for red and even towards the cooler reds (those tending towards purple, rather than towards the yellows and oranges). With our golden horse brooch and a deep slightly purplish red scarf our grey business suit stays business-like but acquires a powerful feminine appeal.

If you want more colour, choose red’s triads, blue or yellow.

So, when choosing the jewelry to complement any outfit follow three simple steps and you won’t go wrong:

1) Determine the base colour of your clothing. This is the dominant color. If you’re wearing the purple blouse with a tan skirt the purple is the dominant color.

If the outfit has a pattern, squint at it and try to see what colour feels most dominant (this is an old artist’s trick). If no particular colour stands out, determine if the overall pattern is cool or warm as we did with our grey suit. Again squinting helps.

2) Find the complement of this colour on your colour wheel. If you really want to stand out, use the complement and stop at this step — you’re done!

3) Look at the triad colours next to the complement. These are most often the colours you will use for your accessories. If you want a brighter look you can use both triads. For a more subtle look, choose one or the other and then use variations on this color (the variations on any one colour are almost endless).

That’s it — three easy steps that will assure that your outfits are always tres chic and save you hours trying to figure out what’s just not quite right or choosing by hit and miss.

Of course, fashion colours change from year to year, but you now understand colour combinations and how to put them together in wow combinations, whatever colours your starting with.

 

Faux fur and suede leather jackets are a trend that has been around for a while.  These jackets have become popular because they offer warmth without sacrificing style.  They can often be the right choice for those that want cruelty free clothes, but are still after certain trends and styles.  Faux fur is a great way of keeping warm in the winter and it’s possible to get suede leather jackets that use vegan friendly fabrics too.  It’s amazing what can be done to create a wide range of durable and luxurious fabrics without animals being involved.  This is thanks to developments in the textile manufacturing industries.

Leather Jackets

Leather jackets irrespective of their colour, style and material used for manufacturing is provide you with great protection against seasonal conditions. Apart from its utility as protective tool leather jacket, also allows you to show off your personality and display your attitude, lifestyle.  Also leather jackets are often considered as a status symbol.

Leather jackets are made up of animal skins. The most used animal skin in manufacturing leather jackets is that of cows. However, skins of other animals like ostrich, pigs, bucks, lizards can also be used for manufacturing leather jackets.

As most people know leather is obtained from animal skin. Firstly the skin is removed from animal’s body. This skin is then tanned to get durable leather. The main use of leather is considered to be producing clothing and furniture upholstering. Best quality and undamaged hides are used to get full-grain leather. This full-grain leather is neither sanded nor split. It is considered to be most durable form of leather and hence is most expensive.

To get more and more material for production of leather goods manufacturers splits and separate the hides into many layers. These layers are separated as outer surface and inner surface.

Suede used for manufacturing of suede leather jackets is obtained from either from outer surface of animal hide or its inner surface. As this suede is thin (due to split of layers) this type of leather is less durable. It is considered to be susceptible to get damaged from stains and water owing to its nappy texture. Obviously, suede jackets are less durable and comparatively less expensive. Though generally suede is manufactured from split hide, occasionally suede is obtained from full-grain leather also. If full-grain suede material is used to manufacture suede leather jacket it will become more durable and may be some of costly.

Not necessarily all suede leather jackets available in the market are manufactured from suede leather obtained from animal skin. Many producers manufacture suede jackets made up of synthetic materials to make these suede jackets more durable and less expensive. Suede jackets manufactured from synthetic materials are not as susceptible to staining and water damage.

Faux Fur Jackets

Not only fake fur jackets, but other fashion items made of faux fur like handbags, certainly attract attention and admiration.  Faux fur jackets are available in various colours and number of designs. It’s this great range of colours that has inspired so many trends towards wearing faux fur jackets, coats and other items.  Faux fur items are often seen as whismical and fun things to wear.  They are often a feature of over the top styling.  They’re practical too as they are often valued for their warmth, just the thing for winter weather.

Faux fur jackets and suede jackets are gaining its popularity. Like other leather jackets suede jackets and faux fur jackets are worn with dual purpose of protection and display of personality and status. These faux fur jackets and suede jackets provide you protection mainly in during winter by giving you the required warmth. As these suede jackets and faux fur jackets are available in many colours, patterns and design you have wide range to choose from. Suede jackets and faux fur jackets are comparatively cheaper than classy leather jackets and  are popular among both men and women.