MIX AND MATCH IT.

First off, Happy Workers Day to my amazing Musers.  Am sure we are all enjoying the work free day, traffic free day, sit in bed and lounge all day day and a whole lot of interesting ways to relax day...lol. Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while, reason being a research I’ve been working on took most of my time in the past three weeks, but  I am glad it ended today and will hopefully yield great results by His grace, Amen. My sincere apologisies for the long silence and hope to make it up to you all. So what are we going to talk about today?

The last Eye Candy Guess What game was won by one of our ardent reader and  commenter on Musings of Luch. She’s no other than the great Chigasu!  Hooray!!!  She guessed rightly that this would be a mix and match post.... A round of applause for her folks. You go girl! You have won yourself this beautiful chain-mail sling purse from Zara. Direct mail me your address and phone number to get it delivered to you. Thank you for your time and contributing comments on the Musings of Luch.

Okay now to the business of the day. 

What is Mix and Match?

Mix and Match is a phrase that refers to "the selection and combination of different but complementary items such as equipment or clothing to form a coordinated set". Thank you Google.  Coordination could be in terms of colour, size, fabric or patterns.  Mix and match style of clothing sometimes expresses how we feel inwardly at a particular time reflecting our level of excitement or depression. To be able to mix and match one must have good knowledge of colours as it has a lot to do with colours more often than not.  Not to worry Musers, for those of you that are not colour savvy or just plain colour blind, there is a simple technique you can learn to master the colour theory for clothing matching. Remember the colour wheel?  Yeah the same old COLOUR WHEEL in art class in primary school. That class we all loved because there was no mathematics involved lol.

The Colour Wheel is made up of 3 primary colours - Red, Yellow and blue and 3 secondary colours - Orange, Green and Purple, and then there are variations of these primary and secondary colours to produce Red/Orange,  Orange/Yellow, Yellow/Green, Green/Blue, Blue/Purple and Purple/Red.  Colours adjacent to each other on the colour wheel are termed analogous because they are from the same bloodline.  I know some might say 'what is a colour bloodline?'  Colour bloodline means a particular colour being dominant in these colours that are related. Take for instance mix a bit of blue to yellow; the result is yellow-green. Yellow-green and yellow fabrics can easily match because they are of same colour bloodline; i.e. yellow is dominant in both colours. The colour wheel helps us in creating different colour mixes.

The three primary colours of the wheel; red, yellow and blue (RYB) gives birth to the three secondary colours; purple, green and orange (PGO) by being mixed. R+B= P, B+Y=G, Y+R=O. This is called a Shared bloodline. These six colours can easily go on each other when matched but always remember to match warm to warm and cool to cool i.e. warm yellow to warm green etc.  Lets look at a few tips for mixing colours. 

4 Tips for Mixing Colours 

1.     Be creative.  It's in you, whether you believe it or not.  You have the talent to be a little creative in all you do.  Well for clothing, you can try out mixing and matching clothes with the three primary colours, e.g. putting on a blue pair of pants or skirt, a yellow inner shirt or camisole and a red jacket.  Take a look at the sample photos below.

You could also play around with the three primary colours and three secondary colours all together in patches like Kimora lee Simmons and Solange Knowles did here. Believe me you’ll come out dazzling. 

2.    Try Monochromatic Colour Matching.  Monochromatic colour matching entails using the same colour but in two or more different lighter or darker shades of that same colour. Take for instance wearing a light shade of blue on a darker shade of blue or a light purple on a darker one. A colour will always match darker, greyer or lighter version of itself.  See how Kim Kardashian handles blue in this denim and blue pencil skirt ensemble.

 How about these other mixes?

3.    Multiple colours.  Sometimes you might have a top, bottom or even a dress with multiple colours but don't want to do the patch matching style described in the "be creative" paragraph above.  Confusion sets in.  What to do.... If the colours are distinct you can easily pick out one colour that is most pronounced, and get a jacket, top or bottom of that colour to match the multi colour outfit.  However, if the colours in the multi colour outfit are subtle or minimally distinct, to be differentiated, take a step back and look from a distance. You will notice an overall colour effect. Pick out that colour and wear it on top or underneath.  See the samples below.

4.    Black, White, Brown and Greys.  Black, white, brown and grey colours are very versatile and look great with a lot of other colours. Black and white on their own are almost universal as they go with almost everything. However when matching brown and grey check to see if the brown or grey is cool (have more of cool blue in it) or warm ( has more of yellow or red) . i.e. if it’s on the darker side or the brighter side.   Remember, It is always good to match cool with cool and warm with warm.

Okay I guess we can offically say I’m back! lol and hope not to go away for too long again. Congratulations once again to Chigasu and to other Musers don’t relent there are more goodies to be won.  Just don’t miss the Eye Candy- Guess What game coming next.  Please Let me know your views on mixing and matching colours.  Did I miss out anything? Looking forward to your comments. Cheers and enjoy the rest of your holiday.