Black and white. They couldn’t be further from each other. They are literally on two opposite ends of the color spectrum. Let’s talk about contrast in this week’s blog and what I like to call “eye trickery”.
Our brains are magnificent, truly they are and when it comes to contrast, we use it as stylists so often to trick our brains into seeing shapes differently. Your eye is drawn to light colors (whites, brights, lighter tones) while darker colors tend to fall away from you, awesome right? An extension to this rule is prints and I love a good print! Eyes will be drawn towards this just as much as light colors, so keep this in mind for that fabulous cheetah print you have hanging in your closet!
Here’s a good example of using this trick for styling an outfit – if I’m wearing black pants and a white top, the person who sees me is immediately going to notice my top half before noticing my pants; in contrast, if I’m wearing white pants and a black top, someone will be drawn to my lower half in the white pants. Now, think of your body shape, do you know what it is? The most common types are hourglass, apple, pear, rectangle and inverted triangle! If you don’t know, I’d encourage you to jump online and determine this, it will make styling yourself so much easier!
Why in the heck am I telling you this? Why does it matter? We all have that area of our body that we either want to show off, or maybe put a little further in the background. This contrast trick is so helpful when thinking about your next outfit choice. Do you want to draw the eye in a certain direction or style yourself for your body shape? Or course you do!
Let’s say we have a woman who’s more pear shaped, I’m going to recommend a lighter color or print for her top half and a dark solid pant. Why? The eye isn’t going to be drawn to the wider lower half, it’ll be drawn to the bright or printed top! See what we did there? We balanced the look! How would you style yourself based on this information?
Also, if you’re sitting here reading this getting a little sweat in your armpits thinking about how you’re going to do it or that you don’t own very many things that work with this, don’t fret! It’s just a tool, not a rule, and if you feel good in something and it makes you smile, sister, do THAT. Always do what makes you feel good. Turn those heads babe!
On the flipside, if you truly are having trouble putting an outfit together whether for work, a party, an event, a wedding, or anything in between just think of simple switches to make. Those simple light/dark swaps can be so simple but can take your confidence level from twenty to one hundred real quick.
Send me pictures of those outfits!
*Take a look at these examples of this concept. Notice the lighter/brighter color vs the darker tones in comparison. Notice where your eyes are drawn first!
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