So I’m trying to do my homework for Karen’s Print-mixing 101: what grade would I get for this? Remember, I’m just shopping my own wardrobe here, and I have a limited number of prints to work with. But as I started warming up to the idea and playing around a bit, I did like the way this scarf looks with this dress. Normally, when I wear this dress I keep everything else very plain — black tights, sometimes boots, sometimes Mary-Jane heels, and either a black cardigan over or a black turtleneck under, my only jewelry a pair of onyx ball studs. But we’re moving from winter to spring here, and maybe I should lighten up how I’m wearing it.
What do you think? I’m waiting on your word before I take it out of the house — should I stay or should I go? I’d probably still wear it with the black tights and shoes/boots, but I keep thinking of a fabulous pair of heels I saw in Fluevog’s window this weekend. I remembered them as closer to the blue in the dress but the photo I’ve downloaded below shows them as not quite right. Still, mood-wise they’re a very nice match, I think, and maybe in person, in the right light . . . I’ll have to at least go back and drool at them, I’d say. The pair of ankle boots I have from this Fluevog “family” is the most comfortable pair ever, even with the 2 1/2″ heel, so I know I’ll be picking up something like this before my trip this summer. Meanwhile, maybe I’ll settle for some cheap-and-cheerful bracelets in the sky-blue.
And now, just in case you think I can’t recognize “too much” all on my own, here’s my homework answer to the question asking for an example of way-too-much-print, print-gone-wild! You might recognize the cardigan whose print I tried matching recently. Can you imagine my students trying to keep a straight face if I walked into the classroom wearing this? Actually, this might be the perfect April 1st teaching outfit, if I could keep a straight face!
What? You like it?
Those shoes are so cute and feisty! Sure you have loads to wear with them and they’ll go with a so many colours. Nice spring print-pairing (top photo) and I chuckled at “too much”- what I call ‘walking wall-paper sample book’.
I think your top combo works well. It’s more complementary than contrasting. Love those shoes!!! I wish I could wear Fluevogs, but my arch/instep is just too high.
Oh, and the bottom combo looks like something you’d see in a fashion spread, though I think for most of us it would be a bit much for “IRL” wear.
I like it! (Sans cardi). The scarf is a muted watercolor-y version of the top – just enough matchy but also a bit contrasty.
Pattern mixing for the win. It’s surprising what can work when you just stop thinking about it.
I really like that dress. I love it with the scarf. The cardigan is too much for me, but I could see it working if you liked it.
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Oh I love the dress and the dress with a scarf. The shoes are really cute too. I was trying on print dresses today and have to really reconsider my addiction to solids. I love prints, am just shy about wearing them. Must.change.that.
Yes that scarf and dress work well together, the shoes are cute too – especially if the colour is right.
The cardi is too much – if you wanted to add in another pattern I’d go for something very sparse I think and probably in the blue.
Duchesse: Thanks for the enabling — I am seriously considering them, but am also tempted toward the same ones in a gorgeous orange!
Pseu: Too bad about the Fluevog fit. The print play is really fun, isn’t it, once you start to see the possibilities. But I can’t ever imagine wearing that bottom combo!
Jillian: You know I’d never wear the cardigan with that, right?
Thom: You’re right, sometimes the thinking gets in the way.
Julianne: The cardigan is absolutely too much for anybody, I’m quite sure!
Mardel: I tend to go for the more practical solids as well, but I do like a lively print.
Imogen: I hope you know the cardigan-combo was intended as a joke, hence the ref to April 1st (April Fools Day!) — Even the top combo is stretching myself — no way I’d put together the bottom photo craziness.
Awesome, especially the latter. This works better now that spring is here. If you wear it you will officially join the ranks of the stylish arty farty crowd.
For more confidence/ideas check out some of the past Dries van Noten shows. He is the master of mix and a huge influence over the whole ‘mash-up’ your wadrobe.
Alison: Sorry, but I won’t be joining those ranks any time soon. I do love what Dries van Noten does, but I know he’s got a huge palette of prints to choose from and his mixes more fortuitous than this. A tall, young woman with real presence could pull this off, but I’m quite sure I’d disappear inside the cacophony! It’s fun to play though — and I can see that I might like playing these prints off one another if the dress were a skirt. might, I said . . .
That’s a very cheerful shade of blue–I’d pair it with a yellow print dress just to funk it up (I do my best to avoid matchy-matchy, which is why I also like your pattern mixing).
Miss C: I’ve been trying to work some yellow into my wardrobe, but I haven’t yet found a print with enough mitigating colours to allow me to wear it near my face. I wish they made this shoe in yellow, actually, but they do have it in orange, which I’m very tempted by (and would not be matching!)
I love the scarf with the dress, but not those two with that particular overpiece. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe a solid outside would work better. Keep playing!
Karen: YIKES! Once again, I have to say, no, no, no, I was just joking. Please don’t think I would ever suggest wearing such a combo. But playing is fun, for sure.