Every fashionista knows that Coco Chanel created a famous style rule: before you go out, look in the mirror and remove one thing from your outfit. Chanel was and still is a style icon, and many of the looks she pioneered and the rules she followed still guide fashionable people today. But some rules are made to be broken. Here are three ways to break fashion rules and look great.
Go Ahead and Clash Some Colors
Sometimes it’s fun to mix up colors in an outfit in an unexpected way—red with orange or purple, blue with green, or green with yellow can make an outfit look creative and avant-garde. But don’t overdo it: clash your colors between a hat and belt or a scarf and shoes to give the effect a bit more subtlety.
Mixing prints is also OK: try a floral with a plaid or a stripe with a paisley. It can work if the colors are complementary, and the designs aren’t so busy that they make your eyes lose focus.
Sometimes, More Is More
“Never wear more than three accessories” is an oft-repeated fashion rule. Break it by finding new ways to wear an antique brooch. Cluster five or seven small brooches around one larger one, or pair a cuff with a few fine chain bracelets for an eclectic look. Don’t drown yourself in hats, scarves, and belts; if you go for more, be conscious of scale. Putting on huge hoop earrings with a chunky necklace, a giant belt buckle, and platform shoes really is too much.
Make sure the garment you’re wearing can support the weight of your brooch. Warm and cozy winter wardrobe staples like blazers support brooches well. You can even secure a scarf atop a sweater with a brooch.
Gold and Silver Can Mix
In the same way some fashionable people have pulled off wearing a pink jacket with an orange shirt, you can do away with the rule that says you can’t mix gold and silver jewelry. In fact, jewelry designers have been doing it for years. When choosing bracelets as your area to do “more,” mix gold and silver chains and cuffs for a varied look.
Fashion always walks a fine line. Don’t push it if you’re trying something new and it just doesn’t feel or look right. The most fashionable thing is to be comfortable and confident with your style and not worry too much about what the trendsetters and fashion gurus have to say.
