Matching For Dummies

Remember those yellow covered books–Photoshop For Dummies, Dating For Dummies, et al? I know, we all laugh about them and deny ever flipping through them, but when I’m in my closet I secretly wish for such a handbook on how to match accessories to clothes. I don’t mean I don’t know better than to wear orange with black except for Halloween, but as I’ve lamented here before, I have a mental block when it comes to matching things already in the “same” shade.

May I introduce Exhibit A: dark silver shoes and a dark silver clutch…no brainer, so you’d think…

but looky there, what’s going on with the brassy/gold tone behind the metal flowers as seen up close? It’s sort of like that age-old question of whether we should wear gold and silver jewelry together, isn’t it?

But since it’s hard to really see that when you’re looking at my shoes from all the way up there, I think it’s a safe match. Now let’s throw in Exhibit B, an extra layer of matching difficulty in the form of my recently featured silvery dream jacket.

No problemo, you say. The gold crystal trims play up the gold in the shoes. Nice going.

Uh huh. And what if we throw in that clutch that seemed to match from before?

Is it just me or is something off here? So here is where I wish I could go straight to my Matching For Dummies book for some advice. Maybe it’s a case of too many textures clamoring for attention? Maybe it’s all the bling that’s blinding me so I can’t tell if it really matches or not? Why does that clutch now look purply? And while we’re at it, why do I buy stuff like this when I usually just wear black!? I’m like a Jil Sander person buying Cavalli clothes. Madness!

Anyway, I try a different shade of silver on the bag, which seems to match more tonally…BUT...oops, did I forget to tell you that there’s even more bling on the front of this bag :D? Even Michael Jackson himself wouldn’t pile this much bling into one look. I think I’ll just carry keys and phone in my pocket, leave both bags behind, and call it a day.

August 1, 2011