The easiest ways to effortlessly match your fabric colours

Posted On: Friday, July 27th, 2018 0 comments
formal shirting fabrics

We understand that when it comes to colour matching for your shirting fabrics, it can be difficult to know where to start! There’s a certain art to finding a colour combination that’s not too garish and overpowering, but at the same time not too boring and simplistic either. Here at Acorn Fabrics, this week we’ve got a couple of great tips to help you strike that perfect balance for your personal style.

Keep things neutral

The ‘one colour trick’ is a rule that you’ll often hear style experts talking about. It’s exactly what it sounds like: stick to one brighter colour for your outfit, and keep the rest neutral to avoid the overall effect becoming visually overpowering or garish. Colours like olive green, brown and grey might not have a reputation as the most exciting colours out there, but you might be surprised at how useful they are when it comes to building the basics for your outfit. The key is subtlety. Since these aren’t colours that instantly draw the eye, it gives you a bit of breathing room to make colour statements elsewhere (we’ll come onto that in a moment!).

neutral coloured shirts

It’s the same reason that monochrome outfits are so often such a safe bet. White and black always go together, and do so in quite an unobtrusive way. Other colours that share this understated grace include:

  • Olive green
  • Brown
  • Grey
  • Navy
  • Sky blue
  • Tan

(This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course – you might well have your own suggestions!) Next, we’ll move onto…

Experiment with dashes of smaller colours

As we’ve touched upon above, the key is moderation. As long as you don’t go overboard with the number of bright colours in your outfit, there are very few actual shades that are off limits. You can choose vibrant reds, oranges, pinks, yellows or greens – just to name a few! They’re best used with accessories; for example pocket squares or ties. (Maybe even a hat, if you’re feeling bold!)

colour tie

You’ll probably find that certain brighter colours go best with certain neutrals. A navy suit can be livened up particularly well with an orange pocket square, and a grey suit can be enhanced beautifully by a purple waistcoat. However, experimenting is half the fun! You can use the rules about neutrals and colours as guidance, but otherwise we’ll leave you to work out the specifics! Before we finish, we’ll just delve into one last point which often comes up in these sorts of discussions.

Consider your skin tone (but only up to a point)

You may have heard or read other style experts advise that only certain colours go with certain skin tones. Now, it’s true that men with darker skin tones are better at pulling off brighter colours, while fairer people find it easier to look particularly good in blue and grey. Having said that, by no means should you let it limit you when it comes to finding your personal style. If you’d like, you can factor it in when you’re picking out your shades for colour matching your cotton shirting fabrics, but you should never be at a stage where you think “I can’t wear that colour – my skin’s the wrong shade”. It does help to know what looks best against your skin tone and hair colour, but it should be viewed as more of an optional headstart you can give yourself, rather than an absolute golden rule. If you’re going to pick some style rules to follow to the letter, pick the two above!

black man red shirt

And lastly…

The thing about rules is that they are indeed made to be broken. Our guidlelines above are exactly that: guidelines. Above all, when it comes to your personal style you should wear what makes you feel good, and wear it with confidence. In fact, as long as you’ve got that confidence, you might be surprised at which colours you feel make you look the best!

You’ve certainly got plenty of options to choose from amongst our extensive range of shirting fabrics right here at Acorn. Our voile and batiste fabrics are particularly popular given the wonderfully warm weather at the moment! If you’ve got any questions, or you’d like to place your order, simply give us a call on 01282 698 662.

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