dear abby,
I was always taught that you couldn't wear brown and black together. For example, if you wear a black skirt, you shouldn't wear brown shoes with it. Is this true, because I've seen several breaking this "rule" recently. So is the "rule" I was taught wrong or are people just breaking this "rule"?
C.C.
Great question C.C! Black and brown has become a new trend that I've been seeing more and more of. It seems like in the past few years, people have thrown the this common rule out of the window and created a whole new one!
Black and brown are both neutrals and are super easy to pair with almost any color, including each other! Here are some of my favorite, go to outfits that actually combine black and brown together.
And here are some examples of combining the colors that I pulled off of Pinterest:
{side note: why are they only gorgeous, tiny people pinned for fashion on pinterest? that needs to change!}
If you're thinking about breaking the old rule and creating a new one, here are some tips for wearing black and brown together:
1. Make it obvious! If you wear black from head to toe with black toned jewelry and only wear brown shoes, well then, it will probably look like you got dressed in the dark and grabbed the wrong shoe! {Laugh all you want, but I've had coworkers show up in 2 different shoes because of this!} If I'm going to wear black and brown together, I try to wear gold jewelry to tie it together. To me, gold is a really easy accessory that makes the colors flow together. Leopard print is another easy way to make the two match, as it has both colors in it. If you wear a black dress, try to include several accessories in brown so that it's known you meant to wear them together.
2. Start out small. If you think you're going to be self conscious wearing the colors, try wearing an outfit with the two colors for a short amount of time: on a date night, to church, grocery shopping one morning. It's better to ease yourself into the combination, rather than wearing it for a full day and worrying about what rule people believe about the colors!
3. Throw the rules out and fake it till you make it! Here's what you need to remember: wearing black and brown together is totally acceptable. So take your favorite pieces in these colors, create a fabulous outfit and wear it knowing you're rockin' it! Believing you look awesome will increase your confidence, thus increasing how great the outfit looks on you!
Thanks for a great question C.C.!
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I used to always say black and brown make me frown, black and navy make me crazy...but I have learned there really aren't any rules anymore (or maybe that they were made to be broken). For my wedding my hubby wore a black tux with brown vest and it actually looked pretty cool, but was soooo hard for me to be ok with at first. Some of the best outfits I've seem people put together are those that I used to think were don'ts and I've since learned that black and brown rock.
ReplyDeleteYou look amazing in that fist pick, by the way. I just gasped at my computer and said "oh my gorgeous, Abby!!"