I wanna show you something cool. You know how shorts are only worn during the summer with something like a shirt or a t-shirt, right? Well, let’s see if we can do some layering, shall we?

Ok, let’s take a nice pair of colored cotton shorts such as this one:

or this one

These are some nice colors, perfect for the warm season. Now let’s see how we can match them to make some eye-catching outfits.

Step #2 is to add a matching t-shirt. The one below is going to be a partial match for the first pair, the brown one:

It’s got some gray shades on it which is cool, because grey is neutral.

Now, let’s add something interesting to layer this thing, shall we?

If we were to make this outfit more casual, we would add a hoodie, and if we want something formal, we add a blazer. Sure, some folks don’t like to wear blazers with t-shirts, in which case I recommend they replace it with a dress shirt. Others might not like the whole shorts + sports jacket thing.

Whether you like this combo, it’s up to you, really. But if you think it’s too much, you can always replace the blazer with a hoodie and still keep the layering.

The one below will work great with the second (blue) pair of shorts. The contrast would be amazing:

Word of advice: wearing a hoodie + a t-shirt isn’t something you would wear to impress. But it is something you can wear around the house, while jogging or even when going out to have a beer with your buddies and you don’t feel like dressing up.

See… when you just don’t feel like wearing a shirt, you can still look stylish by wearing stronger colors such as blue, green, light gray, red etc. (By the way, most of the pics showcased above (except for the blazer) are from the S/S ’14 Paul Smith Collection from Infinities (UK).

Now, I’m not done yet. There are still things you can add to these outfits to make them even cooler.

First off, a pair of nice shoes is a must. Go for sneakers if you’re wearing the hoodie or mocs if you’re wearing the sports jacket/blazer.

But don’t stop here. As always, the last step is to accessorise. Think about a nice canvas belt or some casual rings. Nothing fancy though.

Now, if you’ll be wearing a blazer you can also opt for some bracelets that will discreetly fill the void where the shirt’s cuffs should be. Of course, you can’t really do this if you’re wearing a hoodie but that’s all for the better. I can’t really think of any stylish accessory that would work with this garment, anyway.

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A big realization that I had was that I wasn’t thinking in terms of the color wheel anymore. I simply started to KNOW which colors go well with each-other.

More often than not, this isn’t something you think about. You just have to put the colors together and let your experience tell you if it looks good or not.

Let’s face it: color matching is hard when you look at the charts. But if you were to think the way I do, you’ll see that everything becomes child’s play.

It all starts with a single fashion item. You know, the one you’re hopelessly holding in your hand, having no idea how to match it.

Step #1: repeat colors!

I want you to look at your fashion item and study the color (or colors) on it. Whether it’s only one or if there are more of them, your goal should be the same: to repeat the color. That’s how I do it and I hope you’ll do it in the same way.

At this point, you shouldn’t care too much about shades.

If you have a green v-neck, match it with a green belt, even if the green doesn’t match. (We’re talking about casual outfits here because in case of formal outfits, you usually start with the shoes). If the v-neck is dark green and the belt is spring green, it’s still a match.

If you have a dark blue and light/medium blue polo shirt, repeat one of the 2 colors. Pair it with a blue shirt, a pair of blue jeans or a bleu pocket square.

For instance, I chose one of my pocket squares. As you can see, it has blue and brown on it:

Depending on how wide your wardrobe is, you might find more than one itme that you can match. If the color is netural medium, this won’t be a problem. However, if the color is bold, you need to be careful. You don’t wanna be dressed head-to-toe in red.

Step #2: Make contrast!

Now that you have your main color (in the same or in different shades), it’s time you add some more colors… but this time, make sure they CONTRAST.

What does that mean? It’s simple. They just need to stand out form each-other in a pleasant way.

There’s no need to remember the color wheel to do this, you can just memorize the colors (it’s easy, I promise).

If at step one you had a blue fashion item, good colors to make it contrast with are: brown, black, white, gray, red, yellow, purple and orange. That is to say, pretty much everything.

If your initial color is black, you can wear pretty much any color with it, except, maybe dark brown. The contrast isn’t that good and most men choose this coor combination anyway.

Same goes for white or gray, you can wear them with any color as well as black.

Take a look at how my white shirts makes excellent contrast with my green v-neck and my navy blue pea coat:

If the color is green, brown is always a good match. So is yellow, blue, white, gray and black.

As you can see, you can pair pretty much any 2 colors on the wheel, as long as you make sure they don’t stand out too much together. Contrasts are very easily noticeable.

Step #3: the 3-color rule is good… but be careful how you count them!

Sometimes 2 colors aren’t enough. Or you just can’t assemble an outfit with just 2 colors (this is pretty tough if you’re wearing more than one pattern). That’s no problem at all, you just have to add a third color.

This is the final step, making a winning trio combination.

Let me give you the combinations that I use most often. I recommend you try all of them then, if you feel up to it, you can come up with other combinations.

Trio 1: blue + black + white

This is pretty obvious. A lot of guys do it so, in order to stand out, there are a few extra things you need to do. First make sure you get the right clothing items and that they fit you perfectly.

Secondly, make sure you repeat them as much as you can, for a really stylish outfit. Wearing blue jeans with a black leather jacket and a blue v-neck is pretty boring but, if you add a white shirt, a white belt, dark blue suede shoes… things start to change. Maybe you can add a white pocket square to match your shirt. Or a black fedora with a bleu ribbon. You get the idea.

Trio 2: blue + brown + gray

Notice how this is substantially different from the first trio, in that we replaced black with brown. I also replaced white with gray but I could have just as well let the white. In this case you can even count khaki and camel as browns, even though they contrast very well with dark brown.

Trio 3: blue + brown + green

Here you need to be careful because you don’t have the white or gray (which are neutral) to save you. Too much of all 3 of them and you’ll be raising a lot of eyebrows.

Trio 4: brown + red + navy blue

The reason I’m recommending that you stick with a dark shade of blue in this case, is to allow the brown and red to stand out more. If you’ve worn the two colors before, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you’ll be pleasantly surprised on how well they work together (despite the fact that the don’t match and they don’t contrast very well either).

Trio 5: pink + grey + white

Since pink + black are worn too much by men, you should probably stay away from this combo and, instead, take the next evolutionary step: pink + gray.

Trio 6: black + green + blue

While I enjoy wearing brown, I have to admit that black is much better suited for me. This is primarily due to the fact that I have black hair and it makes perfect sense to match it with my outfit. Black, green and blue are a nice trio to assemble. If you wish, you can add white or replace blue with purple.

Trio 7: navy blue + green + blue

I could go on and on with such trios, but I’m sure you can find them yourself once you get used to wearing the ones I enumerated above.

The fact of the matter is you CAN break the 3-color rule as long as you keep the outfit “tight” as far as colors are concerned (i.e. the colors should be connected to each-other, not randomly chosen). But let’s leave the concept of color palettes for some other time.

The post Just How Do You Match Colors? appeared first on Be Stylish!.

So I figured I’d share a few tips about some of the colors that I personally use to create those “wow effects”. Let’s talk earth colors.

Just what are the earth tone colors?

Earth tone colors are a group of colors that have 2 traits:

1. They mimmick some of nature’s elements (moss, trees, leaves, earth etc.)
2. They can be incorporated to make a great looking fashion outfit.

The earth colors palette consists of:

– browns
– yellows
– grays
– greens
– oranges
– taupe
– ivory
– some shades of red

Earth tones have fancy names, such as:

green earth:

yellow ochre:

red ochre:

or burnt siena:

Why Earth tones?

It’s pretty obvious but wearing earth tones is yet another way to make us more “in-tune” with mother nature. However, this does NOT mean you should “blend in” with the planet each and every season.

Each season has a set of recommended colors and the earth colors we’re talking about are best suited in autumn and a few of them in spring (think whites and ivory).

The worst season to wear earth colors is winter. However, take this advice lightly, as it’s really hard to pull off amazing outfits AND wear only season-specific colors. You need a huge wardrobe for that. Most stylish guys don’t follow this rule all the time.

The biggest reason you should wear earth colors is this: they’re ballsy, yet they don’t scream…. unless you wear too lighter shades.

If you think in terms of earth colors, you tend to stay away from the boring black that most guys wear.

Ballsy style rule #1: brown is the new black

Brown is an earth color that every guy should consider. If you’re new to style and you just started learning from me, try to avoid buying black clothes and accessories for a while. Stick with brown and you’ll make a huge progress from where you are now.

Ballsy style rule #2: the ballsier the color, the less you should use it

Colors such as camel or yellow stand out a lot. I have a camel pea coat and I feel the difference when I wear it.

Unless you’re more advanced in style, wear brighter colors (even white) in small quantities. A pair of yellow gloves, a bright orange scarf or a pair of glasses with red frames – these are all examples of what I like to call “discrete colors”.

Brown, khaki, taupe and grey, on the other hand, are safe to consist the basis of your outfit. You can wear them in larger quantities (think chinos, pea coats, shirts, V-necks) and get away with it.

But let’s see some concrete examples so you can get a better idea of earth colors in action.

photo: and

The post Amazing Earth Tones Combinations for Guys appeared first on Be Stylish!.

Now, I could tell you about all the ways you can figure out which colors work well with others, but I already did that. Instead, I’m going to cover a topic that’s of critical importance.

I want to give you the most common color names.

There’s a cute picture running around the Internet about how men and women see colors:

Funny, isn’t it? Still, if we want to make outfits that stand out ,we should know these colors. Don’t worry – it’s easier than it looks and I’ll be right here to help you fixate these colors better. I’m not just going to give you the names but also some example outfits, to fixate them better in your memory as well as see how they work together.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee and let’s get started… we have a lot of colors ahead of us.

1. Reds

Red is a very powerful color that will easily make you stand out. It’s really easy to go over board with this one:

Fortunately there are plenty of nuances of red that will stand out a little less and make our outfits look more stylish. For instance…

And here’s a darker red which I’m sure you’re familiar with and that you’ll like A LOT:

And here’s a nice plaid burgundy shirt. Hype it if you like it.

Some other colors derived from red are:

Here’s me in a magenta shirt with rolled-up sleeves:

Rose bonbon

Fuchsia

Carmine, a deep red:

Fuchsia and carmine work wonders with black, by the way.

Now there are a lot of other reds, such as cerise or chestnut, but the ones that I showed you will do. Let’s just focus in these two, which you can visualize as in-between red and blue:

You can go ahead and wear more than one shade of red on the same outfit. Just make sure you coordinate this powerful color with the rest of your outfit colors.

2. Browns

You’ll often hear me say that brown is the new black. This is because brown colors are an amazing way to stand out from other men’s outfits, primarily centered around blacks.

Let me show you some common browns that you can incorporate into your outfits right now. This is brown…

A hot color from the browns family is camel.

In the look below you can see a camel blazer paired with an earth yellow pair of pants:

And how about desert sand? You’ll often find this color on desert boots such as these, from Clarks:

And here’s another very popular color. If you’ve ever worn a pair of khakis, you know what I’m talking about:

Here’s how I chose to match khaki (you can do it differently):

Some other browns include…

and

3. Whites

Since we saw what khaki looks like, let’s discuss whites, for a second, shall we? If you ask women, they’ll go on and on about the different nuances of white, such as ivory, beige, pearl, eggshell, mint cream etc. etc. etc.

Let’s see a few of them.

If you don’t look closer, you won’t even see the difference between ivory and white. Yet there is one and most women know about it. It wouldn’t hurt if you did too.

Cream is actually pretty close to khaki, if you look closely, yet the two should never be mixed up.

And how about this one?

Ever heard of pearl-white? Now you know what it looks like. But wait, how do you match it?

All whites are considered neutral colors. This means they go well with pretty much with anything. Of course, a good color coordination in the rest of your outfit is necessary.

4. Yellows

5. Grays

Pay particular attention to these if you’re looking to get a new suit.

6. Greens

Here’s an outfit with olive chinos for reference:

Olive is a great color for pants. it’s not too balsy, yet it can make a great fashion statement if you know how to match it. Plus, if you’re a military style fan, you’ll be twice as happy wearing a pair of pants such as these.

7. Blues

Azure is my favorite color by the way.

Take a look at this turquoise scarf. It’s a great way to add some color during winter. You’ll need it particularly if you have, say, a navy blue overcoat.

Take a look at this nice baby-blue short sleeved shirt:

8. Oranges

Orange works very well with black, gray, brown and blue so, if you based your wardrobe around these 2 colors, add a touch of orange every now and then to take your outfits to the next level.

Of course, you don’t have to pair orange with just blue or grey, you can play around with shades and nuances as much as you like. Here we see how the color in discussion is paired with taupe and turquoise:

Peach is a nice variation from orange, which you can pair with light blue. As you can see this fellow did an amazing job:

Let’s wrap this up with a small quiz. Just answer the questions in the comment box below.

1. What’s your all-time favorite color?
2. What are some of your favorite color combinations that you use in your outfits on a daily basis?

Stay stylish,

George

The post A Man’s Guide to Colors appeared first on Be Stylish!.