Art of coordination. Lesson 4: mixing three patterns where two are similar

This time I’d like to pay your attention to mixing three patterns where two are similar. It is not an easy task, while here we should also take into account scale and space of all three patterns, mixing them, in such a way creating a new ensemble. It is important that this ensemble should consist not of opposite patterns, all the patterns should supplement each other.

If you are not yet skilled in the art of coordination, you’d better start with two similar patterns (a suit and a shirt) and your emphasis lays on the tie. This combination is the least difficult.

If you take a striped suit and a striped shirt, make sure that the space between stripes on the suit is wider than that of your shirt. For the tie, it is advisable to use of larger spaced patterns like polka-dots or large dotted floral prints to give a good balance on the finer stripes found on dress shirts. Ties with larger patterns or wider spacing are safe choices to create a more soothing effect for the eye.

If you try to create an ensemble of a checked suit and a checked shirt, give preference to a striped tie! Choose the smaller checks on the dress shirts to harmonize the bigger check pattern on the suit. Then the large scaled stripes provide an accent to the whole combination that blends easily to both check patterns.

You shouldn’t neglect color coordination as well. A safe method for men without experience in mixing and matching is to have the patterns use similar hues coordination or achromatic hues coordination between the apparels. And when only you feel that you’ve got your hand in this art of mixing patterns, you may experiment with other colors and varieties of coordination.

Generally speaking, the concept for three patterns coordination is always use one large scale pattern to balance out the other two similar patterns. This is the reason why we can easily use ties with large scales or patterns or motifs as the easiest way to off-set the similar but different scaled patterns on the suit and shirt.

Do not be afraid of experimenting and try your hand in creating your own style. You are sure to like it!!!