Some of the hallmarks of a good wardrobe are its versatility, variety and adaptability. Don’t worry; all this doesn’t require you to
have a wardrobe of Hamletian proportions or to spend a fortune to build your wardrobe. All that is needed is some creativity, common
sense and a penchant for ‘mix and match’ when you buy your clothing. The extent to which you can mix and match depends on the
interchangeability of the various pieces of your clothing. So what this essentially means is that you need to plan your wardrobe in advance.
Why mix and match?
• Mixing and matching allows you to wear different and exciting looks even when
you have a small or limited wardrobe.
• It allows you the most optimum use of your clothes and accessories.
• With imaginative mixing and matching you can make even the ordinary clothes
look exciting and thus stand out in a crowd.
• It lets you express and stamp your individuality and your style in an emphatic
fashion.
How to mix and match?
• Building your wardrobe is not that different from building your house. First you
need to build a solid foundation of a few basic colors and then add rest of the
structure according to your taste.
• Do not buy duplicates of the same basic color. Navy blue, black and brown are
good choices for a basic color.
• Find out what kind of colors best suit your skin tone i.e. warm colors or cool
colors. Generally the best option is to have a wide selection of colors.
• The top half of your body is always more noticed than the bottom half. So in
essence this means that if you wear the same top with different bottoms you will
end up looking the same, whereas same bottom with different tops will give
you a different look every time.
• In other words, in your wardrobe your tops should vastly outnumber your bottoms,
if you want to mix and match.
• It’s always easier to match prints with plain clothes, whereas clothing with
different patterns does not match. So as a thumb rule at least 75% of your
wardrobe should be composed of plain clothes and the rest could be in print.
• Determine what kind of dressing suits your normal lifestyle needs and then build
your wardrobe around that. Normally, opt for clothes that are versatile, i.e. can be
used for both formal and informal occasions.
• Dresses don’t leave that much scope for mixing and matching, so try to buy more
of separate pieces of clothing.
• Wise use of accessories like jewelry, hand bags, shades, scarves, belts etc, is
also an important tool for mixing and matching. Radically different accessories
with almost same dress end up giving you a completely different look.
• A little bit of tweaking with your hairstyle, shoes etc, also helps in changing the
look.
