Details: Wilfred vest, Ralph Lauren skirt, Escada blazer, Rafael Alfandary necklace (all secondhand), J. Crew shoes (retail, old)

Thoughts: I haven’t worn much red in years, but this vest has been like a shot of adrenaline to my closet. It’s what I consider my “best” red — a poppy red, slightly orange-leaning shade. I had to pair it first with this skirt, to pick up on the pattern of the skirt. It feels like such an electric combination somehow. Kept the outfit very simple, but felt smashing in it.

Details: Wilfred sweater, Topshop dress, Jones NY blazer, BR belt (all secondhand)

Thoughts: Can you believe I’ve had this dress for 3 years and this is the first time I’m wearing it as “separates”? That must be a record for dresses in my closet, as this styling “hack” is one of my favourites. I adore the contrast polka dots pattern and wanted to make it the focal point of the outfit, so I kept everything else very neutral. This grey blazer is a great option for outfits where black would be too overwhelming; here, I think that a black blazer would have made the outfit feel unbalanced, with the top too visually “heavy” compared to the bottom. What makes this blazer perfect is that black velvet collar which brings in just a touch of black, so the grey doesn’t feel too disconnected from the rest of the outfit.

Details: Ralph Lauren shirt, Talbots dress, J. Crew necklace & shoes (all secondhand)

Thoughts: It’s taken me years but I am finally a convert to the power of a crisp white (men’s) shirt. It took me a while but I finally found the perfect one at the thrifts — vintage RL, of course. Here, I paired it with my vintage wool Talbots dress for a super classic combination. I love the simplicity of the clean lines and subtle accessorizing.

Details: Frank & Oak turtleneck, Pitlochry sweater, Ports blazer, Icone skirt, Fossil belt, Dooney bag, Zara shoes (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I loved this outfit so much! I can’t explain why, but I felt incredibly cool in it. Historian off-duty all the way, in the best way. This vintage made-in-Scotland sweater is one of my fave recent thrift finds; I love the colour palette and the design, and it’s in fantastic shape for being thick, Shetland wool. The skirt is another recent find and while I swore off buying black skirts a while back, I had to make an exception for this one because it’s my favourite silhouette and it’s made from a wide-wale corduroy fabric. I am obsessed with corduroy at the moment! In fact, this is a double corduroy outfit, with the jacket being cord as well (albeit very fine wale). I think the skirt was a great buy, as I can see it working very well with my current aesthetic; it’s a good colour and texture pairing for all the brown and wool/tweeds I’m doing. I decided to let go of an older black skirt to make room for it (and that one went to my daughter, so it’s still kicking about!).

Details: Club Monaco turtleneck (retail, old), Eaton vest, Akris jacket, Joseph belt, Tignanello bag (all secondhand), BR jeans (retail)

Thoughts: This Akris jacket was another recent thrift find that I had to grab because (a) the quality is so good, which is harder and harder to find these days, and (b) it intrigued me. It’s a bit on the periphery of my current aesthetic, but could be a direction worth exploring. I’m kinda feeling the 70s preppy vibes — like, the Historian on an Ivy campus in the 70s, you know? It worked really well with this jeans, for a start. A good start, I think. Let’s see where it goes from here.

Details: Ralph Lauren turtleneck, Denim & Supply dress, If By Sea shacket, BR belt, Laredo boots (all secondhand)

Thoughts: It’s been a hot minute since I wore this dress, so I decided it was time to get it out again. I was thinking about how to wear it (outside, on the weekend) and remembered this shacket. Plaid on plaid is always alright in my books, plus the colours play together nicely. Luckily, the weather decided to cooperate for once — it’s been very up and down lately, after getting us used to a mild season. I am definitely ready for spring, though. More dresses and more spring jackets, please!

Details: Ralph Lauren shirt, Pendleton blazer, Cotton Ginny belt, CoH jeans (all seconhand)

Thoughts: Another very classic outfit that is sort of a “new thing” for me. I’ve never done something quite like this before, but I was inspired by this incredible wool Pendleton blazer I picked up on Poshmark for a ridiculously low price. It’s in perfect condition and the quality is amazing. I wish the colours picked up better in photos, because I love the lush green/blue combo. Just a crisp white shirt and jeans, and I’m set!

Last year, we talked about outfit building blocks and outfit formulas, which gets us most of the way to an outfit. What’s left? Well, choosing the specific pieces to use in an outfit. This can feel tricky when colour is involved. If you fall down the rabbit hole of reading about colour theory online (much less stuff like seasonal colour analysis), it’s not difficult to feel overwhelmed. Ready for my hot take? I think all those theories can make it all seem far more complicated than it is.

Assuming no vision impairments, figuring out what colour combinations work can be very simple: just look at them. Put two pieces of clothing next to each other and check to see if they look nice together or not. That’s it. There may be a lot of science behind that, but you don’t need to know about it in order to put together a well-coordinated outfit. It’s how we can look at a person’s outfit and find it visually pleasing without having to pull out a colour wheel to confirm whether it is, in fact, a good outfit.

I don’t use a colour wheel when I’m putting together outfits; after years of practice, I have a number of favourite colour combinations, which I know work well together, but I also still experiment all the time. I start with one piece of clothing, the one I know I want to include in my outfit. Next, I pull out a bunch of different options that might be suitable for completing the outfit, ignoring colour to begin with. Say I start with a skirt (I often start with a skirt); I might pick three or four different tops or sweaters, depending on the season – maybe more, if I’m feeling really adventurous. Then I put each top next to the skirt and see how they look together. I don’t usually try anything on at this point, since that takes extra time and this is a speed elimination round. I usually have a favourite combination right off the bat, but if I narrow down my choice to, say, two tops, then I make the final decision after trying on both versions of the outfit. If I like both, I’ll wear one and make a note of the other, so I can wear it another time; this way, I’m making the most of my experimental session.

Still not convinced? Ok, here are some traditional colour theory-based “rules” to consider.

Monochromatic and analogous schemes

This one is self-explanatory: it’s about wearing the different shades and tones of the same colour head to toe. (Note: monochromatic can also be used to refer to a black and white colour scheme. That one’s a classic too.) Monochromatic can be trickier than it appears. If you look at the classic fashion colour wheel, you will see that there are at least two blues, two greens, two yellows, and so on. You may or may not have each colour sufficiently well-represented in your closet for a truly monochromatic look (unless we’re talking about neutrals like black, beige, white, etc.).

An analogous scheme can be easier to achieve: you’re looking to mix several shades that are next to each other on the colour wheel. Personally, I like to do at least three because the combination not only looks richer, but also because there is less risk of it looking like you were going for monochromatic and simply missed the boat.

Complementary schemes

Complementary colour schemes are probably the ones most people think of when it comes to colour theory: choosing colours that are directly opposite to each other on the wheel. Think pink and green, orange and blue, violet and yellow.

A split complementary scheme is similar, but instead of choosing the colour directly opposite, you choose the two colours on either side of it. For a triadic scheme, you are looking for a combination of three colours that are equidistant from each other on the wheel. Using a triadic scheme can result in very bold outfits, which can feel overwhelming to some folks, but it’s possible to tone down its impact by choosing softer or more muted shades of each colour. If you’re trying to use multiple colours in an outfit and start to feel like you’re losing your courage, it may help you to revive it if you “ground” those colours with a small amount of black – for example, a black belt.

The “cheat code”

Yeah, there’s a cheat code: a way to pick amazing colour combinations without doing any work at all. How? Find a pattern you like. It can be from your closet, your house, a book, anything. Look at the colours used in the pattern. Pick two or three. Voila! You have a colour combination you can be sure works because a professional designer with years of experience used it to create a pattern that you already love. It doesn’t get easier or more failproof than that. This, by the way, is also the easiest way to figure out how to wear patterned clothing. The simplest option is to pair a pattern with one or more solid colours; to choose complementary garments, pick colours from the pattern itself. If you want to pattern mix in advanced mode, you can choose different patterns that feature similar colour palettes. Start with black and white patterns if you’re feeling hesitant, and use solid white or black pieces to tie them together. I have thrown together every black and white pattern under the sun, and this approach hasn’t failed me yet.

If you’re feeling more adventurous, use the same approach but expand the colour palette; choose patterns in similar colours, and pick one of those colours to emphasize via accessories or a solid-colour third piece. For example, if you have a jacket and skirt that both feature blue and orange in their respective patterns, you can pick a top in the same shade of blue; if your top and bottom are patterned and you’re not wearing a third piece, a pair of blue shoes or a blue bag can do the trick.

The bottom line, though: colour is fun! Remember how fun it was to mix paints when you were a kid and take liberties with the colour of the sky and the grass and the sun? This is exactly the same, except way less messy. Have fun with it!

Details: Ralph Lauren blouse & skirt, vintage vest, BCBG belt, Thierry Raboutin shoes (all secondhand)

Thoughts: To me, this is a quintessentially Jo March outfit and I love it so much despite its very muted colour palette. It’s all about the details, like the delicate paisley pattern on the blouse and the lace insert, and the texture contrasts. I chose a jeweled belt instead of something more southwest-inspired because I wanted to lean more into the late Victorian vibe than the prairie vibe with this outfit, and also felt that a juxtaposition of influences might overwhelm the outfit. Sometimes, it doesn’t have to be loud to be special.

Details: Dries Van Noten dress (eBay), Zara jacket, vintage scarf, Thierry Raboutin shoes (all thrifted); DKNY skirt (Poshmark)

Thoughts: Remember this dress? It’s been a while since I wore it last, but it’s as lovely as ever. Dries Van Noten truly is a genius when it comes to patterns. I decided it was time to pull out the dress again because I wanted another go at a Ralph Lauren collection look (from 2014, I want to say but don’t quote me on that) that has lived rent-free in my head for a long time. It’s a long, floral, diaphanous dress with a brown tweed long-line blazer; long patterned scarf, sandals with chunky wool socks. It’s one of my core moodboard looks for the Bohemian avatar, and I’ve done different takes on it before. I’m still hunting for the original RL dress, but use this dress in the meantime because the bottom part is floaty floral chiffon so it has a similar movement. I added to it by wearing my sheer panel DKNY skirt underneath, to extend the floatiness. I skipped the sock-with-sandals part because it’s not my thing, but did use my sock-shoes as a hat tip to that idea.

Details: no label cardigan (thrifted), CoH jeans (thrifted), Ralph Lauren belt (Poshmark), J. Crew blazer (retail, old)

Thoughts: I loved the stripe pattern of this cardigan and wanted to build an outfit around juxtaposing it against the blazer pattern. (Side note: I always used to call that pattern a “check” but recently saw a Reel that revealed I was wrong: it’s actually a houndstooth, but colourful not monochromatic. The more I know!) But the cardigan has a deep V neckline, which means, by the time I tuck the front and put the jacket on, little of the stripes can still be seen. So I wore it backward! Instant sweater.

Details: Uniqlo sweater, Cartonnier jacket (both thrifted), Ralph Lauren skirt (eBay), Tignanello bag (Poshmark)

Thoughts: For this outing of THE skirt, I decided to pick green as the focus colour, and add the yellow as a pop. The jacket was a compromise to the weather, which required me to wear a heavier topper. I don’t love-love it, but it’s ok and it was the best option I had in relation to the rest of the outfit. I hate when Mother Nature gets in the way of my sartorial goals, haha!

Details: Ralph Lauren shirt & vest, Ports International jacket, Ferragamo shoes (all thrifted), Paul Smith pants, Ralph Lauren belt (both Poshmark)

Thoughts: Just another Historian outfit, remixing pieces I call “old faithfuls” — reliably great staples. The vest and jacket, in particular, fit that bill perfectly. I can wear them in so many different combinations, with so many different pieces and different colours. And they also work great together. The pants are great too, though they’re a little more statement than staple thanks to the plaid pattern; I feel they tend to stand out a bit more. But I love the cut, and I wish I could find more pants like this — I’m really struggling lately to find trouser-style pants that are neither skinny nor full wide-leg. Anyway, on to the rest of the outfit. I picked the green shirt to pick up on the green in the plaid, and added the belt as a nod to Papa Ralph, who often wears a big buckle number with his preppy fits.

Details: InStyle sweater, American Apparel coat, CoH jeans, Asos boots (all thrifted), Brave belt, Tignanello bag (both Poshmark)

Thoughts: This outfit was built around the turquoise/orangey brown colour combo. That’s basically it. I added the grey coat because I’ve noticed how well it works with outfits that feature brown; as a “grounding” neutral, it works better than black in this kind of situation, I think.