How do you know if colours go together?

[SickAndTiredAgain]

As the title really, I have no eye for colour and I don’t really know what people mean when they say colours go/don’t go together. I just see two separate colours?
Do people find that colours actually look better together? What is clashing? I mean, I know the definition, but as I say, I just see two separate colours without any concept of whether they go?
I am the colour equivalent of tone deaf?

If you get a stack of clothes of different colours, do you not feel that certain colours complement each other better? That certain shirts look better with certain tops because of the colour combination?

Put on a t-shirt and then put on top various jumpers or tops cut in a way that you can see the t-shirt underneath. Do any of them look better or worse than the others, as a combination? (Or with whatever clothes that you wear - things with patterns are more difficult not only because of more colours but because of pattern clash).

I would say mostly you want them to look different enough that they are distinct, but neither overpowers the other. It's not just a case of the colour itself, but also often of shades. It's not as simple as colours objectively going together, because while some combinations are commonly seen, with some there's clearly eye-of-the-beholder. I would say that generally red and pink don't go, for example.

I think I can put colours together quite well and know what doesn’t work. Sometimes it might be wearing the same color shoes as a small detail in an outfit, making the detail stand out. Pink and green look beautiful together, for example.

Try this OP. brightside.me/article/the-ultimate-color-combinations-cheat-sheet-92405/

There are ‘rules’ based on a colour’s position on the colour wheel that you can use if you struggle to identify which colours complement each other or create pleasing contrasts.

If you haven’t got an ‘eye’ there are tricks.
On the colour wheel, colours that are next to each other will ‘go’ together easily, because they have something in common, and colours that are opposite each other will ‘complement’ (in the sense that they ‘complete’ each other)

If you get a stack of clothes of different colours, do you not feel that certain colours complement each other better?

No, not particularly. The reason I started this thread was that I had some maternity clothes delivered today, including a dark red (I think the label said claret) pair of trousers for work. I don’t have a huge range of maternity tops so was trying them on with a few things and found a dark petrol blue top that I wore a lot when pregnant with DD. Shape and style wise I think it goes fairly well with the trousers, but they’re two fairly strong colours and whenever I’ve looked at colour wheels I don’t think they are colours that would match.
So I was just pondering this and realising I have no idea what actually goes together. I find it fascinating that people can not only view the colours together but draw a conclusion about what works well, like food tastes that go together or something.

the whole seasonal colouring thing is helpful - you have hot or cold colours (ie yellow or blue undertones) and strong or soft. The pretty much universal colour is teal. So a soft peach won't go with a strong cold purple

Its as the colour wheel goes above really.

But it also depends. Colours can be bright or muted and generally brights go together and muted go together. If you look at a famous work of art, an artist has usually used all bright or all muted. Bright on muted looks wrong really.

Similarly Colours can be cool or warm. Cool colours have blue based undertones. Warm colours have yellow based undertones. Take red for example. There is clear red (neither one or the other that everyone looks good in) but you also have orange based reds like geranium or poppy, and blue based shades of red like crimson. I am warm toned and I look vampy and serious in crimson. Whereas I look zingy and expensive in geranium and poppy.

The other thing is shade- you can have pastels, medium shades and deep shades. It can be fun to contrast a deep shade and a pastel but how much contrast you can actually look good in really depends on how much contrast and depth is in your features.

If you get colours that are a similar tone ie reflect about the same amount of light, they’ll generally work together even if they don’t match. Your dark red trousers and dark blue top might work well together simply because they’re both dark tones. To some extent it’s what you like and bugger what anyone else thinks, but things like the colour wheel can definitely help.

I have to disagree about red and pink...

I think red and pink go together and dark red and dark blue are perfect together especially if they are both bright dark. It would be my favorite combo.

If you really have no idea, it's worth getting your colours done. They give you a swatch of colours that work together which you can take with you when you go shopping, which will save you so much time and energy.

@Appalonia

If you really have no idea, it's worth getting your colours done. They give you a swatch of colours that work together which you can take with you when you go shopping, which will save you so much time and energy.

That sounds really useful. Where would you get something like that done?

Not a huge fan of bright red with bright pink (bit of an ice cream sundae). Raspberry pink and a dark claret or burgundy, now, that’s more like it!

Can I quickly ask what everyone thinks would go well with a chocolate satin blouse? I have pale blue jeans, indigo, charcoal and black! I'm thinking black but I'm unsure!?!?

@BusterGonad not black, ideally - light blue and chocolate brown is one of my favourite colour combinations, just gorgeous. Brown is also great with tonal colours like camel/beige/tan. I like it with navy too.

Thank you. I'll try it out. Brown isn't a, colour I usually wear.

Also pink with brown is lovely! Actually this is an area where Pinterest really comes into its own, you can just type in the colour + "outfit" and it will throw up loads of ideas

I’m rubbish at seeing it myself too OP, though I can when someone else points it out. This is why I had my colours ‘done’ as I now have a swatch full of colours that both suit me and all go together.

Brown isn't really one of my colours but I'd go for contrast so deep blue jeans or tonal so basically any colour that is close on the colour wheel so beige, cream, yellow, orange maybe even green but would have to have the same undertones. A deep chocolate colour probably wouldn't look good with pale pastel green.

I have an eye for colour combinations but have completely forgotten arithmetic so you win some you lose some but a useful trick is to also look at what is in any pattern I'm wearing a perfect example of this the colours in my trousers would all go and so give me a clue what to wear on top, so I could wear stark/cold based black (there's different shades of black) white, cobalt blue or pink. Today I'm clashing with horror pink and red.
They are both have tonally similar bases so whilst they contrast they don't clash like they would if they had a different tonal base and say one was a warm colour and one was a cold.

This website is very useful on colour
www.truth-is-beauty.com/color-analysis.html

House of Colour is one company who does personal colour analyses, for the pp who asked where you can get it done.
www.houseofcolour.co.uk/