Wearing Patterns and Prints

[ysabetwordsmith]

This article illustrates many different types of patterns and prints, along with underlying logic about how to wear them.  Read it for the vocabulary even if you're not into fashion.  Some of these terms were new to me, which is saying a lot.

Comments

[acelightning73]

When I worked in the city, I had a fairly snazzy pair of wool trousers, black with white pinstripes, and very high-waisted. I got a white satin shirt with black pinstripes. And my mom found a coat at a garage sale that was my size - I just had to shorten it a bit. It was dark grey with a black and white windowpane pattern. I needed one more item, something to contrast with all those black-and-white straight lines. Now, most people would think "just get a bright red scarf". But instead of a contrasting color, I went with a contrasting pattern - a very curly, very busy black-and-white paisley. Tied in a tie knot at the neck of my shirt.

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That sounds very splendid indeed! :D

Re: Yay!

[acelightning73]

Red against black&white is such a cliche. Purple doesn't work. The color I think would work best is bright yellow, which is a color I really don't like. So contrasting patterns is easier ;-)

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Any bold color will work. Purple can. I favor blue myself. Green works just as well. Hot pink is almost as common as red. Silver or gold, if you have metallic fabrics, but those tend to be rough. A few lighter colors also work -- icy blue, pale pink, or lilac -- but it's harder to find a good shade.

Really, black and white together make a great background for all kinds of things. You can accent with a color or a different pattern.

If you want to go wild, animal prints can mix and match well. This scarf combines stripes and spots.

I also like colorblocking. I have some colorblock sweaters. With dresses or skirts it can really accent different shapes too.

Re: Yay!

[acelightning73]

My favorite shade of purple is ultraviolet, which doesn't stand out very much against black and white. Stripes and spots go nicely together, as do plaid and stripes (if the colors harmonize). Colorblocks remind me of the early 1960s ;-)

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

In that context, I would say use the ultraviolet as an accent stripe, probably bounded by the white. If you have black stripes and one purple stripe on white, it creates an interesting variation.

A much more subtle option is the barely-there design seen on some sweaters. Imagine a black sweater with ultraviolet stars on it. In most light, people wouldn't notice the difference, but under the right light, they would pop right out. It doesn't even need blacklight, full-spectrum or sunlight will show things that incandescent or fluorescent won't.

Re: Yay!

[acelightning73]

I have used a number of glow-in-the-dark and black light materials (ranging from paint to ink to markers) - when I was a kid, I once had my bedroom ceiling covered in stick-on GITD stars (although not mapped directly to the actual patterns in the sky)The effect when someone's disco shirt design shows up in bright sunlight is always startling :-)

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I am a huge fan of things that glow in the dark, and almost as fond of blacklight things. My eyes are equipped to see both as shinier than average, so I can tell what they are even when it shouldn't show to ordinary humans.

With a big enough piece -- I have a dragon statue that will do this -- and just the right lighting, it is even possible to activate both reflected light and glow at the same time. Pink dragon, glows green, and the effect in halflight is eerie and beautiful.

Re: Yay!

[acelightning73]

I can see UV (natural tetrachromat, AFAIKD). but I know that glow/reflected look. They used to sometimes sneak a little white light into the black-light disco, and you'd see both colors. (If one has chemically adjusted ones perceptions ahead of time, the effect is far more dramatic.)