I love this look.

For some reason, fashion’s top of mind for me lately. I’m looking at my wardrobe with an eye toward upping my fashion game. And I’ve found some great online content with ideas I hadn’t considered.  So today I’ll share one of them: using different hues of the same color in an outfit.

If you look at the photo above, you’ll see a good example. Two blues in different hues. And what a distinctive look! Frankly, I’d love to wear that one.

Now look below.

Photo 2

Yes, the blue-greys are different. Slightly. Not enough. But the blues on the right seem more intentional. There are other aspects to these outfits we could discuss, like the need for accessories to pull it all together, but today we’re limiting ourselves to the idea of using different shades of the same color to put an outfit together.

So let me tell you more about that technique through the photos below.

Photo 3 Too beige for me

This outfit meets the criteria: same color, different hue.

The problem  is the hues are too close–it looks like she tried to match them exactly and failed. The result? Blah. A not very exciting outfit.

If I were going to use these two pieces, I’d add a colorful belt to pull it together. Or maybe a distinctive pendant. Because right now? The outfit just fades into the background.

Photo 4

This duo looks more intentional. More polished. The hues are far enough apart that the outfit works. And I like the colors!

Photo 5

Love these colors, too. This pairing is ok, but the colors still feel too close. Again, we could save it with accessories, but today we’re just comparing color stories.

Photo 6

The contrast here works much better, don’t you think? The outfit looks much more intentional, far more polished.

There’s no question that these outfits are all missing accessories to pull the pieces together.

Pick an outfit. I’ve captioned them with numbers to make it easier for you to refer to one.

What would you add to make it look more intentional and polished?