In Which I Wonder About Fashion And Color

[brightlotusmoon]

One of the paralegals in my office said to me, "You have small feet, right? What size shoe do you wear?" When I told her I wear a six in general (five and a half without insoles, five without socks), she said, "Perfect! I have a pair of boots I think you'll like. I got them for my daughter but they're too small on her."
She brought me to her office, and pulled out a pair of Western-style fashion boots that had thick, chunky heels. I stared and said, "Are those supposed to be platform heels?"
She nodded and smiled, and said, "Here, they have a website."
"Oh, " I said, "Those are Ariat Fatbaby boots! I have a pair, but they don't have those heels."
"These are Fatbaby Hi-Rise," she said. "The heel is two inches."
I looked at the boots, and at the website, and said, "You know, I really like how the pale blue contrasts with the chocolate brown."
And so I took them.
I'm wearing them right now. The boots I had been wearing are now sitting under my desk. The Ariat boots fit like a dream. Oh, they are insanely comfortable.
http://www.ariat.com/products_detail.aspx?pcid=9&cid=2&scid=19&pid=721
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7342739/c/112346.html
See? Blue. I have to wonder what my mother would say. She used to be a fashion illustrator. She once lamented over my wearing brown shoes with nothing to match, and another time practically forbade me from owning a brown handbag. I wonder what she'd think about baby blue suede?
*grin*

Honestly, I know next to nothing about how colors are supposed to coordinate in clothes. Why I cannot wear brown shoes without another brown item of clothing or accesory is beyond me. I love brown. Of course, I don't wear brown shoes with black pants because it looks weird, but most of my pants are varied shades of tan and khaki. Two are chocolate brown. Most of my tops are earthy colors, or dark blue or dark green or dark red. I don't wear belts. My shoes are either black, chocolate brown, or rusty brown (I call that cowboy brown).

It's all shoes, right? It's all clothes, right? Unless the colors are some ungodsly shade of neon mixed some ungodsly shade of pastel, is it really that awful? No, seriously. I want to know. Fashion people, help me out here.

Comments

[lily-cat.livejournal.com]

I find that in my line of work, shoes usually work better in contrast. For instance, a wearing a lot of neutral colours makes it ok for you to have shoes with a "pop" of brighter colour in them. It's also acceptable to mix various shades of the same colour because it ups the visual interest instead of wearing head to toe in the same shade.

When you pull together an outfit, you choose a colour to focus on and then enhance it. You can match your shoes to your bag (though not a necessity), your earrings, or even the colour of an embroidered embellishment.

A simple rule I always bear in mind when dressing my actresses is that matching your shoe colour with your hemline will make you look taller, while contrasting it to your hemline is a good idea for people who are already tall.

Personally, these would look great paired with a pair of jeans, a light blue or white cami and a textured blazer in a dark chocolate. I'm sure that isn't work appropriate, but failing that they would also look great with neutral coloured trousers and a white/ivory/light blue top.

It's kind of late/early so I hope this makes some sense...but they are great looking boots, have fun with them. :)

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is all great advice. I will definitely keep all this in mind. Thank you!
Most of my clothes are in neutral or earthy colors anyway, so I'm glad I can wear these.