The Science of Style: In Fashion, Colors Should Match Only Moderately (Extract)

In terms of fashion, there are two popular approaches to style that represent “extremes.” On one hand, we often speak as if the most fashionable outfits are those that fully coordinate or “match”[10]. This suggests that pairing the same or similar colors with each other may be the key to fashion. On the other hand, fashion is often about being noticed, and so we might want color combinations that maximally differ from each other and “pop”[11]. Between these two extremes, the Goldilocks Principle suggests that the best color combinations are those that are neither too similar ( “matchy-matchy”) nor too different ( “clashing”).