Pattern Play
Lessons in mixing your prints and patterns plus a style challenge.
While dressing to survive last week, well from Thursday on anyway, I realized a couple of things. The first was that I was reaching for the same few things, a small fall capsule so to speak.
touched on this recently after her trip to NYC,Define a smaller selection from my wardrobe to play with for the next month or so. New York was a reminder that sometimes your best looks are born out of constraint. Those limitations inspire creativity and reduce decision fatigue.
As you may know, I love a seasonal capsule for myself (see my summer, spring and winter capsules here) and for my clients, and agree wholeheartedly with what Anna said above.
Second was my urge to wear only neutrals while also wearing all the patterns at the same time. My favorite outfits from last week featured at least one print or pattern, if not two. As I’ve mentioned before, I love brown, cream, grey, navy, olive green, and burgundy for fall, and my wardrobe has certainly leaned more minimal when it comes to color and pattern these last months. But that doesn’t mean the maximalist in me is dead! I (we) should be adding in stripes, plaids, and animal prints to keep us from looking and feeling bland or boring. Neutrals are chic and sophisticated, but what makes it work is a variety of tones, textures, and patterns, a concept I’ve talked about here many times.
Leopard and stripes are a key part of my style personality, even if I’m not wearing them as frequently as I used to. As a millennial that was obsessed with Jenna Lyons (then, now, and forever) I even made sure to have leopard and stripes incorporated into my branding package when I launched my business after - many years of hemming and hawing - earlier this year.
I was likely a nightmare client, because I knew exactly what I wanted, but of course, could NOT do it myself. My limited graphic design experience I learned on the job, with lessons from the kind but kooky tech guy, during my tenure as Marketing Manager at Mercantile. Canva makes us all professionals now, but that comes with a lot of limitations.
Now back to the clothes. My revelations above inspired me to play around with a few pattern combinations, making a series of outfits with print and pattern as the jumping off point. It was fun to create multiple looks around those three patterned pieces, so I gave myself, and I’m giving you, a little style challenge. Starting with one item from each category, animal print, stripes, and plaid, and use them to mix and match throughout the exercise. The first three outfits use just one pattern, the next three outfits mix and match the patterns, while the last outfit uses all the patterns.
The series of outfits goes like this:
Animal Print
Stripes.
Plaid. Please note I’m using the term plaid very broadly here.
Then we move onto the combos:
Animal Print/Stripes.
Stripes/Plaid.
Plaid/Animal Print.
Landing on the final look:
Animal Print/Stripe/Plaid.
I played around with this concept every day this week, with the goal of making a series of seven looks each day and leaving the house in final, triple threat outfit. It was…A LOT, crazy actually and I ended up with two. So the challenge I’m giving you is to execute this over the course of seven days, finishing with the final look on the last day.
But first a few tips to get you started.
Start with items in your seasonal capsule. If you haven’t defined that yet, see Anna’s post above or you can refer to my tips here.
Stick to a color story. It’s easier to mix what may seem like contrasting or even clashing patterns when they fall into the same color family.
When in doubt, add a pop of color. It’s amazing what a pop of red, cobalt, or chartreuse can do.
Don’t be afraid to try and fail. If a combination feels too wild, that’s okay, you can always change. But you’d be surprised at what will work when sticking to the tips above.
At the end of the week, you will have seven distinct outfits, and maybe even the start of a defined seasonal capsule. Feel free to use the tips above and skip ahead to the last step, but really, what’s the fun in that?
Fair warning, the only animal print in my life right now is leopard; I would love to add some zebra, tiger, and maybe even some cow print, but haven’t yet. As with most of my style challenges, I’m working with what I’ve got, so forgive the monotony of the same pattern throughout. As for you, Dear Reader, I encourage you to sub in what prints and patterns you have for the three listed above. No leopard? No problem. Sub in floral, camo, checks, jacquard, argyle, or brocade. These tools can be applied to mixing any patterns, whether it’s listed here or not.
Okay, let’s get dressed!
Animal Print Pants + Striped Shirt + Plaid Blazer:
To start the challenge, I selected my Zara leopard print jeans (old, similar pictured), Comme Si blue and brown striped shirt*, and Toteme plaid blazer (old, similar pictured). And because I love a step by step graphic, and think you do too, here is the series of outfits it created:
Which landed me here for the final look.
The looks are all distinctly different, despite the fact that I repeated multiple items, while the group as a whole feels like a cohesive capsule. This is because I kept to neutral and low contrast colors when it came to the auxiliary pieces, repeated key items, and stuck to my color story of shades of blue and brown.
And just in case you need some pieces to recreate something similar…
Animal Print Shoes + Striped Shirt + Plaid Coat
For round two, I chose my J.Crew leopard calf hair loafers (old, but readily available on Poshmark and a similar style here), another striped shirt - I know I should have at least grabbed a tee, but I really thought I would get to at least three sets of seven, crazy I KNOW! - this one from Madewell (very limited sizes, similar), and my Avec Les Filles plaid coat (old, also readily available on Poshmark, similar pictured). If you follow me on IG and you’re wondering why I wore my leopard loafers so much this past week, now you know.
The three base pieces for this round were not wildly different from the first, similar colors and prints, but because I leaned into navy and burgundy rather than brown and tan, the vibe is very different. The color you wear can change the direction of a look quickly and easily.
The outfits above led me to this as the final combination.
And just in case you want to recreate this look yourself:
There are countless combos one can use, the sky is the limit. Would you wear three (or more) patterns together? I want to see it if you do, share it in the chat, post a note here or a story on Insta and tag me! I can’t wait to see it.
This week was full and busy (the best), with a side of chaos (not the best).
Halloween came down faster than you can say Christmas, I had client appointments and the follow up shopping that comes with that, lots of phone calls and emails navigating how to get your injured kid to participate in baseball tryouts, my husband and mom both got rear ended (they’re just fine, but their cars aren’t), with the work week ending with a special lunch and shopping with
and her mom, . The weather was atrocious until Saturday, when it was finally bright and sunny, and mild.
Reminder to my readers that Leticia of Superette is offering 15% off your next purchase through November 30th. Use code FALLWITHFANNY online or mention Fanny’s Substack Offer to your sales associate to receive the discount in store. I was in on Friday with Kate and Tam, and left with these shoes that I will definitely be incorporating into my next Animal Print/Stripe/Plaid look.
I can’t wait to see how you’re wearing and mixing your patterns this week.
Talk soon,
Fanny
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I’m immediately going to try this however I don’t think I own any plaid… stay tuned. I love all three prints together! I’ll search my husbands closet for the third print.
So happy we all got to meet for lunch and go shopping at superette 🤩
YES YES YES to stripes and leopard. Do you remember the OG current/elliott leopard print jeans? I still regret not keeping mine!