How to Style the Perfect Outfit (Part I)

A guide to matching separates

While walking out on the town one morning, I noticed my reflection in a shop window. For a brief moment, I did not recognize myself. My outfit was a tragic, mismatched abomination. It looked as if I thrown it together from a pile of clothing left on my bedroom floor. How could this have happened? I had put effort into coordinating that outfit, and I possess a refined aesthetic sensibility. Immediately, I realized the need to develop a foolproof fashion philosophy in order to guarantee that I would always look my very best.

To begin, my philosophy has a basic principle: when matching separates to create an ensemble, one should wear dark solid colors on the upper half of the body and lighter colors and prints on the lower half of the body. The word principle encapsulates my intention to establish a strong foundation for building and maintaining your wardrobe. To illustrate the basic tenets of my philosophy, I styled contemporary ensembles using antique garments from collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Miuccia Prada often looks to history to articulate her ideas. She employs classical styles filtered through her own vision. However, she leaves their essential shapes untouched. Similarly, I too will look history to communicate my ideas.The use of clothing not available for purchase adds an objective component to this very subjective essay.

From the 15th century on, artists utilized fading bands of color to depict distance to capture the atmosphere’s effect on their subjects. In landscape painting, this arrangement of color is known as aerial perspective. Aerial perspective--a reverse sort of ombré effect--uses warmer, darker colors in the near distance, and successively cooler, paler colors in the middle and far distance. Wearing dark, solid color tops with light color separates replicates the visual effect of aerial perspective to achieve an elevated sense of beauty. Color records and describes the visible world and it expresses depth and emotion. I like to think of myself as a walking landscape painting. The employment of aerial perspective also generates a high level of contrast. Contrast keeps the eye pleasantly amused. Wearing an ensemble that obeys the laws of aerial perspective enables you to make a dynamic entry into any room. If you doubt the power of contrast, I offer you these handsome outfits as proof.

A dark color top subdues the festive nature of a printed pair of pants or skirt and ensures the creation of a tidy sophisticated ensemble. I dub this the “party on the bottom” principle of dressing for perfection. The “party on the bottom” principle permits the fascination to remain on the lower half of your body. Your clothing should never compete with your face for attention.  Following this principle religiously minimizes the time it takes to put together a charming outfit that screams refinement. As cliché as it sounds, looking good bolsters your emotional well-being. Wearing a stylishly luxurious outfit, even to the laundromat, is like walking on cloud nine. Luxurious clothing need only be comfortable, elegant, and enjoyable in way that does not involve great expense. Opulence is a mindset and achievable within the constraints of your budget.  

I prefer to exclusively wear tops, coats, and jackets in black. Another dark color works to a certain degree, but it does not enjoy the power to make you look totally sublime. Black is my favorite color (or should I say absence of color). My fondness for wearing black is deeply rooted in my pleasing childhood memory of watching episodes The Addams Family and Bewitched on my parent’s black and white television set. It also calls to mind a few of my favorite things such as night skies, medieval art, and the pagan mysteries of the Renaissance.

I am captivated by medieval art because it employs the exquisite language of signs and symbols to relate ideas and concepts which encourage contemplation and meditation. The use of symbolism in medieval art renders tangible the intangible nature of our existence. Deciphering symbols cultivates the imagination and deepens our philosophical disposition. There are no words that truly express love, but its symbolic manifestations--such as the warmth of an embrace or a supportive hand resting on the shoulder--make it instantly discernible.  

I love to decode symbolic representations. I frequently interpret artists’ intriguing use of objects and contemplate the strange appearance of an object in my everyday life. The ability to see things in this light augments the identification of beauty and adds greatly to the spirit of contentment. Symbolism can be deciphered in religious and secular art. The identity of two saints in Carlo Crivelli’s Madonna of the Swallows (1491) would be immediately known to the fifteenth century viewer. The viewer would instantly recognize St Jerome’s attributes, a crimson hat and robe, the lion (his constant companion), and the Bible. St. Sebastian would be recognized by his contemporary attire evocative of the perfect Christian knight and the arrow. The Christ Child holding an apple, the fruits and vegetables, the coal necklace, and the swallow adds further symbolic meaning to the work. Similarly, in the post-Impressionistic movement of the 19th century, the sphinx signified negativity and those individuals who claw away at the goodness of life. In Gustave Moreau’s Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864), it represents the material, evil existence which erodes the psyche. Fernand Khnopff’s Sphinx (1884) possesses a symbolic aura of ambivalence and discord. It is exquisite, subtle, and self-centered. It is a sphinx for the doubters, the naysayers, and weary pessimists. Finally, Odilon Redon (1840-1916) frequently used the eye as a fantastic motif to depict inner vision, echoing a similar medieval association. Redon’s symbolic endeavors relate an air of mystery and intrigue. His equivocal symbols possess a multitude of aspects and their decipherment depends on the disposition of the beholder.

Never underestimate an outfit’s inherent ability to communicate elements of your personality and your mood. An article of clothing can trigger recollections of a past through the power of association. In a time of great sorrow, I frequently wore a particular intarsia sweater. When my sadness subsided, I donated it to Housing Works and ride myself of the symbol of my despair. The symbolist painter, Edvard Munch (1863-1944) strove to visualize similar emotional turmoil. Munch’s art began in personal experience with the expectation that the emotions imparted in his work would be re-lived in the mind of the viewer. Hence, new purchases should be rich in symbolic meaning, potent reminders of persons, places or things. When I wear my orange patent leather raincoat, I feel like an extra in Jacques Demy’s film The Umbrella’s of Cherbourg (1964). My favorite Renaissance inspired necklace symbolizes my studies in art history.

Studying art history strengthened my appreciation for symbolic beauty of the color black. Historically, in Western culture, black is the color of mourning. However, in ancient Egypt and northern Africa, it symbolized fertility, referencing the rich fertile soil and the dark rain clouds. Despite its unequivocal connotations of death and burial, the color black also suggests the promise of renewed life. Just as the evening sky gives way to dawn and the darkness of winter gives way to brightness of spring, there is always hope to be found. “Peach Fuzz” may be the Pantone color of 2024, but black is the indelible color of any year.

This opinion may be naïve, but a sustainable wardrobe should embrace the color black. You will need fewer pieces of clothing because black matches harmoniously with almost every color imaginable. Several tops in black are all you really need for any season. A black top has immense versatility. It can radiate a whole new vibe by simply changing the style or color of your handbag and/or footwear selections. Inexpensive tops look much more fashionable in black. Hence, they pair well with any designer or bargain basement separate. Black tops are always age appropriate. They accessorize very well and allow you to showcase your jewelry collection. They are the blank canvas that allows you to exercise total creative control over your wardrobe.  

For Fall 2022-2023, Saint Laurent’s designer Anthony Vaccarello looked to the British writer Nancy Cunard for inspiration. Vaccarello co-opted her massive array of bangles to add intrigue to his minimalistic ensembles. A monochromatic outfit accessorized with copious amounts of jewelry is a look that is hard to beat. The collection also featured the corsage as a must have accessory. Flowers symbolize harmony, hope, logic, and love. Their impermanence signifies the fragility of life, beauty, and pleasure. Flowers are an immeasurable source of inspiration for artists and poets that manifest the infiniteness of the universe. Vaccarello updated the corsage’s nostalgic femininity by pinning it on sleekly tailored black leather outerwear. Whether pinned on formal attire or worn as a floral choker, corsages add a suave, bucolic sensuality. The endearing corsage, fashioned in an egalitarian way, blossomed with great vitality on the Amiri, Dior, and Valentino Mens 2024 Spring runways. Prada’s Spring 2024 collection featured button-down dress shirts heavily embellished with corsages. For Fall 2024, JW Anderson garnished his kinky no-pant (but pantyhose) ensembles with life-size poinsettia corsages for added panache. Regardless of gender, three-dimensional floral decorations super charge any outfit with greatness. 

You should never feel trapped, bored, or dated by your wardrobe options. Monet painted numerous portraits of Rouen Cathedral. He never tired of the way light, at different times of day, accessorized its facade. A wardrobe structured around black tops makes perfect sense, n'est-ce pas? Black tops, coats, and jackets are all solid long-term investments that can help save the planet.

Numerous Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 collections underscore the advantages of dressing in black from head to toe. Lately, I feel most comfortable dressed monochromatically, either enshrouded in darkness or radiating light. Often, people worry that dressing monochromatically will make them look like a “blob.” This fear can be easily assuaged by either wearing colorful accessories, layering a white blouse underneath, mixing different textures, or revealing some skin. Once you have mastered the art of wearing black, you will never feel the urge to go home and change. Sauntering about in a charming outfit comprised of a dark top paired with a light color or printed pair of pants or a skirt is like poetry in motion.

The party is just getting started. In the future, I will discuss how to wear colors other than black when styling the perfect outfit.