Sunday, May 13, 2007

The Eternal Black/Brown Question

Recently, one of my readers emailed me with this classic fashion quandary:

Black and brown - is it okay to wear it together? And if so, to what degree?

My sister has always been fanatical about black and brown not even being near each other. Then I met my cute, artistic co-worker, who will wear a black skirt with a brown top or vice-versa! And when I mentioned this to my sister, she said she no longer minds black and
brown together in small increments! It's like my whole life is turning upside-down!

Ah yes, the eternal black/brown question. My own life has been turned upside down by this controversy many times, so I totally feel your pain. I have my own thoughts on this issue, which I will share soon, but aren't polls fun? Let's poll!

What do you think about wearing black and brown together?
Blasphemous. You'll see a lot of that color combo in hell.
Love it. Unexpected and chic.
I agree with sis: it's okay in small increments.
Depends on the shades, the skintone, the political climate, etc.
I'm colorblind.

8 comments:

Emma said...

Meh. Once I wore black shoes with my brown shirt and I felt like people were pointing and laughing. But then again, I'm paranoid and possibly insane.

Anonymous said...

I love black and brown together, but only if you're really going to go for it. Nothing is worse than black and brown in small increments.

jolie fille said...

It has to be intentional, not accidentally wearing the wrong color accessories for your outfit. I prefer the combo of black and navy blue if you're going for the mismatched chic look. Lucky did a feature on it a long time ago and that's a "rule-breaking" color combo I've done.

Plus it definitely depends on the shade of brown. I have a great leather bag and shoes that are a rich, dark tan color and they look great with black clothing.

Anonymous said...

I like Black and Cognac Brown together (No, I am not a drinker) :D

tiff said...

I love black and brown together, in the winter I would do it all the time. I loved black tights with brown shoes. I agree though - it can't look accidental.

PS love your blog!

StyleSpy said...

I know it's all over the place but I just can't go there. Black & tan, sure. Black & khaki, no problem. But I just can't do the black with brown -- it always just looks like you got dressed in the dark and grabbed the wrong thing to me. Same with black & navy: bleah. I'm just an old fuddy-duddy, I guess.

Anonymous said...

A few years ago when I was in Barcelona I fell in love with the black/brown combo. It must be done carefully, but when it works...oh baby it works! Absolutely "unexpected and chic." The only thing I like doing more than mixing black and brown? Mixing silver and gold.

yummy411 said...

i like them together. like others have said, it has to be intentional... i have so much of both colors, that i didn't have a choice but to make them work together...

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