Do you wear monochromatic/tonal outfits? - YouLookFab Forum

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Dressing

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Do you wear monochromatic/tonal outfits?

nemosmom

Veteran

For SarahD8's prompt challenge, I want to push myself to create outfits without traditional denim. I have colored cords and denim to play with, and want to avoid my default (easy way out) of pairing them with a light neutral top.

Monochromatic outfits in beiges/camels seem easy (and look chic), but what about color? Combining various shades of a color seems tricky.... Do you wear tonal or monochromatic outfits? How do you do it? Or, do you avoid it?

Dressing

27 replies

Latest reply was from Julie

Roxanna

Veteran

I do do this...I love the look of it. I actually find that the shades look better if they aren't all exactly matching - I just make sure that they are all warm or all cool. I do this with blues, rusts, greys, camels. I used to do this with brighter colours but have been favouring a more muted colour palette lately. Check out Anh at 9to5chic.com for inspiration.

Ginger

Veteran

I do it fairly often - granted, with skirts and dresses. I'm monochromatic red right now, with red dress and red shoes. Nude tights, though, if that matters.

I also do like tonal combinations. My favorite way to do it is with dark and light versions of the same color: they rarely clash and I find the contrast pleasing and intentional. Greens in particular are easy to mix - they rarely clash with each other.

Navy with light blue. Hunter with mint or another shade of light green. Burgundy with ballet pink or blush - I wear a lot of this combination in cool weather.

Helena

Veteran

I rarely do as I live in jeans, but I agree with Roxanna - as long as you stick to cool or warm in the given outfit, I think you can mix and match shades of a colour to your heart's content. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

nemosmom

Veteran

Roxana - I love the look of it, too! Paying attention to warm/cool is smart. Noted! Anh is stunning in her monochromatic looks - inspiring indeed!

Ginger - Varying the shades would definitely make it look intentional, and not like I got dressed in the dark. I have a lot of greens - maybe that's a good place to start since many shades go well together. Thanks!

TG - Thank you! I live in jeans too, and everything goes with jeans! But I am wanting to shake things up some.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Yes! I wear bright reds, oranges and pinks from top to toe in one outfit. Just wore that yesterday, actually. Mustard, whites, blush, citron and burgundy from top to toe too.

I don’t wear dark monotone outfits. I wear darks on the top and bottom but they are always broken up with whites and gold accents. See pic: navy top, black pants, cream accents.

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JAileen

Veteran

I wore shades of grey yesterday. My pop of color was a pale grey blue hoodie.

ophelia

Veteran

I **love** tonal dressing in all its forms, whether hue or value (lightness/darkness I think?). I rarely wear jeans but when I do, my first choice is a blue top.
With all solid black outfits (I have two black dresses, which may be two too many), I try to wear jewelry to brighten up the effect.
I love light neutral tonal outfits the most. I don’t wear them though because it is inevitable that I will find a way to stain them.

kkards

Veteran

Yes, all the time. Now it’s primarily whites and blues. I used to have a great red silk blouse I loved to wear with red wool pants. And back in the day, when I wore pastels, I had baby blue and pink tonal outfits

SarahD8

Veteran

Ooh, I can't wait to see how you develop these ideas, nemosmom! I'm so glad that the prompt challenge is stimulating your creativity.

I do like tonal looks very much but I rarely do them from head to toe. Perhaps in large part because my bottoms are very limited (blue denim, black, or gray).

However I have a pair of burgundy cords on order and if they work out I want to try them with a rose-colored pullover.

I would love to see you in tonal greens -- maybe olive pants with forest and/or bottle green layers on top? That would be absolutely scrumptious with your hair.

I think the beige/camel idea will look fabulous on you too.

Sal

Veteran

This is something I struggle with to be honest. I like it but rarely do it. I tend to wear a colour with neutrals, or pattern with neutrals, but rarely colour block. I don’t have many options to make it work but might see what I can do.

I do love a monochrome look in a bold colour - to my 40th I wore cobalt with matching shoes.

ChristelJ

Veteran

I have trouble making tonal or monochrome succeed for myself, but love to see it on others. It looks so chic and confident on others. Somehow I feel conspicuous with any shade from head to toe. Even tonal is something I only do on half my body at once. Can't wait to see your versions.

DonnaF

Veteran

I wear mostly tonal/low contrast outfits because somewhere along the way it was pounded into me that as an under tall person, I shouldn't wear blocks of contrasting color. Plus, a white shirt with black pants makes me feel like wait staff. Nothing wrong with wait staff; I just don't want to be given an order!

With tonal/monochromatic outfits, I always feel the need to make sure they include texture.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

I do tonal blues a lot (easy with jeans), but usually with patterns in there somewhere. Beige would be a challenge for me!

Joy

Veteran

I ha e done this a,it lately. For me the key is to get a top or topper the same color as the colored jeans or tonal. I found colored jeans in colors I liked and also bought very inexpensive cotton knit tanks at the same time in the same color. They are easy to wear under a jacket or shirt with just a bit of the color peeking out and making a column of color. It is easy the. To pop on a jacket in a neutral for an outfit. I have often used my old twill olive jackets with a column of rust, mustard, or even aqua. They are tonal with dark olive jeans.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I do tonal blues and tonal greys, for sure. But rarely without a pattern.

Beige would be a NIGHTMARE for me!!

I've done some tonal "berry" outfits, too, but don't have the ingredients for that right now.

cindysmith

Veteran

I do a lot of grey and grey & black outfits. I don't have the lifestyle to do an all white outfit, so that's out. I have done a tonal brown look in the past, but not recently.

I love tonal and monochromatic looks. They generally contain such variations in shade and texture that they just read as rich and luxe.

rachylou

Veteran

I do. Blues, greens, burgundies with pinks..

Barbara Diane

Veteran

I do all navy and all black. Although I don’t have navy shoes. And I often like non black shoes ( light, metallic, multicolored) with all black outfits.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

I think I do it all the time? Examples: blue, olive, bronze. One of my favourite ways of dressing.

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Liesbeth

Veteran

Nice examples jenni! I love tonal looks too, but don't often have the right pieces. I occasionally wear olive with lighter green, and burgundy with blush. Shades of blue: quite often.
I hope you'll share some outfits once you start experimenting!

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

I love this idea—it’s behind my whole berry mania—but don’t do it very often. I did post a blue monochromatic outfit a year ago. I think that what makes these interesting are varying textures and the interplays between similar colors.

Bijou

Veteran

Yes I often dress in a tonal way and usually in colour or white, black or navy. I very rarely dress in tonal grey or beiges which tend to wash me out. I do have wardrobe items to do tonal grey, but not beige. I quite like grey and beige mixed together.

nemosmom

Veteran

Those are great looks, Jenni! You nailed it!

Angie, I envy your ability to rock a great colorful outfit!

Thank you, everyone! You have given me some great ideas and tips. I'm not sure I have all the right pieces (I suspect I will come up short in
the shoe dept), but maybe I can remix some things and see what I come up with. Sounds like tones and texture are important to keep top of mind... my creative juices are flowing!

Jenava

(website)

Veteran

My contribution, with terrible color balance. )-:

Chunky sweater with side slits, brocade midi circle skirt and flat suede mid-calf boots, all in ink blue. I felt like this had a kind of Lapland feel to the shape of the outfit. I wore it on a very cold, sunny day with bright pink lipstick and small cold and lapis earrings.

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Julie

I've been trying this lately. I'm wearing all dark teal today, and am awaiting arrival of the boden blouse which I hope will work with my little teal capsule. I also can also go with burgundy- these pants and shirt are a very close match in real life (a cool purply shade with a bit of orange in the print).
I didn't take a photo this morning but I recently added a bunch of my stuff in "finds" so am excited to share!

nemosmom

Veteran

Your finds are gorgeous, Julie! What do you do about footwear for those outfits?

Jenava - Love it! I can imagine how beautiful a pop of pink is against the ink blue!

Julie

Thanks! I usually wear low black booties with these. My wardrobe is pretty tight, and the need for completely covered feet at work limits the options...but I could envision either burgundy or teal booties! I do like wearing my navy dansko boots with monochromatic jeans.