Lisa p, that's EXACTLY why I have been screaming the praises of complements from the roof tops for years. You need to BUILD complements to prevent orphans and effective styling tools. Great AHA moment.

La Ped, good that you can identify the fine nuances of your likes and dislikes for brights. I am the same with black.

Staysfit, I love Puzzle bags. Yours sounds gorgeous. I want a cognac one.

I sometimes match bag and footwear - but am happy to mix it up. I probably would not match a silver bag to silver shoes - but I do find camel and brown footwear and bags look good matching. It is an easy way to pull a look together.

I could up my bag game though - it is not a big part of my style.

Not too many people can pull off red with red over red while sipping a red, but we all know at least ONE.

I don’t know. I certainly don’t match shoes and bag. But I do like matched sets and coordinates.

For me it starts with the shoes and if the shoes are in a new-to-me color, I MUST find a bag to go with it. Or two (as in, a small bag and a large bag). Then I might get a second pair of shoes in that color, for even more mix-and-match potential. So far my bag-shoe sets are in burgundy, black, camel, olive green and cobalt. My newest set is lilac -- I have a lilac bag, causal sandals and heeled sandals for spring.

Dressing is so much easier when your shoes and bag match and I feel instantly more put together even if it's a casual outfit.

It's horrible and it's spreading to my daughter. I love Matchy Matchy I don't know when it started. But I know now me and my daughter do mommy and me looks that are matching matching I try to keep them coordinated but not exactly matching matching. I know one day you're going to look back at this and say oh my why did you do that to me. But I'm addicted.

That's lovely Ledonna! I used to match the 2 girls to each other. Not to me so much. But in about 2001 we all 3 had the same summer black jandals with a hole for the big toe and a silver daisy on the hole I quite enjoyed that.

Ah, matching outfits really takes me back. My older sisters are identical twins and I am 5 years younger and basically look the same. As a young child Mum loved to dress us in matching outfits, I was the mini me to the twins. Of course I loved it, being the same as the big girls, they were less impressed!

Hah, Ledonna, that's awesome! I don't intentionally match my clothes to DS's but since I'm the one who does the shopping, his clothes do look suspiciously similar to mine (today we're both wearing breton tops). Actually, we do have some matching Uniqlo graphic tees...

Cocolion and Aurore, it sounds like you, like Angie, have the matchy gene! (I'd love to find some lavender shoes this year, but not inspired to add much of anything else in that colour -- guess I'm not that matchy!)

Staysfit -- thank you for the review of the Puzzle Bag. I will keep dreaming, and perhaps someday saving up.

Sal, Jussie, and Jenni -- it seems like NZ/Australia is not much of a "bag culture" the way you sometimes see in the US. That said, my mother only ever owns one bag at a time, and my grandmother used to switch between a "summer bag" (light colour) and "winter bag" (dark colour), which she usually picked up at the thrift store where she volunteered. So I was somewhat shocked as a young adult to learn that some people collect bags! I'd always thought of them in a very utilitarian light.

Lisa p, I think building complements makes perfect sense for your style; it's a strategy that adds polish and intentionality. You operate within a pretty strict colour palette, which I think makes it easier to build the colour-capsules you really want, not just a bunch of wildcard ones. I tend to be happy with a thrown-together look most days -- my RATE coming through.

Haha, Binkle -- I view my own wardrobe as a total hodgepodge, despite not being a spontaneous or impulsive shopper at all!

Katerina -- the way you use colour in your outfits always amazes me. I think you have an intuitive sense of how to combine colours for maximum effect.

Liesbeth -- it's interesting you mention jarring and tonal combos. I have a really hard time enjoying tonal combinations. If I can't get an exact match, I go for high-contrast instead.

DonnaF -- I love the idea of red and yellow accessories together, and can totally see it working for you. Suggests a very quirky gamine/Zooey Deschanel kind of vibe.

Thanks, all, for your comments! I had a feeling there would be quite a wide spectrum of responses.

With me, it's a hodgepodge and mostly I don't mind that. I have one bag, and carry it daily regardless of outfit or shoe or whatever. I just don't have the patience to change my bag out. Because there's so much gack in there that I consider to be indispensable to my daily life, changing out bags is a real pain.
Usually, my bag is black or brown; but my latest one is navy blue. Every once in a blue moon, I wonder if I shouldn't have stuck to black or brown but I'm not replacing it over that.

For Bijou...

Janet - Ha love it!

I actually *do* plan complements and careful matches of bags and shoes.....for some reason it isn't as well-done for summer as it should be. Maybe it's the overall casual ness of the summer season .....

I have been looking for the perfect white bag for years and still haven't found one I like and can afford.

I rarely match bag and shoes -- that's why I was dissatisfied with the original lavender and white outfit I posted last weekend. I do carefully consider how a bag works with an overall look and change them out accordingly (I have that pouch method going so mostly all I have to do is transfer my clare v pouch from one bag to another.)

@Stylefan, cognac would be the color I would pick for you too!

@UmLilla, I use an internal pouch also. It makes switching bags easier, and it preserves the insides of my bags from ink. I always carry two pens, blue and black because I have to sign so many documents. Even with electronic records!

Loved reading the thread updates!

i wanted mother daughter outfits as a child!!

Historically I haven't been very matchy-matchy, but within the last few months, I have felt drawn more to it, especially matching shoes to bag. Like you, I'm not a bag lady, so this would require some doing!

I do like to have my shoes match some other part of my outfit. They can match my purse or my belt or some other accessory, like a scarf. I am also getting creative in my pennilessness and have decided that I will also use nail polish and lipstick as possible matches. In your case, with a red bag, maybe you could match it to red nails or a red hat or red lipstick?

To me, it's not important that my accessories match each other. Bag and shoes, for example, may be in two different neutrals. However, when wearing an accessory in a non-neutral I usually match it to something else, preferably an item near my face.