Color block trend is a resurgent trend that has made a come back on the runways. It was particularly popular in the Spring collections of designers and it has been brought back with a new twist in the Winter. In cloths, color blocking can extend to use of bold, bright colors, strategically placed in contrasting and complimentary ways. It is a trend which the mass has not picked up in a big way as this is more popular on the ramps. However, you can always recreate the ramp image for yourself by trying out the color block trend according to what suits you. Here are a few tips and tricks that can be applied to your very own color blocking:
1. Understanding the colors
The primary colors are yellow, blue and red and you get the secondary colors by mixing them up, such as green, orange and purple. With further mixing of these colors, the tertiary colors are created. Some colors have a way of pairing with each other innately. While color blocking, consider the tint and shade as they are distinctly different from each other. Tints have white mixed in them and shades have black mixed in them. The two variations, that is shaded and tinted pair with other shades and tints in a complimentary way.
2. Play with colors
The best way to ground your outfit is to play upon on neutrals, which need not necessarily be skin tone or nude. The neutral colors are basically grey, white, brown, black or navy. You can then match this up with a neon or bold color. You can play match team colors such as Chocolate Brown with peach or pink, Cobalt Blue with orange or yellow, and Deep Blue with white or bright pink. They could be either for a dress, bottom or top whichever is your fancy.
3. Taking care in following the color block trend
Since it entails the use of many different colors together or bright colors, there is always a possibility of going wrong in the choice. To make your color block stand out in a more polished way, would be to pair color block trends with basic colors such as grey, brown, white or black.
4. Doing the trend
This is one way of camouflaging certain uncomplimentary parts of the body. Color block trend can hide flaws and bring focus on other complimentary features. Dark colors always have a slimming effect so you can color block the fat arms or the little paunch with dark shades. The rest of the outfit can be kept in light colors.
5. How it works
Depending on the shape of the body, color block will create the look you desire, while minimizing less on the part you want toned down. For an apple shaped body, highlight your legs with color blocks bu using tights in bright colors. You can hide your stomach area by avoiding the use of horizontal blocks of color around it. For a pear shaped body, the bottom half can be draped in darker colors. For an hourglass shaped figure, highlight your feminine curves by emphasizing your waist area in a color block. All in all, for a slimming effect, wear a darker column of color down the torso and drape a colored jacket, blouse or cardigan by leaving the front part open.
6. Accessorize to maximize
By incorporating the saturated hues of color block accessories is to introduce bold pops of color to an outfit for that standard and dynamic look. Maximize your look by letting handbags, necklaces, bracelets and shoes take part in this trend.
Quick tips
a. Be bold enough to experiment in this trend. As long as you can pull it off properly, any color combination, whether in blue, orange and green is fabulous.
b. Combine less than three to four colors at a time since overdoing it will appear too garish. Too many colors can also have different cut effect on your body which may end up creating a trendy mess.
e. Keeping the rest of your look simple, concentrate on only what you want to color block. Go easy and light on your shoes and cloths if you are going to use a color block bag.
f. The worst that you can do is combining two color blocked items together. Avoid making this mistake.
e. If you prefer the black and white play to your outfit, you can always leave the color block to your accessories like bags, jewelry, shoes and belts.
