How to Style Colorful Pants with 30 Wears: Green Pants - Part 2
- sallyinstpaul
- 9 hours ago
- 7 min read
Today we are finishing up style inspiration featuring a pair of green pants, this time paired with other accent colors. (Part 1 here pairs the pants with neutral colors).
Rather than talking about specific color combinations (like pink and blue or green and orange), I'm going to organize these outfit ideas based on the following:
-Color Blocking: each piece of clothing in your outfit is a different color: your 2-piece outfit has 2 colors, your 3-piece outfit has 3 colors, etc.
-Road Map Styling: one piece of clothing in the outfit is a print
-Neutrals: muted, low saturation colors like black, white, grey, navy, brown, beige, etc., that are considered versatile and easy to mix; I consider denim/chambray to be a neutral as well as metallic colors.
-Accent Colors aka "Rainbow Colors": colors that have a distinct hue like red, green, pink, orange, yellow, etc.
-Non-Matching: an item that's not in the focal color family. For this post, any color that isn't green in "non-matching."
-Matching: an item that is in the focal color family; note that a perfect match is the exact shade of the color is not required. For this post, I'm treating any form of green as "matching" with my green pants.
-Bridging: contains the focal color and one or more other colors from the outfit. Print scarves that combine colors of an outfit are a classic bridge piece, but multi-color jewelry, shoes, handbags, etc., can also fulfill this function.
Let's get started...
6: Road Map Styling with Neutral-Dominated Prints
Road Map Styling combines prints (usually clothing) with solid support pieces that pull one or more colors from the print. My mental model for Road Map Styling involves picking the print first, then choosing the solid pieces, but there is no reason you couldn't start with a solid piece and look for prints that coordinate with it.
#14: Top in predominantly-neutral print + topper and shoes in neutral that matches the top. You could call this a modern twin set with a print piece, but since the top is my beloved white rabbit blouse, I don't think of it that way. I definitely created this outfit around the rabbit print blouse. For this work look, I made the rabbit blouse and the colorful green pants the stars of the show by wearing minimal/no accessories.
#15: Top in predominantly-neutral print + shoes in predominantly-neutral print to print mix with the top + accessories in the focal color + accessories that combine the neutrals and the focal color. This is one of my "a lot going on but highly color coordinated" outfits where the accessories really make the look "me."
#16: Top in predominantly-neutral print + scarf and shoes that draw on colors in the print. The yellow ombré scarf adds another accent color but due to its light value, it creates a low contrast level with the white top, and the black shoes tie back to the black detailing in the print.
#17: Shirt-worn-as-jacket in predominantly-neutral print with matching neutral top + shoes and scarf that add another neutral. The color palette of this look is a bit more complicated, but the two-tone scarf in green and navy repeat the colors in the bottom half of the outfit and keeps the navy shoes from looking random. DIY jewelry creates coordination by including the various accent colors in the shirt.
#18: Blouse in predominantly neutral print + matching neutral vest and necklace. When your print piece has only two colors, it's easy and pleasing to the eye to create an outfit that pulls those two colors. I have added subtle interest by using my bracelet stack and shoes to introduce small bits of additional color. The paper bead bracelets are the same set as in the previous outfit but I filled out the stack with different supplemental bracelets. The loafers are a bit of a wild card in this outfit: they create a print mix with the blouse, sharing the green color, but also include blue and black.
7: Color Blocking with Accents Colors & Non-Matching Accessories
#19: Top, pants, and cardigan in three different accent colors + gold/leopard print accessories, which I consider the purest form of the color blocking color formula. I've mentioned before that color blocking is not my go-to, especially when finishing the outfit with non-matching accessories, but I did like this recent "Gucci-inspired" look that lets the color combination make the statement.
8: Color Blocking with Accent Colors & Matching Accessories
#20: Top, pants, and shoes in three different colors + jewelry that repeats the colors. One of the best but least-obvious outfit creation tips I've heard is that you can treat a print in a color-and-white as though it were a solid in the accent color. So even though this shirt is a salmon pink-and-white check print, I can style it like a solid salmon pink shirt. Layered necklaces and bracelet stacks are a good way to repeat the colors from your outfit, making the combination look more intentional. Note that in this case, I am not using any pieces that combine the colors (like a bridging accessory would), but the stacking of the colors in proximity creates a similar effect. For example, I think my eye reads that bracelet stack's overall color scheme rather than separating out each individual color. Unsurprisingly, this not-my-usual color blocked outfit was also a response to a style challenge.
9: Color Blocking with Accent Colors & Bridging Accessories
Now we are back to a color formula that I implement all the time, using bridging accessories to tie a color scheme together. It's almost magical how these multi-colored add-ons can "sell" a color combination! As we move into fall, pull your scarves out of the closet and see what color combinations you can pull together using a scarf to bridge the colors. (Need some easy ways to tie scarves? I've got you covered with instructions and examples here and here.) But of course you're not limited to scarves! Multi-colored jewelry, shoes, handbags, hats, etc., can also do the trick.
#21: Pants in accent color 1 + top in accent color 2 + bridge piece scarf with both accent colors + neutral shoes. This is a very easy way to work the formula! The top, pants, and shoes could work on their own as a very color blocked look, but the addition of the scarf that combines the colors pulls everything together. Note that the metallic pewter loafers don't "match" anything else in the outfit (not even my hair color) but still look great. I think metallic shoes are the most under-appreciated ultimate neutral when it comes to shoes - the shoe equivalent of blue denim jeans that go with everything!
#22: Pants in accent color 1 + top in neutral + cardigan in accent color 2 + bridge piece scarf with all 3 colors + neutral shoes. In addition to pulling the 3 colors of this outfit together, the print scarf also (1) adds more colors to the look and (2) creates a contrast against the darker top and cardigan. And of course I am wearing the second-most under-appreciated ultimate neutral shoe: animal print!
#23: Pants in accent color 1 + top in neutral + cardigan in accent color 2 + bridge piece scarf with all 3 colors + shoes in accent color 1. Although this outfit looks very different, it uses the same basic color formula as the previous one, just substituting shoes that match the pants for the neutral ones. Note that I'm using the word "match" in the broad sense to refer to the color family; the green of the shoes is lighter and brighter than the pants but they still work, in part because the multiple green colors in the scarf is telling us "this is an outfit that intentionally has several shades of green in it."
10: Road Map Styling with Accent Color-Dominated Prints
Now we've reached our last approach to styling the green pants: pairing them with a colorful print garment.
#24: Pants in accent color 1 + top in accent-dominated print + scarf in a neutral pulled from the print + neutral shoes. The green pants and white scarf pull two colors from the print while the leopard print shoes are not only a neutral but also share a warm yellow/orange/tan-like color with both the t-shirt's print and my hair color. DIY earrings with green-and-white tree agate fringe repeat those colors, and the DIY memory wire bracelet contains all the colors from the t-shirt (the bracelet was specifically made to match it). This definitely creates the "highly color-integrated but visually interesting" kind of look that I like.
#25: Pants in accent color 1 + neutral top + topper in accent-dominated print + print scarf and print shoes in accent colors pulled from the print. Since I consider the peach-to-pink ombré scarf to be a print, this outfit is a 3 way print mix but still feels cohesive due to the tight color palette. (Even the chambray shirt could be considered a "color from the print" because it picks up the darker blue stripe in the jacket.) If I were to add a 5th option to Jodie's excellent recent post on how not to look old-fashioned in matchy matchy outfits, I'd list: Mix prints! You can keep your outfit's color scheme limited, integrated, and disciplined but with a more modern vibe that is expressive and next level.
Do you like to wear multiple accent colors in an outfit? Do you have a favorite combination of accent colors? How would you wear these green pants for fall?
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