candy champagne: how to: color block

color blocking is one of the biggest and funnest (is that even a word?) trends this year for both spring and summer. i've seen pictures in magazines of runway looks, but how does one translate these very high fashion looks to the streets? my girlfriends bulelwa, shibu and i were talking at length about how much we love the trend but we we're all alittle apprehensive because we don't want to look like we're wearing a clown costume. i did some research on how to choose colors to combine and hopefully this will help any other fashionista's get on this trend

the color wheel

colors that work best together:

colors directly next to each other : yellow and yellow-orange; yellow and yellow-green; violet and blue-violet and so forth
colors that form 90degree angles: yellow&green; blue-violet&blue-green; red&violet; orange-yellow&red-orange
colors directly across each other: yellow&violet; blue-violet&yellow-orange; blue&orange
colors that form a T: blue,orange&violet-red; yellow,violet&red-orange
colors that form an X: blue,orange,violet-red&yellow-green; blue-green,red-orange,violet&yellow
brown (and the brown family) are neutral color so any color will work but cobalt blue and fuchsia work best
white and black can literally go with anything!

the curvy fashionista suggested colors that aren't necessarily in the color wheel that can be combined together:

cobalt blue, yellow and orange
chocolate brown, pink and peach
purple, bright blue and teal
deep blue, bright pink and white
coral, grey and ivory

i tried my hand at color blocking on campus...

[i wore coral cardigan from old navy, teal lace cropped top from miladys, denim shorts from jayjays, teal and white belft from my granny and floral print espadrilles my mommy got for me at a flea market in france]

i color blocked colors directly across eachother: blue-green and red-orange

also check out nangi's mann-equin blog to see how she color blocked in her weekend looks. she chose colors that formed a 90degree angle: yellow and green

some more images:

gucci spring collection 2011