Retro fads are making a huge comeback and splash this season. Gone are last year’s earth shades, neutrals, and candy-colored solids. Spring 2009 is all about getting funky with some of yesteryear’s trends. Prints inspired by the 70s and the 80s are the comeback queens of spring trends.
To put a fresh spin to these trends for children, mix and match several shades of the same hue for that timeless tone-on-tone look. Patterns with colors in the same family go well with a solid color from that same family.
Another way to bring back the retro look for kids is to match complimentary colors. As a refresher, complimentary colors are a pair of colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. Examples of these are blue and orange, purple and yellow, and red and green. Pick a pattern, such as yellow and white checks, and pair it with a solid in a complimentary color, which is purple in this case.
A basic way to get the retro look is by mixing the same kinds of colors with each other. For instance, warm colors go best with other warm colors, while cool colors go well with other cool colors. This also holds true for pastels going with other pastels and brights with other brights.
For a retro but unfussy look, you can never go wrong with mixing colors with neutrals and neutrals with other neutrals. Neutral shades are black, brown, denim, gray, tan, and white. (Contrary to popular belief, brown and black can go together.) Another fun way to do this is by mixing neutrals with patterns.
A long time ago, it was practically a sin to pair certain colors because they were viewed as being clashing shades. For instance, red and pink together were a fashion no-no. However, the increasingly-popular retro trends have thrown this way of thinking aside. To be sure to bring together clashing shades, unite these colors with a neutral. For example, red and pink look really good with white.