How Couples Can Celebrate Their Individual Styles Together

Coordinating your style as a couple can be a great way to express yourselves. On the other hand, it can be slightly cringe-inducing.

Getting it right, in many cases, means devoting a little bit of thought as to why you’re coordinating, and the extent to which coordination is even desirable. The answers you get might depend on your outlook and sensibilities, and the extent to which you share the same tastes.

Let’s consider how you might strike the required balance.

Find a Shared Style Language Without Matching Exactly

Coordination needn’t require that you match everything exactly. In many cases, contrast can be just as effective. That applies to everything from colors to shapes to textures.

You might decide that you both appreciate the same few elements. Does your partner own a shirt in a color you really like? You might echo that color in different ways in your own wardrobe.

The amount of contrast within an outfit can also be a basis for coordination. If your outfit is entirely minimalistic, except for one eye-catching element, then your partner might follow the same formula, even if the element in question is completely different.

Use Color to Connect Two Distinctive Looks

It might be that you already have two very different looks. It’s easy to tie them together when they share the same palette. This is where the basics of color theory can be tremendously helpful, but it’s also worth noting that, when one outfit seems to work, color-wise, you can usually replicate the success by simply copying those colors and moving them around a little.

At the same time, you might offset one another’s color choices by looking for contrasting colors. For example, mint-green is opposite pink, and blue is opposite orange. If you’re really stuck for inspiration, then you might look for it in the latest colors used at major fashion weeks.

Choose Meaningful Details That Tell a Shared Story

Often, the story you tell together through your fashion choices can be more directly represented with a few specific accessories. For example, if you have Celtic ancestry, then the right Celtic jewelry or color schemes might help you to hint at it.

At the same time, you might coordinate your jewelry completely. For example, a couple’s wedding bands might allow you to demonstrate a shared commitment, without copying one another completely.

Let Each Partner Interpret the Occasion in Their Own Way

If you aren’t careful, excessive coordination can be stressful and dictatorial, especially if one person has strong ideas about how they’d like to dress. If you don’t feel comfortable wearing any given item, then you shouldn’t feel compelled to do so. At the same time, you’ll want to avoid burdening your significant other with a sense of obligation. This should be a fun way to express yourself, rather than a source of long-term frustration and resentment.