Co-ordinating Difficult Colours

A thought occurred to me as I was discussing the recent Angelic Pretty print Peacefully Sleeping Toys. My thinking was that if I were to get this series, my top colour choice would have been the navy blue. That is not because the navy blue colour was necessarily my favourite, but because I found the idea of trying to make an outfit with the grey colour incredibly daunting. I have noticed that there are certain colours which over the years I have gone out of my way to avoid. This is partly because I already have loads of different colours in my wardrobe and don't want to add even more, but also because I think I would find them a challenge to add successfully to my wardrobe. Brown, for example, is a colour which has never really made it in to my wardrobe. Outside of chocolate prints, I don't think I would have much of a clue how to wear that colour. I know I am not the only one who struggles with these difficult colours that pop up from time to time. But colours such as grey are popping up more frequently as of late, and in a lot of instances it has become the most popular colour. The trouble is, a lot of the brands have not extended their wardrobe basics to this colour, which means finding stuff to go with our dresses is very hard! So I tried to come up with a few ideas on how to combat this issue. 

Firstly, it is not exactly very original, but where possible it is worth trying to get the matching set rather than just the dress. If you were to aim to get another item, such as the head bow, then at least it is almost guaranteed that you are going to have at least one item in your wardrobe which is the exact same colour. 

Another idea would be to focus on other main colours on the dress. Is there a particular colour which stands out? Sometimes I find you are able to build an outfit just by using this other colour. This doesn't tend to work as well if you have opted for a skirt rather than a dress, as there is less distribution of the main colour. Keeping your colours balanced is always a goal to aim for.

If that fails, then the next way to go is attempting to find accessories in the same colour, possibly from non-lolita brands. But when doing this, try to think about what accessories would be easiest to find in that colour. For example, you will probably have more success finding a hair accessory in many different colours compared to shoes, which can be a real pain to find in a particular shade. If an accessory from a non-lolita brand is the right shade, but not exactly very 'lolita' looking, is there a way you can customise it? I did a post recently on shoe customising which featured little clips you can add on. Simple things like that can turn a basic item in to something more cute and appropriate to the fashion.

Sadly, that was about as far as I got with ideas. So here is a random outfit I chucked together using the grey Peaceful Sleeping Toys OP! Just so you are aware, on my monitor the shoe colour looks similar to the print close up in the corner. If it looks like different shades to you, then I apologise! I was really trying hard to find matching grey shoes to try and challenge myself. I think the lesson here is to wait until you have the dress in person so you can clearly see what colour it is before attempting to add in accessories from non-lolita brands. However, the majority of this outfit is from brands. The only exception are the shoes and the bag, which I think is from DreamV (don't quote me on that...). 

But as frustrating as these different colours can be, I am actually really glad to see colours like grey become more common. I really do feel that Peaceful Sleeping Toys works the best in the grey version. Today I have just focused on grey, but try considering other difficult or rarely seen colours. Orange, non-lavender purples, olive green, teal and turquoise are colours which are not overly common, but they do pop up from time to time. How could you go about adding those to your wardrobe? Or would you be like me, and play it safe with a safer colour choice, even if it is not your favourite? I had fun creating this outfit, but whether I would be brave enough to actually buy a grey coloured dress remains to be seen!