My instinct when choosing jewelry and other accessories is to choose something with the dominant color in the outfit, but sometimes it’s fun and successful to choose a different option – either choosing a color that is present but in small amounts or choosing an absent color that interacts well with your main color.  For this luscious purple print blouse from Atelier la Bubu, I chose orange jewelry and shoes reasoning that purple would just disappear in the activity of the textile.  The textile designer also included orange, in very small amounts.

Choosing a color that works comes naturally for most of us. We just know what looks good to our eyes. However, if you are ever curious why colors look good to you, you can look to color theory for the answer. In essence, color theory explains why our innate sense of color harmony prefers some color combinations and thinks others clash.  For example, orange is one of the colors associated with purple in the Triadic color scheme which splits the color wheel into thirds. Using a triadic scheme does not obligate you to use all three colors – just helps you find colors that will harmonize with each other. You can see your many options below in this chart of purple color schemes.

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