Mixing Stripes

When I was young, I was taught to never mix stripes. Stripes could be worn on top or bottom, but not on top and bottom. That meant that I had to choose between wearing a striped top, or a striped shirt or pants. On Tuesday, I broke my adolescent rule and wore a striped shirt with a striped skirt. The grown-up in me decided to experiment with stripes on stripes.

The top:

The bottom:

I'm not the only one to do this, though. Celebrities do this; fashion forward women and men do this. As shown in the images at the start of the post, these gals mix stripes--large stripes with small stripes works really well. All of the above show horizontal on horizontal stripes, but feel free to even break this rule.

In the following image, you can see Sienna Miller mixing stripe directions:

I hope to do this, too, one day.

This Elle article has some great tips for mixing stripes:

1. Mix textures (something soft with something coarse)

2. Add some sheer stripes to the mix

3. Balance the volume (tighter top? go with flowy pants or skirt)

4. Get bright (horizontal stripes in bright colors FTW)

5. Play with proportion (kind of similar to 3, but this tip encourages showing some skin)

OK, the next time you look through your closet and think, "what to wear?" maybe pair some stripes.