Style DNA: Five Artistic Principles for Choosing Prints

/ Wardrobe Development / By

I saw so many pretty print dresses on Easter and they make me so happy in the spring. They are perfect for showers and graduation parties and all kinds of other spring events. So next I’m gonna share artistic principles for choosing prints and then tie that into personality type.

Also, completely parenthetically, I had this conversation after church on Sunday. Not everyone I know either knows or understands what I do, so when I told this gal I was a style strategist she was like, “oh that makes sense”, and then the conversation went on to how I don’t look like a Mary Kay lady (which I always consider some kind of glamour) but I look like myself. That is exactly what I want: to look like myself and like I can help you to look like yourself too. These artistic principles for choosing prints is one of the ways.

Definitions:

Element: is the shapes that are printed

Ground: is the background color the shapes are printed on

Artistic principles for choosing prints

  1. Scale. Scale is the size of something relative to something else. In this case, choose a print where the elements are similar in scale to your facial features.
    1. If your facial features appear to be small, choose smaller elements in the print. 
    2. If your features vary in size, you can choose a print with various sizes. 
    3. And if really tiny, tightly-spaced prints look good on you, you probably have freckles.
  2. Density. This is how much ground there is in the print, relative to the elements. The density in your print should relate to the density in your facial features. Said another way, we’re looking at the ratio of your face that is just skin to your features.
    1. If your features are widely spaced, your print should be as well
    2. If your features vary in spacing, you may like a print with a variable rhythm in its spacing
    3. If you wear bangs that subtracts the entire forehead space and if you have large features with little space around them, you will easily wear a denser print.
    4. If you need to add extra ground to your print to have it work for you, you can combine your print with a solid, like by adding a jacket or cardigan.
    5. I want to tell you about a dress I used to have which seemed to break alot of rules, but still worked and why. The dress was a deep yellowy cream ground, with giant black abstract flowers. Almost as big as my face. It should have been too high contrast for me, but it worked because the flowers were extremely widely spaced and the background color was a flattering color for me. And in this case, I think the element was relating to my entire face. If it had been bigger than my face, it would have overpowered me. There may be other artistic considerations, but I think you’re starting to get the idea that it’s basically about relating to you and repeating what is there!
  3. Line and shape
    1. are your features more rounded, angled, squared? If the elements in your print are reminiscent of the shapes in your face, this is going to be harmonious.
    2. Are the lines in your face, not the wrinkles but the outlines, the bones, more delicate or bolder or soft and smudgy? These characteristics can also be repeated in the print. 
  4. Colors in prints:
    1. One thing that can be tricky is how the eye tends to mix the colors within a print. So a print with closely related colors, even if they are quite intense, appears more blended than one of those colors by itself. And a small-scale print with complementary colors could even turn gray at a distance.
    2. A print is a fabulous way to pull different colors in an outfit together into a unified whole. This is because for a color to look intentional in an outfit it usually needs to be repeated. A print repeats a whole bunch of colors.
  5. Subject: what is the subject matter and character quality of the print?
    1. This is where personality comes in. You want to choose prints that relate to what you love, or at least make sense to you.
    2. Abstract vs realistic. How comfortable do you feel with prints that look like pictures of palm leaves, pineapples, or other actual things? How much do you love camo? Some of this relates to your personality type and whether you prefer sensing or intuition. Since everyone uses both, it’s not a hard and fast rule, but the association would be:
      1. Realism with sensing
      2. Abstract with intuitive
    3. Some people just don’t love prints. And that’s ok 👍 

So your homework is to play dress up. And if you need a festive spring dress for graduation parties and baby showers, to go shopping!