What makes a fashionable outfit?

6 August 2014
By Fashion Quarterly

Instead of asking a friend or consulting an app about a what to wear, perhaps some scientific theory can help you find a fashionable outfit.

fashionable outfit
Getty Images.

It may seem frivolous stressing over what to wear everyday, but giving thought to how we present ourselves isn’t just vanity: clothing influences how we’re viewed by others, impacts employment outcomes and our romantic success.

But instead of asking a friend or consulting an app about a fashionable outfit, the good people over at the University of North Carolina have come up with a formula for us – and it makes sense.

After quizzing 239 people with different colour combinations, the study found outfits deemed most fashionable were moderately matched, compared with those that were ultra-matched or zero-matched.

The findings support a wider theory called the Goldilocks principle, which seeks to find balance between simplicity and complexity.

In simple terms, if you choose an outfit that hits a middle ground between being too coordinated and too different, you should be easiest on the eye. Got it?

READ: Which style personality are you?

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