When a guy comes to us for help improving his style, one of the biggest frustrations they often have is the ability to pair clothing together, saying things like - “I don’t know what goes with what” or “How do I know what top goes with what bottom”?

Amateur stylists and store salespeople often try to “solve” this problem for you by creating a single outfit - saying, this top goes with these pants, and then essentially stapling them together.

On the surface, this can seem like a pretty good idea. This is until you realize that you don’t need 20 different pairs of pants to go with 20 different shirts, and now your closet is overstuffed with items that have no range and versatility.

Imagine if I told you that you can only pair marinara with spaghetti. You’d be missing out on a vast array of delicious Italian cuisine.

Instead, you should learn how to pair two things together so you can always create endless options and you don’t need to waste money on excessive amounts of clothing.

Plus, you won’t freak out if you forget your little outfit flash cards to know what goes with what.

Today, I’m going to give you some straightforward ways to pair two items together so you always know what to do.

Remember, these are not “rules”, they’re just tools. They’re the same tools we use and teach to our personal styling clients, and they’re what you can use to build easy, stylish outfits every day, for every season, and every occasion.

Let’s get into it.

Use The Same FABRIC

When trying to pair an item, an easy choice is to pair it with an item made with the same fabric. A linen pair of shorts looks great with a linen pair of pants. A wool sweater looks excellent with wool pants. The stretchy athletic material in a pair of basketball shorts looks great with the same material mirrored in a tank top.

Use The Same COLOR

What is the best color pairing for a specific color? The same color. For example, It’s impossible for blue to clash with blue; It’s just more of the same. Just like it would be impossible for water to clash with water, you can always mix something with more of the same. The key here is to typically add a bit of contrast to the pairing - meaning if you’re wearing a dark blue pair of shorts, you’d typically pair it with a lighter blue shirt.

Use The Same SEASONALITY

When trying to pair things together, it can be helpful to think about the seasonality of the item. For example, a pair of thin linen shorts looks offputting with a chunky wool sweater. The reason is they’re intended for different temperatures and seasons. By now, you probably know that you shouldn’t wear flip-flops with jeans - however, you might not have known why. Now you do - one is a summer/spring item, and the other a fall/winter item.

To expand on this further, a fall/winter item will typically be made from heavier fabric, and cover more of your body; they add warmth to you. These would be items such as a wool sweater or flannel trousers. A spring/summer item will typically be made from lighter, thinner fabrics and cover less of your body; they reduce heat.

Try to avoid pairing two different seasonality types together. The best pairing is a Summer/Spring with Summer/Spring item and a Fall/Winter item with Fall/Winter item.

Use The Same BRAND

Recently, I was in a furniture store called Restoration Hardware. If you’re never been, they’re beautiful, well-designed stores. What struck me was how well everything in the store “flowed” together. You could move the pieces around, and the store would still look great.

You can do the same thing with an individual clothing brand. A clothing brand has an identity and a cohesive look and feel to its items. A brand won’t make gothic rock and roll-looking clothing while at the same time offering preppy, clean-cut styles. The majority of a single brand's items will pair together. This makes things easy for you. If you have an item from a brand, pairing it with another item from the same brand usually works perfectly.


In short, when pairing an item, an easy tip is to copy an element of it in the other item you're pairing it with. It could be the fabric, color, seasonality, or even the same brand, but doing so will more than likely make it work together. Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be.

If you want to uncomplicate your style even further, I created this to help you. We can show you what looks best on you, from your hairstyle to your clothing, so you can understand precisely how to always look stylish. Further, we’ll actually source you brand new clothing to fill the gaps in your wardrobe with better fitting, better-looking pieces and teach you how to put it all together. And we’ll work with you personally to implement all of it.

Hope that helps.

x Patrick