I put the word out on Facebook that I needed a blog topic, and the suggestions rolled in.  After strenuously analysing the answers choosing the one that would allow me to play on Polyvore the most, I announced the “print mixing is good timez” topic was a winner.

Disclaimer time: I am not a stylist. You might read the following and think I am blind and lack taste. That’s fine – these are just suggestions. Mixing prints in the way I suggest below is not for everyone.

The easiest way to mix prints is illustrated in my Polyvore set below:

The prints are all within one colour palette (in particular the black and white prints) and the total number of colours is just three.  Stripes and dots are the easiest prints to mix – in fact it’s barely print-mixing since these go together like black and white.

The lovely Rachel sent me a few pics of prints that she already owned as inspiration for print-mixing advice. The clear winner among these items was these pants:

They’re yellow plaid, incorporating black, white and red stripes.

I found the same pair on Polyvore and threw in some suggested tops, bags and so on:

Option One is the “corporate plaid pants” option.  Or “first date” option, since I couldn’t get away with these pants at work (saaaaaad…).  Anyway, a structured top and bag that match but borrow some of the colours from the plaid, and plain black bangles to have at least one common theme, and Bob’s your uncle.

Option Two is the “it’s cold outside but my pants are hot” option.  The jersey doesn’t match and doesn’t really attempt to.  Sometimes this is actually easier than making two prints “match”.  I’ve used the blue patterned scarf because there’s blue in the jersey, and then insisted on a yellow bag to balance out the pants. If I had the power to change the shoes, they would also be blue, and possibly suede booties.  In this case it’s the accessories that make the outfit work.

Finally, we have Option Three or the “cocktails at the Country Club” option at brightness level 5,000,000,000.  You would need to be a brave princess to wear this one. Again, I rampantly ignored matchyness, although I did choose this top because of the red element in both the top and the plaid.  This uses a similar approach as mixing block colours with prints (always find the colour in the print that occurs the least often, and wear that colour as your block). I would put this model in red or pink shoes.

In short, when print-mixing you need to be ready to WEAR it and LOVE it and OWN it. Do as they do at Prada: