Contrast in Clothing
Contrast describes the perceived difference between two (or more) things. If the difference is high, so is the contrast. The opposite is also the case.
There are two kinds of contrast that are relevant to color theory for fashion: Contrast of lightness and contrast of hue. The contrast of lightness/brightness is different from color-contrast.
The former changes according to the value and luminance, whereas the contrast of hues changes according to the position on the color wheel. Here’s a “quick-and-dirty” example to explain further:
Image #1: High contrast of hue but no contrast of brightness
Image #2: High contrast of brightness but no contrast of hue.
Image #1 shows two hues (red and green) with their fully unsaturated versions in the bottom half of the image. Note that the gray tone of both colors is the same. This is because both colors (pure red and shaded green) have the same luminance.
The color-contrast between red and green is large because both hues are far apart on the color wheel. On the other hand, the contrast of brightness is zero. This is because the luminance is identical.
Image #2 shows the same red as in image #1 accompanied by its lighter cousin “pink”. Both colors are shown with their respective unsaturated versions.
It becomes quite apparent that both colors have high contrast of brightness because pink has added white in it, making it much lighter.
Interestingly though, the contrast of hue is zero because both colors have the same hue (pure red). Pink is simply red with added white to increase its value.
Contrast for Fashion:
In fashion, we use contrast to spice up outfits and to make them interesting. It’s important to understand that there is not just contrast of brightness, but also between two different colors.
The color-contrast is the largest when both hues are the farthest possible distance apart on the color wheel. This would make them completely complementary to each other.
The contrast of brightness is the largest between pure white and pure black because they have the largest possible difference in luminance.
High contrast is much more eye-catching than low contrast clothing. Many outfits benefit from a tad of contrast to make them a bit more pleasing to the eye since outfits with very low contrast can seem awkward.
We will be going into more detail on contrast and how to use it in another future article, but for the moment read up on the 10 Golden Rules for Color in Fashion. Rule #2 explains a good deal about natural contrast and how to use that concept to your benefit.