Clothing Selection. Bold Prints for Portraits?

Clothing selection is one of the most important aspects of preparing for your portraits. Clothing can harmonize with and enhance your portraits or they can severely take away from them. It has long been advised that people stay away from bold busy patterns & prints as well as colors that are too bright and logos. Also it is usually advised to choose clothing that has a classic look and is not considered trendy. 5 or 10 years down the line the look that was hot now, may make you cringe later.


The photos here are of my own daughter who is about 3 months shy of turning 2. (Isn't she cute? =) heheh) I broke a cardinal rule of putting her in a dress where every inch is covered in a bright and bold pattern. When looking at these portraits though, they still work. While the dress competes with the individual, the poses, lively expressions and great interaction brings strong attention to the individual. The contrast of the dark hair, dark eyes & light skin match well with the contrast in the dress.



So what do I think about the rules of clothing selection? I am MUCH more open minded to it. I agree with the "rules" for the most part but feel they are also meant to be broken... OFTEN. If you have a personality or a strong style that can compete with clothing that is also bold in style then by all means bring the outfit.

We have a private dressing room for clients & I encourage changing outfits to get shots that span a variety of clothing that match a person's variable persnalities. Bring something classic, something casual, something dressy, something trendy, something that matches your personality, ect... Just make sure the clothes are clean (no stains or animal hair), not wrinkled (unless they are meant to be wrinkled), fit comfortably (if they are too tight it WILL add pounds), and you look and feel great in them.

Plus with so many people who are proud and confident of their personal style, fashion and look, there are many who WANT to go home with a photograph that could possibly be ripped from a trendy magazine.

If High Fashion looks are what you may be looking for then we are here to please and can BRING IT!

- Grace

Portrait Tip:

When it comes to individuals or couples the rules of clothing selection are much more easy to break. Family & group portraits are less flexible because in these portraits it is no longer about the individual but about the group. But the rules can still be broken here as well. A common look is when everyone practially dresses in the same top and same bottom but sometimes that can be just as distracting and look "off" if the choices are anything but classic. For example, a family of 5 with everyone in an orange shirt and khakis, it just screams "Not right!".

The important thing here if you want to break the rules a little bit is that all the clothes are similar in style (formal, casual, sporty, dressy casual, edgy, beachy, ect...) and the colors all coordinate well because they are in a similar or coordinated family of colors. If you need inspiration you can usually find them by looking at casual fashion spreads put together by fashion editors in magazines or check out the clothing advertisements at your favorite clothing store on their website, catalog or magazine.

And don't forget that socks and shoes are also part of clothing selection so make sure they are in good shape and the socks are clean and NOT any wild sort of color or pattern unless it was done on purpose. Don't wear all dark clothes and then come with white socks.

There is so much more to clothing selection in addition to this including proper clothing for your body type which I will cover in a future blog post.

If you have any questions on dressing for successful portraits don't hesitate to contact me.