I’ve never considered myself a fashion girl. Lately, I’ve been staring at my closet for way too long in the mornings because I have no idea what to wear. Some days I feel comfortable taking risks, but most of the days I stick to the same old comfy clothes because I don’t have a lot of energy and I’m way too cold to come up with cool outfits. Yes, I know I could prepare my outfits the day before, but I always forget. And certainly, my 5 AM self will choose leggings over and over again. So I thought, why not challenge myself and wear monochromatic looks? And that’s how this article was born. I gave the challenge a go and tried wearing black, white, brown, green, and blue monochromatic looks, and here is how it went.
BROWN
Throughout the years I’ve changed my favorite color. At first it was blue, then green and now it’s brown. Who was going to tell me that brown looked the best on me?! I swear this color rivals black in almost every department. With brown you can go from looking cozy to ready to take over the world. I think that now, brown fits my style the most. It started with makeup, no colorful eye makeup can top a well done neutral eye look. Brown eyeliners and eyeshadows made me look softer and elegant. Then I started buying more brown shirts, pants, and shoes. Now, I even went and dyed my hair to its natural color, brown. Although I loved being blonde for a while, brown just fits me right. For this experiment, I tried playing with shades of brown. My shirt was lighter than my pants, and my belt and shoes had a more orange, brownish tone. Can’t forget about the golden accents, that’s when you make it look 100% better.
BLACK
Who doesn’t love black? It can make you look casual, elegant, formal, or sexy. On a scale of “I look like a blob of one single color” to “Monochromatic Realness,” black is definitely the latter. Black is possibly the shade that I’m most familiarized and comfortable with. I had a phase back in my teenage years where every piece of clothing I bought was either black or gray. Although, with time, I’ve switched to trying a lot of fun colors and unique combinations, I end up going back to my safe ol’ good black. Although I wore black almost every single day of the past month, I didn’t take a single picture of it. Yes, I was very busy. So enjoy a collage of some of my favorite black outfits I’ve worn in the past year, along with the few pictures I managed to take from the past month doing the challenge.
WHITE
Out of this list, White was the hardest to make work. This experiment humbled me in a tragic way: my closet is not built to create beautiful outfits like the ones from Pinterest. Unironically, white was definitely the opposite of black. While I could make the most casual to the most sexy and elegant black outfits, I struggled a lot making just one white outfit. Every time I tried something, it looked like I was trying too hard, so I would take it off. It wasn’t until I had a pool day that I thought of making a summer outfit with a white swimsuit, skirt, crop top, and white eyeliner. And it worked, or, at least, it did for me! Who would’ve thought that white could become my new summer look.
GREEN
I had a friend that asked me if I had a standard university outfit and I immediately said YES! In fact, I have multiple. There are some outfits that if I don’t wear them at least once in the semester, it’s like I didn’t study that semester at all. The first one is leggings with a striped sweater, it’s literally the comfiest clothes I own, and the other one is the monochromatic green outfit. That outfit is what actually inspired me to write this article because I realized I hadn’t worn it in a while. I wear the same pants every time, but I like to change the green shirt every once in a while to keep it interesting. At first it was a green crop top, but now I also wear a green top, patterned with small, white flowers. The white flowers inspired me to make my makeup even more fun with hand-drawn flowers! I love green, it’s such a beautiful, hopeful color. It’s actually the color of my birthstone. Green and I are just meant to be.
BLUE
Although blue was my favorite color, I didn’t own blue clothes that weren’t jeans. However, when BTS released their Artist-Merch Collection and I bought j-hope’s bag, I knew I had to start buying more blue clothes if I wanted to style this bag the way it was intended to. That’s when it hit me, I was buying the wrong shades of blue. Light blue and dark blue are the new black! Light wash jeans with a light blue button up shirt and the silver accents of the bag and Jimin’s earrings makes me feel confident. Well, maybe it has to do with the fact that I’m wearing the Artist-Merch Collection by BTS, but… who cares? I love how I look!
I have to admit I am not a fashion girl at all. All my beauty knowledge stayed in the makeup department, but making small experiments like this helped me try new things and challenge myself and my confidence. My respect for the fashion girls and all the magic they do to make clothes work. I couldn’t make it work that flawlessly, but my goal is to keep trying until I do! As a freebie, this is a Pinterest board I created for you readers if you want to try this monochromatic outfit challenge. I wish you the best of luck.