5 Simplified Ways to be Good at Print Mixing

Does print mixing (or pattern mixing) seem intimidating to you? It doesn’t have to be. Today I’m sharing five simplified ways to be good at print mixing.

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Print mixing, dots and florals, dots and gingham, summer outfit

I have drooled over this amazing ruffled racer back tank in the dot print from the Gibson X Hi Sugarplum collection ever since it came out. Cassie is one of my favorite bloggers and I knew her collection would be awesome. When this tank went on sale (it’s still on sale), I promptly put it in my cart and had it on its way to me. I knew these dots would be perfect for print mixing with this floral pull on skirt. There is already a tiny dot pattern in the skirt that inspired me. What could be easier? I added in a third pattern with the gingham mules, but it’s okay, because it’s all in the same color family.

dots and florals print mixing outfit

pull on floral skirt

Dot tank-Nordstrom

Skirt- Loft OPTION

Shoes- JCPenney

That brings me to the first rule of print mixing:

1. Stick with the same color family. Find a dominant color in your pieces and mix away. Blue stripes with blue florals, green gingham with green floral- you get the idea.

2. Mix large patterns with small patterns, especially if mixing the same pattern. If you want to wear dots on dots, then wear a piece with a small dot mixed with a piece with a large dot. Same rule applies to stripes. You can also see I’m wearing a smaller dot compared to the large flowers in my skirt. Polished Whimsy has a great example of small on large and she is truly the queen of pattern mixing.

3. Break up the print mixing with a solid color. I added a white denim jacket for the cold indoor AC when I wore this outfit. You could mix a print jacket with a print bottom and break it up with a solid top.

4. Treat some prints as neutrals- glen plaid and houndstooth can generally be treated as if they are neutrals and mixed with any print you like. I mixed stripes with glen plaid here. The plaid is so subtle it’s like wearing plain grey pants.

5. Know which patterns and prints mix well. Here are five that work well together.

Leopard and plaid

leopard and plaid pattern mixing