It may seem frivolous stressing over what to wear everyday, but giving thought to how we present ourselves isn’t just vanity: clothing influences how we’re viewed by others, impacts employment outcomes and our romantic success.
But instead of asking a friend or consulting an app about a fashionable outfit, the good people over at the University of North Carolina have come up with a formula for us – and it makes sense.
After quizzing 239 people with different colour combinations, the study found outfits deemed most fashionable were moderately matched, compared with those that were ultra-matched or zero-matched.
The findings support a wider theory called the Goldilocks principle, which seeks to find balance between simplicity and complexity.
In simple terms, if you choose an outfit that hits a middle ground between being too coordinated and too different, you should be easiest on the eye. Got it?
