Five Ways to Wear Floral Print Tops

At the request of a reader, I am giving tips on how to wear floral print tops in today’s post. Word is that floral prints are back, to which I say, “eh.” I have never been a fan of floral prints and, as you know, an attraction to prints really is personal. Liking them has nothing to do with trend. Few people can be swayed into wearing a print that they don’t feel naturally drawn to.

Before we get into some outfit ideas using a floral print top, I want to give you some tips on selecting the right patterns for you.

How to choose the most flattering floral print tops

Contrast

The amount of contrast found in a floral print is an important factor to consider. The higher the level of contrast between your hair, skin and eyes the more contrast you can wear in your prints. For example, someone with very fair skin, dark eyes and hair has a strong level of contrast in their coloring. With such boldness, these people have coloring that can stand up to bold prints like black and white. Conversely, someone with softer coloring, or less contrast between their hair, skin and eyes, has coloring that will get drowned out with too much optic contrast in their prints and look better is softer prints that have less contrast in them. I wrote a post that goes more in-depth on this topic that you can read here.

Movement

Next, look at how a print moves. Some prints have a rounder, more organic flow to them while others prints are sharper or more geometric. Some prints are a combination of both. Just like prints, people have features and facial characteristics that can be either rounder or sharper, or a little of each. The best looking prints move in a way that mirrors the shape of your features and the way they move.

The key here is not to get too bogged down by this information. Yes, it’s good to know and can be helpful, but you don’t want to over analyze each and every print to the point of paralysis in your decision making. These tips are to help you make informed choices not to make you feel restricted.

I put some outfits together using this floral print top from Emerson Rose to show you the versatility of floral print tops. Beyond just the different looks, the key thing to take away is that prints are like road maps. You can look to the colors in the prints to pull colors into an outfit. You will see how I do that in the looks below.

Outfit #1

The colors in this print are shades of blue, soft grey and yellow on a white ground. These are the colors that I used to create these looks. In this first outfit, I styled the top with a pair of navy ankle length pants from J. Crew and light grey cardigan from Theory. I finished the outfit with a navy statement necklace from Bauble Bar, bag from Tory Burch and light blue slides from Franco Sarto.

Outfit #2

I styled this next look more casually using these white J Brand high-rise, wide leg cropped pants and finished the look with a pair of denim ankle strap sandals from Sole Society, blue fringe scarf from Echo, yellow bag from See by Chloe and Rebecca Minkoff hoop earrings.

Outfit #3

This type of top is a perfect work top. It easily layers under jackets and looks polished and professional while adding a touch of femininity. I suited up this look with these Reiss pieces (link to jacket and pants) and finished the outfit with a pair of ankle strap shoes in soft blue, a work tote from Coach and bright blue Kate Spade earrings.