WHAT TO WEAR

At KPP, we are often asked, "What colors should my family wear?" Or "Should we all be wearing the same colors?"  We spend a great deal of time coordinating our shoots and that includes helping to plan wardrobes with families or individuals and choosing just the right location for the look you are trying to achieve.  Here are a few guidelines we have found particularly helpful.  1) Whites tend to "wash out" your skin tones and those around you.  Unless you are a bride, try not to wear white (at least on the top).


FAMILIES:  Wear coordinating colors, but don't be exact.  We have found that it is best to "break it up" a little in the images by your family wearing like colors/patterns, but not a "everybody wear red shirts and jeans. I'm going to show an example of how I would dress my family for a shoot (I have a baby girl, an older girl, two boys and my husband and myself.

I always start with my older girl (because you can usually find super cute patterns and colors in dresses to use as your inspiration piece) so I might choose something like this cute print dress from CWD kids.  Don't be afraid of bright, fun patterns...they breath life into your photos! I LOVE the brown boots with it and I also love how layers look in photos, they add dimension and style so I would really like to see a denim jacket over the top of this cute little dress from Old Navy.  This will be especially nice if any other family member will be wearing jeans. Now you've got your colors established~pink, brown, lime and blue. 

Now I move on to my boys.  For my older boy (9) I usually look for a nice polo and khaki/cargo short combo that will coordinate but still keep him looking age appropriate. Depending on the season, I may even put him in blue jeans.  My younger boy might look cute in a graphic tee with similar colors if it's not too distracting from him and/or maybe some plaid shorts with like colors.  Sooooo...I would probably choose something like this for them (all from CWD kids and Old Navy). 

This is where I usually move on to the baby.  I try to find something cute with "like" colors and maybe a different print.  It can be a solid or combination of solids of "like" colors as well.  In this case, the striped dress I found at Old Navy works perfectly.  It has all of the colors in her big sisters dress and brings a different element to the shoot with solid horizontal lines/stripes, and since most adults can't get away with wearing horizontal lines and not looking like a hippo, it's best to get one of the little ones to wear them! ;-D  Lime green Jelly sandals will look adorable with it (also from Old Navy).

Now for Mom & Dad.  We're pretty easy.  We can find solids that coordinate and even layer them for more colorful looks.  I would probably opt for a more billowy top like this cute one from Old Navy.  Then I would layer under it one of the other colors in our family pallette like the lime green with a fitted shirt from Shade Clothing (LOVE THEM!) and pair it up with a flowy brown skirt.  Then I would throw it all together with a fun chunky necklace that meshed all my colors together to give me a super polished look.  Ok, for Dad...I would look at all my choices so far and give him a solid colored polo from The Gap in whatever color seemed to be lacking most from my "starting point" dress.  In this case I would say it's the aqua blue.  Then I would find him some nice Diesel cargos and he would be ready to add to our beautiful pallette of colors to finish off everybody's look!  Obviously these are just ideas, but you can see how my brain works when coordinating outfits.  :-D 

I also love hair accessories for the girls; hats, headbands or bows...they really add character to the shoot.  I also like to see cute newsboy hats on little boys or stylish hats even on men.  Don't be afraid to show some style, you'll LOVE the results that it brings!

That's it for now....I'll be adding wardrobe ideas for senior portrait, maternity & newborn sessions next!  Hope this helps...just remember-coordinate (don't "match"), bright colors and patterns look great as long as they are coupled with some of your family members wearing solids...don't go too print crazy!  Accessories are your friend, pick one fun piece for each family member...don't over-do it!  Etsy is a GREAT website where you can find some really unique pieces for jewelry and handmade crochet/knit hats.  Punknposh.com is a also a great website for girlie accessories and we can bring some directly to the shoot if you don't have time to order and ship, just let us know which items or colors you need!  Don't hesitate to ask us for help if you need it...can't wait to see what fun styles you come up with, it really makes the images turn out fantastic if you follow these guidelines.  :-)