Two colours and a neutral. Start from the piece you actually want to wear rather than from a theory. Give it one partner colour. Let a neutral take the third slot, usually the largest area or the shoes. That structure is behind an enormous proportion of outfits that look considered.
Black, white, cream, grey, navy, tan and denim are low chroma, which means they carry very little colour information. They do not compete, so they let the one or two colours you chose be the point. In Awtfit's engine a neutral is scored as a wildcard rather than as a bad match, precisely because a black trouser goes with a pastel palette in real life while losing every distance calculation on paper.
The common advice is to keep an outfit warm or keep it cool. The more useful version is that warm and cool need a size difference to work. A rust jacket over a navy jumper looks intentional. Equal amounts of rust and navy look like an accident. When you mix temperature, make one of them clearly dominant.
Two colours the same distance apart on a wheel can read as sophisticated or as mud, and the difference is usually lightness. If two pieces are the same brightness, the outfit goes flat no matter how correct the hues are. Put a clear step in lightness between the top and the bottom and almost any pairing improves.
A saturated colour is a whole outfit's worth of attention. Wear it, and let the rest of the look be neutral or a muted version of the same family. Two vivid colours can work, but they need to belong to the same palette rather than merely both being bright.
A patterned piece contains a palette. Pull one of its quieter colours for the rest of the outfit and it will look considered, because you are matching something that was designed to work.
Every colour in the colour index has its own page showing the actual palettes it belongs to, with the other colours in each one. That is the fastest way to answer "what goes with this jumper" for a specific colour rather than in general.
Or skip the theory: Awtfit does this on your own wardrobe and shows you the result on your body.
Two colours plus a neutral. Pick the piece you actually want to wear, choose one partner colour from a palette it belongs to, and let a neutral carry the third slot.
Yes, and the idea that they clash is a hangover from tailoring conventions. Both are near neutrals, so what matters is that the difference reads as deliberate: keep a clear gap in lightness between them or make one of them obviously the darker anchor.
Two or three, plus neutrals. Beyond that you need a reason: a pattern that already contains the colours, or one deliberately loud piece with everything else quiet.
This is about how garments relate to each other. Skin tone changes which of two equally valid palettes flatters you more, which is a judgement Awtfit leaves to you by showing you the outfit on your own body before you wear it.
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