On my profile, one of my interests are "clashing prints worn together." I've blogged about pattern mixing as there really is a technique or else you'll look like you got dressed in the dark.

The NYT has taken up this subject, battling the notion of something "not going together." In today's style, almost everything goes:

"...From skate kids (for whom nerdy plaid has become a badge of honor) to British and Italian dandies (for whom the graphic prints and stripes of Paul Smith and Etro are sober neutrals), the old rules about pattern-on-pattern dressing have been tossed on the style scrap heap..."

Read more HERE.

All photo credited to NYT

A simple pattern mixing tip, which I learned at my first fashion magazine internship, is that you have to stay within a color family--not to be confused with only one color.

So like the guys above--guy number one wears patterned dark-ish teal and blk pant and a red, kind of intense salmon tee. The multi-burgundy scarf plays up the dark qualities in both.

If those colors were together on a chart they'd meld. So it's not really about the pattern as much as it is about the colors. If the colors are right, the patterns fall in together flawlessly!

Now go out there and throw some stuff together!