We get this question very often here at the studio; “What should I wear for my portrait?”  I always respond by thanking them for their question as what you wear is so very important for what you would like to reflect in your portrait.

My response is always, wear what best reflects your family’s personality.  If it’s formal and conservative, wear elegant dresses and suits for Dad.  Dress as if you are taking the family to an elegant restaurant.  If you’re more relaxed and informal, wear a pair of nice jeans, sweaters and colorful scarves.  Dress as if you are taking the family out to a nice family restaurant.

Now, there are items of clothing that are complementary to the body and complexion.  Then there are types of clothing that work against us.  My recommendation is to wear dark solids.  Dark solids always help with slimming.

Stay away from stripes, patterns, plaids, prints, logos or lettering.  These tend to distract the viewer whereas solid colors tend to isolate faces and keep the family as the focus of the portrait.  Primary red and primary blue tend to place their shade onto face so I would suggest to stay away from these colors as well.  Both these colors as well as flourescents also tend to be dominant forces in portraits I find.

When making a determination on how to coordinate colors with the family, one does not always have to be overly concerned with wearing matching tops and bottoms.  Coordinating colors and finding colors that complement each other is very important.

Instead of matching, try to pick two simple colors that coordinate well with each other.  Once you have picked your two colors, tell each family member to select wear clothing featuring either both colors or one.  For instance, if your colors are white and navy, dad can wear a navy suit with a white dress shirt, mom can wear an all white dress, sister can wear a navy blouse with white pants and brother can wear a white sweater and white bottom with a navy scarf.  Both white and navy are featured in this family portrait without being matchy or clashing.