Helping My Husband Match His Clothing

My husband cannot pick out his own clothes (a little color blind). I am looking for a way he can easily match his shirts in his closet to appropriate pants.

Christine from Des Moines, IA

Answers:

Helping My Husband Match His Clothing

You could hang them together, as individual outfits, and that could help with mornings were he is running late. (08/24/2006)

By Kelly

Helping My Husband Match His Clothing

I love the previous ideas. Dr Phil's wife, Robin, always picks his clothes. If, however, your hubby insists on picking his own clothes, you could draw shape symbols (square, circle, triangle, etc) on the tags that are sewn in the clothing (with a permanent marker). Have a list taped to the closet door that says, for instance, circle = blue, square = green, etc. Just a thought, but I really do like the idea of lovingly helping by laying out the clothes the night before (FlyLady says we women should do that, too) (08/25/2006)

By SL Edens

Helping My Husband Match His Clothing

I have heard people sew either same material types on matching outfits or you could sew a number inside a pair of pants and inside a shirt. They both say 15, so they match. (08/25/2006)

By sandy

Helping My Husband Match His Clothing

As my father has gotten older, this has become a problem for him as well. My mother has sorted through his wardrobe, and donated anything not fitting into a general color scheme. When he needs new things, or we send gifts, we stay within this new color scheme and he would be hard pressed to mismatch an outfit. (08/25/2006)

By Deborah Jones

Helping My Husband Match His Clothing

The easiest way is to lay out or hang together matching outfits. Hang pants, shirt, and matching tie together on a hanger. You can mix up the combinations as you like, and he will always be able to pick out a coordinated outfit. If you stick to black, navy, and gray for pants, all black socks will do, as well as belt and shoes. (08/25/2006)

Helping My Husband Match His Clothing

One Idea I have is this: Simply print out a bunch of colors or letters (Like, NV = Navy Blue, etc.) on your printer. Then cut the color tags into strips, cut or tear of "tags" and simply staple these color tags onto everything as you 're sorting his clothes and/or partition his sock drawer and closet into different colors using the kind of plastic tags they use to mark changes in sizes at the clothing stores. You could make these out of cardboard and laminate with clear contact paper etc.

My Father played pro baseball, and a friend of his was color blind. When his friend traveled to away games, his wife rolled up his ties and socks that matched and put these in his pockets. Sometimes safety pinning shirts to pants in outfits that always matched. (08/26/2006)

By Cyinda

Helping My Husband Match His Clothing

This is a long post but, if you're one of my color-challenged brethren, or you love one of us, you won't mind too much. I have struggled for years with what to wear with what. I hated shopping for clothes even more than do the color-gifted guys. Many suggestions here from others are good, but all have practical limits. From experience, I can tell you many of them will not work well and others, like using color-coded dots, won't help at all for someone who can't tell the difference. Also, we need a system that we can manage by ourselves. We don't all have someone at home to dress us every day. Also, what about when we go shopping for new clothes?

We can't always take someone with us. How often have you guys had the salesperson at the store lay out great-looking combinations only to get them home and, a week later, not remember what goes with what? The fact is that there are maybe a hundred different types and degrees of color-blindness. I am red/green/brown/rust/ and green/gray/blue challenged. They have called it pastel-blind, but it's not as subtle as that label implies. Anyway, one method that works for me both for shopping and when getting dressed at home, is to take pictures.

First- Invest in a Polaroid camera, a few packs of film, and broad-point, indelible, laundry markers; one black and one white.

Shopping- Take a $20 gift certificate for a local lunch spot with you. Only shop where you find a salesperson who you like and who is willing to help you with your choices. Tell them about your color challenge (as you now do, I'm sure). After they show you all your combinations on a table and you have decided what you will buy, have them print the color inside the waist band of each of the slacks and on the back of the belts.

Next, have them again mix and match the different combos with the slack waist and belt turned over to see the color in the photos. Take close-up photos of each combo. It's important to get close-up because a gray and a blue shirt may look the same to you so you want to see the pattern in the fabric in the photo. Same goes for the socks so buy socks with a pattern, even if it's same, color-on-color pattern. You want to see the pattern in the photos.

When you check-out, give your salesperson the gift certificate and get his/her name, number, and work schedule. Ask them to call you if they quit or relocate to a different store. If he/she is a pro, you will always look for them when you shop and they will welcome you by name when you come through the door next time.

Existing wardrobe at home:
We all know at least one good woman who will help with this. Same procedure as when shopping. Don't forget to buy her lunch.

It is interesting that, some months after you do this, you will get the hang of what shades, as you see them, go with what and you might be surprised that you will not dread going shopping for a new shirt and tie. Just take the photo and ask what color slacks to wear with them. Oh yeah, put a bright lamp over your sock drawer . You guys know why. If you're willing to take a little time up front to do this, you will always leave the house looking good. I guarantee it. (05/16/2009)

By MikeF