On the Street: Breaking Black

I met a woman today who's style caught my eye. I was at my day job and she was a customer, so I abstained from a full-length shot... conflict of interests and what not. Before she left, however, I asked if she'd mind my photographing her watch/bracelet combo.

She was dressed nicely, with a form-fitting black knit shirt and some dark- wash skinny jeans. All in all, the outfit employed a very dark color scheme.
There was a little bit of ivory in her shoes, which, along with stripes of black, made up a very minimalist thong design. The big "black breaker" was in her watch, shown above (please click the image to see full size). She told me she had purchased both the watch and bracelet in New York City. I love the subway theme of the watch. In retrospect, I wish I had taken another picture to capture the band, which traced subway routes in bright colors against a shiny black plastic backdrop.

I was also impressed with her wearing of the watch with the chinese beaded bracelet. Cary Grant wore a thin gold chain bracelet with his watch, and I used to wear my bracelets on the same wrist as my watch as well... that is until I noticed the finish on a Rolex getting scratched and dull looking: not a viable tradeoff for fashion, in my opinion. A bracelet can be a very classy and tasteful accessory to a watch, and even if it seems a little bit more acceptable on a woman, the bold, chunky bracelet in the pictured example suggested a little bit of rebelious style.

A great point to take away from this post is the importance of breaking black. Through all of its darkness and neutrality, black clothing begs for one colorful accessory to scream out, "Here I am!" The key is not doing it ostentatiously. The subtle injection of color is a delicate art and can easily be overdone. I think the pictured example perfectly illustrates restraint and class.
This combo works. And it works well. I don't know that this delightfully colorful watch would work as well without the bracelet as its pairing. The colors in the watch, which our stylish lady must have worn with the intent of injecting some color into her ensemble, are kept at bay and restrained by more black, this time in the bracelet. Superbly done. Mrs. _______, I salute you.
Until next time,
Cheers!
-Paul