How to Wear a Matching Set Without Looking Like You Tried Too Hard

The matching set is the easiest thing in a wardrobe to buy and the easiest to get
wrong. Buy well and you have three outfits. Buy badly and you have a costume you wear
once.

Posse builds most of its collections this way, a top cut to match a skirt, a blouse
cut to match a pant, so it is a useful place to work out the rules.

Rule one: let the set be the loudest thing

A matched pair already carries pattern, texture and repetition. It does not need a
statement necklace fighting it. When the set is embellished, as Posse’s beaded mesh
pieces are, the rest of the look should be almost boring. A bare sandal, a small bag,
one gold earring. That restraint is what separates considered from costumed.

The inverse holds. A plain knitted set in cream can take a bolder shoe and a proper
piece of jewellery, because there is room in the look for it.

Rule two: break the waist

The most common mistake is wearing a set as an unbroken column of one fabric from
shoulder to hem. It flattens the body. The fix is small: tuck the top, show a sliver of
skin, let a contrast waistband do the work. Posse tends to do this for you with
a contrast trim at the hem of a top, which is exactly why those pieces photograph well.

Rule three: the set is two outfits, not one

This is the whole argument for buying separates rather than a dress. Wear the pair to
the wedding. Then wear the beaded cami under a black blazer with tailored trousers for
dinner in November, and the matching skirt with a plain fine-gauge knit on a Saturday.
Two pieces, four looks, and nobody connects them.

When you are shopping, this is the test. Look at each half alone and ask whether you
would buy it on its own. If the answer is no for both halves, you are buying a costume.

Rule four: mind the proportion, not the size

• Cropped top with a mini. Keep the rise high. A gap between hem and
  waistband reads as a mistake rather than a choice unless it is deliberate and even.
• Full skirt with a fitted top. The reliable one. Volume below,
  close above.
• Relaxed jacket with a slim skirt. Works because the eye has
  somewhere to rest.
• Relaxed with relaxed. Hard to pull off. Needs a heel and a very
  good fabric.

Rule five: one texture, one colour, never both loose

If you are mixing rather than matching, hold one thing constant. A cream crochet vest
with cream tailored trousers works because the colour holds. A crochet vest with a
polka dot skirt works if the palette is tight. Let both drift and it stops reading as
intentional.

Where sets go wrong for occasions

For a wedding, check the code before the set. A matched two piece in a bright
embellishment reads closer to bridal party than guest in some settings, which is fine
when you are in the party and awkward when you are not. Deep shades carry the occasion
without competing. For a work event, split the set and wear one half. A full matching
pair in a meeting reads as uniform.

Questions we get asked

Can you wear a matching set to a wedding?

Yes, and it is often a better buy than a dress because both halves stay useful. Avoid
white, cream and very pale neutrals unless the invitation asks for them, and check
whether the bridal party colour clashes.

How do you stop a co-ord looking like pyjamas?

Structure and a broken waist. A soft matched set in a fluid fabric drifts towards
loungewear, so add a shoe with a hard line, tuck the top, and keep the fabric off the
body at one point.

Should a matching set be the same size top and bottom?

Not necessarily. Buy each half to fit. Posse cuts true to size and neat through the
body, so if you are between sizes on one half only, size that half up.

What shoes go with a matching set?

A bare sandal for warm weather and occasions, a pointed flat and a loafer for day. Keep
the shoe quiet when the set is embellished.

Browse the full Posse collection,
and see more in The Dress Edit.