How to Style Bold Accessories Without Overdoing It

By Emily 2025-06-20

When it comes to accessories, less is usually more. If you’re wearing jewelry, watches, scarves, hats, and sunglasses, and no one piece stands out, your look will end up looking cluttered. Choose a handful of accessories to punctuate your look or highlight features you want to emphasize.

Wearing a full jewelry set, including earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings, can make your entire look seem too busy. Try wearing just earrings or necklaces instead of both, and limit the number of rings you wear at one time.
If you do wear a variety of different accessories, make sure they’re not competing for attention with each other. Pair your metals and colors to make your accessories look like they were carefully chosen. For example, you could wear large gold earrings, a colorful scarf in warm tones, and a gold watch for a simple look.

Pair bold accessories with understated clothing

If your wardrobe consists of a lot of neutrals, like black, white, beige, olive green, or navy, accessories give you a chance to experiment with fun colors and add a pop of color to your outfit. The best thing about neutral colors is that they go really well with most other colors, so you don’t need to worry too much about matching your accessories to your outfit. Here are a few ways to liven up your neutral look with bold accessories:

Pair a thin red or hot pink belt with a black or navy dress.
Wear a bright orange or yellow scarf, or pair with a khaki or olive outfit and shoes.
Brighten up your white shirt with a colorful statement necklace or big drop earrings.

Avoid too much matching

However, sometimes this can look a little old-fashioned or childish. Throwing some unexpected, yet surprisingly perfect accessories into the mix can show off your creativity and spice up the outfit.

1.Use the color wheel to help you create interesting and complementary color combinations. For example, if you’re wearing a purple shirt, try adding some mustard or lemon items to your look instead of looking for the same shade of purple. Since yellow is purple’s opposite on the color wheel, your look will be very eye-catching.

2.When wearing black and white, if you wear a black and white floral top, pair it with a bright blue medium-sized beaded necklace and some cute blue earrings.

3.While it’s usually unwise to overdo the look, it can be fun if you do it deliberately. Wear red pants and top with red sunglasses and a red scarf for a vintage and trendy look. Your monochromatic look will definitely attract attention.

Wear items that highlight the color of your outfit

For example, if your skirt is black with a small floral pattern, you can wear a ceramic bracelet that matches the green of the flower leaves. Highlighting one color will make the overall outfit look more neat and elegant.

You can also use accessories to tie together two seemingly mismatched items. Choose an accessory that matches the color of both items, such as a scarf that matches the pink on your shirt and the beige on your pants. This way, your overall outfit will look like each piece was carefully selected rather than randomly put together.

Adjust your accessories to your signature style

If you’re new to collecting accessories, start by choosing a few pieces that match your current style. Once you’re comfortable with accessorizing, start experimenting with bolder pieces that you might not normally think of as “you.”

Here are some basic pieces you might want to add to your shopping list:

Earrings: Silver or gold hoop earrings, gemstone studs, and a few pairs of fun drop earrings.
Necklaces: A tasteful silver or gold chain, a strand of pearls, and a bold statement necklace.
Scarves: A neutral scarf that goes with anything, and a few bold scarves to show off your personality.
Belts: A classic leather belt, a wide statement belt, and an elegant thin belt.
Hair accessories: A row of barrettes, a headband or two, and if you’re into hats, sun hats and berets are also great options.