Virtual Shopper: An Autumn Family Wardrobe

By far, the most common question I am asked is, “What should I wear?”

As I sit here in my pale blue t-shirt, ash grey hoodie and jeans, I feel particularly DISqualified to give fashion advice. However, one thing I’m pretty good at is coordinating clothes for my photo clients. I like to plan clothing for photo shoots based on current fashion trends for classic clothes, in colors that compliment skin tones and the natural environments in which we’ll be shooting. With the onset of fall, we always see clothing colors change hue to reflect the changing colors of the leaves — rich dark red, deep forest green, burnt orange, chocolate brown, pale yellow. As we morph into winter, we’ll see pinks, lighter greens and teals replacing the yellows and oranges. (Avoid primary colors — bright red, royal blue, kelly green. Gives a photographer the shivers.)

Coordinating clothing for one person is really not so hard: pair of jeans, white t-shirt, comfy red sweater, dark brown pea coat, stripey scarf, voila! an outfit that compliments the natural colors of fall. But how do you coordinate clothing for an entire family? That’s not so easy. So I gave myself a little assignment: could I put together some virtual outfits for groups of people based on the notion of sticking within a color palette, limiting patterns, and picking up colors from within the patterns? Could I do this on a budget? Could I avoid shirts with logos and silk screening?

My virtual shopping trip landed me at Old Navy, Target, American Eagle, Urban Outfitters, Land’s End and a store that sells “Life is Good” hats and scarves.

I wasn’t organized enough to actually write down what each item cost, but most of what I put together came from Old Navy and Target, so that should give you an idea. Probably the single most expensive thing I “bought” was the stripey hat!

THE RULES: Stick within a color palette, limit patterns, avoid logos, don’t be boring!

Here’s what I came up with: (Click the thumbnails to enlarge the images.)

I call this “Teal and Brown.” Teal does not fall within the fall color palette unless you live at the beach. Hey, rules are made to be broken! Let’s have fun! Notice the accessories. Necklaces and bracelets add color, interest and texture.

Also notice that the stripey sweater is sized for a small person — a baby or little girl. If you choose an outfit like that, be sure to also include an outfit for that child in a more subtle pattern or color so that we get lots of variety in our pictures!


Here’s the stripey hat I love. Notice how the entire wardrobe pulls off colors in that one little hat. Imagine that hat on an adorable little blue-eyed sweetie who is being held in your arms, your arms that are covered with a burnt orange sweater (I think that one came from Abercrombie) picking up the burnt orange stripe. Love it!

Note: horizontal stripes are to be completely avoided on women, and are to be used sparingly on everybody else. That olive sweater is just about right for a 4- to 12-year-old boy.


This one is a little dressier than the others. Not exactly my style, but I thought I’d try for a slightly less casual look just to see how it might work. The argyle sweater has a delicate red stripe. We’ll pick up on that in the red sweater, and we’ll bounce off the grey with a grey tweed blazer for added texture. But I prefer casual, so I dressed the argyle down by pairing it with khakis for dad. Or, as an alternative, if he’s the type to wear dress shoes, this would be the time to wear them and substitute those khakis for a pair of dark jeans. Best coat to layer: black leather trench or flight jacket. Perfect if you already have one in your wardrobe.


This set has a lot of pink. Pink is very big right now, and works especially well for those late fall shoots when the brilliant colors of autumn have begun to fade and our beautiful trees begin to show off their inner shape. The pink is going to work nicely with a clear blue sky, which we will see a lot of with no leaves to block it out. Plus, pink is GREAT with brown, and since a lot of the leaves are going to be brown by the end of fall, pink is good! (Add some bright or even stripey leggings to your daughter’s skirt for a few pictures. Very fun and wintery!)

So, as you glance at those thumbnails, can you see the color palettes and how they change? Can you see how some items in some of the sets wouldn’t work so good in other sets? (The orange sweater is not going to work so good in the pink set, for example.)

One word of warning: I’m showing a lot of hooded shirts and I actually don’t like hooded shirts all that much for family shoots because we tend to throw the children up in the air and upside down. That hood is going to mess up our pictures! So if you go for a hoodie, throw in a sweater change without a hood so we have some options.

Remember that if we are shooting outside in winter, it’s likely to be cold. Big down coats don’t do a whole lot for our figures, so it’s best to shoot for short periods of time, going from inside to out, and dressing in layers so that the coat can be unzipped. That said, hats and scarves are great for pictures as long as they coordinate with the other clothes and coats. Most importantly, have fun! Never force your child to wear something he absolutely hates. There’s nothing wrong with black and white pictures! I LOVE black and white!

One more note: please take this advice as merely a stepping off point for those of you who would like a little help choosing clothes. Nothing is written in stone here. Wear what you like, wear what’s comfortable, be happy, because when day is done all we ever really care about is whether you had a good breakfast that gave you lots of energy for your photo shoot and whether you brushed your teeth! (Because you’ll be smiling a LOT!)

Ask any one of my victims, I mean clients, about that need for lots of energy on photo shoot day! It’s a given. Now if I just had some energy to change out of this ash hoodie and pale blue t-shirt (blah, boring) I’d be in good shape!