As I was saying, there is a way to tone down loud, bright, and vibrant colors. As it appears, and as recommended by this GQ Style editorial, the best way to do this is to create three-part colorways.
To mediate between the quarrel between red and white, like the names given to our blood, there is black (care of hair).
'Primary', GQ Style Spring Summer 2010
Photography by Claire Shilland, Styling by David Lamb
In this case, light blue and violet are counted as one. Both of them seamlessly cross over to green. The salmon (orange?) colored socks and the brown (maroon?) colored shoes set off the outfit. (Wonderful collar combination, by the way.)
Red! How argumentative and unstable. Paired with its complementary, green, but in a subdued pastel hue, a subtle lemon lime comes to the rescue.
The complementary pair made casual with navy trousers. Of course it helps that our color firebrand appears as a kind of chestnut.
Faded pastel! The mint green tie merges with the light blue, as both are befriended by the color-specked neutral jacket. Pink nicely cures the boredom, but not in an obtrusive way.
The lesson used here is also applied by painters: add white when you have too much of something.
Ditto.
Red orange seems more amiable with its contemporaries.
You say there is only blue and purple in this picture. But have you seen his pants? Do you think they take on the hue of the yellow flowers?
Magazine details to follow