Girlfriend:1, Boyfriend:0

Dress: Max Studio, Jacket: Target, Boots:Off Broadway, Belt: Target, Purse: Shoe Dazzle, Bracelets: Ivy & Leo and Century 21, Necklace: Eileens, Rings: LeVian and Handpicked (photos: Carrie Hawkins Foust)

"Wait....I didn't know you could do that!" That is what my friend, Chernee (who I affectionately refer to as Nay-Nay), said today when she saw my black dress with brown boots and jacket. That comment sparked a conversation and a story. I proceeded to tell her that the reason I paired black and brown together was two-fold. For one...I LOVE the combination of black with a dark, camel-colored brown (see Sweet Baby Jane post) and the second reason was to try to convince my boyfriend to burn one, very specific, piece of clothing that he owns. You see my BF has great style. He always looks sharp and has impeccable taste in clothing but everyone has at least one (and only one if you're lucky) piece of clothing that their significant other loathes. In our relationship that piece is an old, ratty leather jacket. It has two zippers. There is this weird lining that zips up into a mock turtle neck (don't even get me started on mock turtle necks) and then there is the main zipper that has an ugly, flat traditional collar. If you cannot visualize what I am talking about, consider yourself lucky. When I asked my normally stylish other half "WHAT IN THE WORLD is up with that jacket", his response was..." I  HAVE to wear it because I wear a camel brown shoe and belt to work most days, so I NEED to wear a brown jacket with it". I said..."Um...pretty sure you don't need to do that, Dude. Wear a black coat with it". He looked at me as if I had 3 heads and needed to turn my style card in immediately to the Fashion Police. We literally had at least a ten minute discussion about it. I argued that that particular shade of brown looks great with black, he retorted with rolled eyes and an exasperated sigh. So here you are...Black and Brown together in perfect harmony. BOO-YA! Pretty sure the final score of that argument was Girlfriend: 1, Boyfriend: 0.

On a side note however, a chocolate brown paired with black doesn't have quite the same appeal. Maybe it is because a dark brown is so close to black that when paired, you run the risk of simply coming off as color blind or that perhaps you got dressed in the dark that morning. Moral of the story is: When pairing black and brown, please do so responsibly.