Breaking Personal Fashion Rules: Pink and Red

I have a clear memory of coloring some super stylish outfit of my own design in fifth grade, when my best friend told me it was a great look with hideously clashing colors. "Don't you know you're not supposed to mix pink and red?" My iron-clad elementary logic came back with something like, "We'll the Little Mermaid has bright red hair and she wears a pink dress in the movie!"

I've thought about this occasionally over the past fifteen years and still can't figure out why so many women are hung up on this color combination. If someone told us we couldn't wear black and grey or powder blue and navy, we'd ignore them. Sure, an orangey pink and a purplish red wouldn't look so great, but that doesn't mean we need to avoid all red and light red combos.

In the two above looks, I tried to keep the shoes and bag neutral to keep the eyes from jumping from one color to the next. In the look below, I separated the pink and red, which would be a simple experiment if you can hear your mother clucking her tongue over your outfit.

Do you mix pink and red?