Style in brief: prints, colours and textures

Here are some good and bad examples for you. I did my best to make experiments as pure as possible, keeping the same pose, the same background, the same hair do and make up. This is to get clear view how appearance can change in different colours, prints or even textures.

How to mix prints in one look? Prints are mixed perfectly in casual looks, very often these sets look better than simply plain garment + printed one. On this photo right set is much better than left one, because... There are few rules. 
1. Flowers + flowers, geometry + geometry, abstract + abstract. This is what right set has. 
2. Similar brightness. On the left top is much brighter, trousers look old and worn out with this flowery neighbour. On the right top and bottom look harmoniously with each other. 
3. One should work as contrast or accent. Left set is pretty dark and seems gloomy without accent. Top and bottom in the right set are contrasting with each other, it looks more fresh, vibrant and eye-catching. 

Here I made one more prints example for you. Left photo looks much better than right one. Well, I must say that shape correction works too, but let's look closely on prints and colours. 
On the left top and bottom are very close in colour mix and floral print. Dark green neckline detail makes an accent, which puts the look together and attracts attention to my face. 
Right look fails. Without accent or focal point it looses structure and looks like a set of non-matching garments. Top and bottom don't match with each other due to different prints: floral trousers and paisley abstract pullover can't belong to one story.
By the way accent is not necessarily garment detail. Belt, sometimes footwear, handbag, sunglasses or make up can be the accent too. Accent is always only one, but some other accessory can make it stronger. I believe that red patent shoes on the left photo strengthen green neckline facing. It works because red and green are complimentary colours and they make each other brighter. Besides red-green is very strong contrast, it is challenging and all fashion designers love to give it a try. Red-green always looks fashionable and it is not annoying here, because red and green are not put together. They are divided by the long space of calming floral print. 

There are four ingredients in the successful look, and each of them is important. They are: colour, print, shape and texture. Let's talk about texture.
Texture is a surface of fabric. It can be smooth and shiny like silk, or grainy and rough like tweed. It can give your garment pattern, or depth, or layers illusion, or leave it plain. It can make plain fabric patterned and intriguing.
Colourwise you should remember this rule: cool colours look better in smooth fabrics, but warm tones require some texture.
Is smooth or textured better for you? It really depends on the facial features, lines of face, skin and hair.
For example let's look on these two pullovers in very similar colours. Left one is textured, it has clear knitted pattern with small holes. Holes show lighter tone of my skin - it makes texture even stronger. Right one is smooth.
Left pullover makes my face softer, more feminine, and I think, nicer. Texture goes well with my soft hair and blends in the image perfectly. Right one makes my features coarser and don't look so natural on me. It is not too bad though, as necklace or neckerchief could improve the situation. If I had very sleek shiny skin and smooth hair, left pullover would make me look like a plastic doll and it itself would seem old and worn out. In that case right one would be better.