1. A method for clothing search in images, comprising: characterizing, using a processor, clothing within a plurality of reference images; characterizing, using a processor, clothing within a query image; identifying, using a processor, a first subset of the plurality of reference images having clothing with similar color features as clothing of the query image; and selecting, using a processor, a second subset derived from the identified first subset of the plurality of reference images, the second subset including those plurality of reference images having clothing with similar predefined clothing attributes other than color as clothing of the query image.