The most common way, which most framework use to solve that, is to set a top margin on the items (tag) instead, and then compensate that with a negative margin on the items parent (tags)
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
html, body {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.container {
width: 600px;
margin: 0 auto;
margin-top: 25px;
border: 1px solid;
padding: 5px;
}
.tags {
list-style-type: none;
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
flex-wrap: wrap;
justify-content: flex-start;
margin-top: -5px; /* compensate top */
}
.tag {
padding: 5px;
background-color: #76FF03;
margin: 5px 5px 0 0; /* top, right */
}<div class="container">
<ul class="tags">
<li class="tag item-1">Tag Item 1</li>
<li class="tag item-2">Tag Item 2</li>
<li class="tag item-3">Tag Item 3</li>
<li class="tag item-4">Tag Item 4</li>
<li class="tag item-5">Tag Item 5</li>
<li class="tag item-6">Tag Item 6</li>
<li class="tag item-7">Tag Item 7</li>
<li class="tag item-8">Tag Item 8</li>
<li class="tag item-9">Tag Item 9</li>
<li class="tag item-10">Tag Item 10</li>
<li class="tag item-11">Tag Item 11</li>
<li class="tag item-12">Tag Item 12</li>
<li class="tag item-13">Tag Item 13</li>
<li class="tag item-14">Tag Item 14</li>
<li class="tag item-15">Tag Item 15</li>
<li class="tag item-16">Tag Item 16</li>
</ul>
</div>And an even better way might be to give the same margin to all item's sides, though half the value.
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
html, body {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.container {
width: 600px;
margin: 0 auto;
margin-top: 25px;
border: 1px solid;
padding: 5px;
}
.tags {
list-style-type: none;
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
flex-wrap: wrap;
justify-content: flex-start;
}
.tag {
padding: 5px;
background-color: #76FF03;
margin: 2.5px;
}<div class="container">
<ul class="tags">
<li class="tag item-1">Tag Item 1</li>
<li class="tag item-2">Tag Item 2</li>
<li class="tag item-3">Tag Item 3</li>
<li class="tag item-4">Tag Item 4</li>
<li class="tag item-5">Tag Item 5</li>
<li class="tag item-6">Tag Item 6</li>
<li class="tag item-7">Tag Item 7</li>
<li class="tag item-8">Tag Item 8</li>
<li class="tag item-9">Tag Item 9</li>
<li class="tag item-10">Tag Item 10</li>
<li class="tag item-11">Tag Item 11</li>
<li class="tag item-12">Tag Item 12</li>
<li class="tag item-13">Tag Item 13</li>
<li class="tag item-14">Tag Item 14</li>
<li class="tag item-15">Tag Item 15</li>
<li class="tag item-16">Tag Item 16</li>
</ul>
</div>