a few years ago, before i started putting effort into dressing up, i was known as the person who only wore black and/or white — maybe grey, if i was feeling wild. to be clear, i still LOVE an all-black outfit, but it can be stifling to feel afraid to break outside of this. let’s play with colour!
♡ making the rules
you’ll hear this a lot, but it’s true: you can wear anything if you have the confidence! if you like the way something looks on you, wear it! that's the whole point of dressing up, after all. different colours will look good with different skin tones, hair colours, eye colours, etc. — these "rules" are merely meant to make venturing into the world of colour less daunting.
what is a colour? let’s speed through it:
hue — the “colour” as you think of it, i.e. red, yellow, blue.
saturation — how vivid the colour is.
lightness — how light or dark the colour is.
with this in mind, let’s look at some “rules”.
the role of lightness and saturation
a colour at 100% saturation and 50% lightness will usually read as very vivid and bright — but wearing colour doesn’t always mean wearing these types of colours. if red is too loud, try burgundy; navy instead of sky blue, khaki instead of lime green, etc. lowering one (or both) of saturation and lightness could make a colour feel a lot more “toned down” and maybe easier to wear.
✧ matching analogous colours
some of my favourite combinations of analogous colours are blue & green or yellow & red. mixing similar colours can be a bit tricky, so i find that playing with saturation and lightness is important here. for example, mixing shades of blue and yellow at similar levels of saturation or lightness levels can be noisy, but turning down the intensity of one of the colours can make it all feel a bit more wearable.
✧ matching contrasting colours
wearing contrasting colours together can make for a bolder look, and tends to work pretty well with minimal effort. i really like how blue & yellow look together, or green & red (though this can end up looking very christmas-y if you’re not careful hehe). adding a neutral shade like black or white can help tie more daring colours together, and turning down the saturation and/or lightness on one of the colours can also make things magically come together.
♡ breaking the rules
at the end of the day, dressing well is about developing your eye for what looks good on you. as always, think about the type of story you want to tell with your outfit. darker and less saturated colours might be better for a serious occasion, while bright contrasting colours can be really fun and exciting.
the best way to find out what colours you like together is to try different combinations and build your mental closet dictionary. find a combination that works and iterate upon it, substituting pieces in and out to discover new possibilities. think about the proportions of each colour within your outfit. play with monochromatic outfits of all one colour, or three or more colours! and if it’s all too much, you can always go back to the tried-and-true all-black outfit.
♡ baby steps
even after learning all of the “rules” and how to break them, introducing non-neutrals can be daunting. i recommend starting small: jeans, accessories, and easy colours.
jeans can be the perfect way to start integrating colour into your wardrobe — they’re safe, since they’re just jeans, but a great pair of blue jeans can be such a fun and colourful piece to play with.
investing in one or two colourful accessories is a really easy way to incorporate colour into an outfit. a colourful beaded necklace or statement scrunchie can immediately make an otherwise simple outfit more fun!
some colours are easier to wear than others; i don’t think i’ve ever successfully worn orange! on the other hand, blue, deep green, and shades of brown are relatively easier to coordinate. even brown can read as ‘colourful’ if worn with cool neutral shades — it’s all about relationships and what you want to convey with your outfit~
♡ what i’ve been loving
and a couple more colourful pieces, to apologize for my absence…
♡ parting words
thanks for reading~ i’ll be posting a lot more regularly from now, so lemme know what you wanna hear about!
this newsletter is so helpful !! i'm just now starting to really think about the clothes i wear and what they mean to me, what im trying to say w my fashion, and it feels like i have so much to learn. this is such a great resource, you explain these ideas so well and these posts make me feel ready to try something new in how i dress :-) thank you so much for making this !! <3