Safe or Smokin': The spark of yellows and oranges
Like many women in the Passage, I rely on super-safe everyday neutrals. Then I see someone in an audacious mix, such as teal trousers and a fuchsia coat, I think, What happened to me?
Two colours, pungent yellow and juicy orange, are especially current. Grown women rightly fear looking like a walking fire hydrant, but these hues are smokin' from the first glance, especially when you add a second or third intense colour.
Today's windows are an advanced class in fearlessly working yellow and orange. If you prefer a smolder to smoke, they also spark your favourite neutrals; I can't believe how sharp mustard looks with any grey.
Key piece: Six-ply Cashmere slouchy polo; Brora; price, £595
Expensive! The bad news: The yellows look ghastly in average yarns.
Key piece:
Turquoise washed velvet jean, Pure Collection, $145
Co-stars: Yes, you do need to treat that shoe with TLC! The sweater will also revive neutrals.
Citron suede day heel; Everlane, $145. If you can't wear yellow near your face, put it on your foot!
Blackforest wool Imogen sweater; Boden, $130.
Key piece: Tangerine poly a-line skirt with frills; COS, $115
Normally I avoid frills anywhere, but this is—if such a thing exists—a strict frill.
Co-stars: The classic sweater in a novel shade; a scarf in an enchanting colourway. See it close-up!
Cashmere short-sleeved pullover in Fiesta Purple; Eric Bompard, €100 (sale price to Nov. 26)
Silk "Ophelia" scarf'; Liberty, £195
You can shift the colour wheel to blues or greens if you don't like yellow or orange—as long as they're not too pale to register a pulse.
How you wear an audacious key piece depends on your colour capacity, and there is no "right". If you don't usually pile on intense hues, try at least one piece in the current citron-to-signal-orange and you will immediately feel its energy and exuberance.
Are you daring or sparing, when it comes to the most vibrant tones on the color wheel? Are you cozying up to more colour, or committed to the neutral playbook? Have your colour choices changed with time?
Two colours, pungent yellow and juicy orange, are especially current. Grown women rightly fear looking like a walking fire hydrant, but these hues are smokin' from the first glance, especially when you add a second or third intense colour.
Today's windows are an advanced class in fearlessly working yellow and orange. If you prefer a smolder to smoke, they also spark your favourite neutrals; I can't believe how sharp mustard looks with any grey.
Key piece: Six-ply Cashmere slouchy polo; Brora; price, £595
Expensive! The bad news: The yellows look ghastly in average yarns.
Co-stars: A duet of intense colours to stand up to that swipe of mustard:
Forest green velvet pants; Boden, $120
Shoes: Etta red-orange ankle boot; Boden, $120Key piece:
Turquoise washed velvet jean, Pure Collection, $145
Co-stars: Yes, you do need to treat that shoe with TLC! The sweater will also revive neutrals.
Citron suede day heel; Everlane, $145. If you can't wear yellow near your face, put it on your foot!
Blackforest wool Imogen sweater; Boden, $130.
Key piece: Tangerine poly a-line skirt with frills; COS, $115
Normally I avoid frills anywhere, but this is—if such a thing exists—a strict frill.
Co-stars: The classic sweater in a novel shade; a scarf in an enchanting colourway. See it close-up!
Cashmere short-sleeved pullover in Fiesta Purple; Eric Bompard, €100 (sale price to Nov. 26)
Silk "Ophelia" scarf'; Liberty, £195
You can shift the colour wheel to blues or greens if you don't like yellow or orange—as long as they're not too pale to register a pulse.
How you wear an audacious key piece depends on your colour capacity, and there is no "right". If you don't usually pile on intense hues, try at least one piece in the current citron-to-signal-orange and you will immediately feel its energy and exuberance.
Are you daring or sparing, when it comes to the most vibrant tones on the color wheel? Are you cozying up to more colour, or committed to the neutral playbook? Have your colour choices changed with time?
Comments
That being said - I do have a pair of very bright turquoise jeans which I wear with white. I could add a bright pink top instead or a print of turquoise and pink - something like that....
As you say, yellow is a very tricky colour to wear - and the shade shown in your post would do nothing for me! But hey - if you can carry it off - more power to you!
This post was inspired by a woman (maybe 45?) who walked by me last Sunday morning in these amazing chartreuse patent boots, and deep purple jeans, big chunky grey turtleneck. Wow, I thought: relaxed and current.
I had been thinking for awhile about what makes women look current and conclude with a queasy feeling that it's the neutral plus •one• colour thing in which I and so many of our age feel good.
There is another way out of this very, very minor dilemma: choosing all-neutral or monochromes,(examples: ivory and black, three shades of grey, or olive with black). That's the look you see in Everlane's ads and most of us have the things to do that.
We can still have the scarves. I need the scarf!
I feel like the moment in the 1980s when I realized shoulder pads were over: "Now what?! And I pray this is not going to be expensive."
You've done a beautiful job balancing the colors and the overall outfits - brava!
hugs,
Janice
I saw a women in mustard pants and a neutral top in the grocery store and she looked gorgeous!
I think color on the bottom half is a safer, more wearable look for most of us.
I think Janice brings up a very important point: what colours look attractive vs lurid depends to a great deal about the quality of the light and the architecture. There is so much burnt orange on the walls of Rome that I bought items of that tone when studying there and never wore them at home.
A taxi driver from Haiti told me about the first time his mother visited and how horrified she was to see everyone in "funereal" black. He added that she lives here now, and of course, dresses in "elegant" black...
Jane, wouldn't that depend on her body type?
I think the thing is to look less 'done'. Our women are spectacular at that, an offhand, not label driven sense of insouciant individuality.
lagatta: We all have visceral responses to colour, associations that have not much to do with what we think we can wear. I am sure you were beautiful in burnt orange. And we should pay attention to them, because who wants to feel like she is wearing someone else's clothes?
I too have talked about light and visual weight of fabric. I am a nut for dye quality. There is dull, sad navy and there is mysterious and rich navy. As for body size, not much time for stylists who'd put large women in 'slimming'
darks.
I think we can all agree - wear your, cream, black, orange, forest green or all the above with confidence. Confidence is beautiful.
That Liberty scarf is stunning, so rich and detailed. Thanks for the colour hit.
I did, however, buy a colourful silk and mohair knit vest from Mohair La Pinède last week at the Circle Craft Fair and would greatly like a pair of those green velvet jeans to go with it. I do think that it takes a lot of confidence or insouciance to carry off a lot of bright colour.
Being short, I've trained myself to think in terms of a vertical column of color. I'm thinking now about having that column be dark green and adding an ochre or mustard top layer....
But yes, even this black-loving gal is wanting to wear more color these days.
and I love orange, gold and rust colors.
But just like plus-sized women not wearing colour, I think that's size-ist and limiting. I've seen some petite women like you, in two very contrasty colours between the top and bottom and they look great. I think all those 'rules' stem from women's dread of looking larger than they are.
Leslie: Crazy colours are not imprudent, but may be impudent! (Could not resist.) Perhaps olive? Burgundy?
My friend Lou came over in a pair of turquoise jeans and charcoal tunic with turquoise pendant, wow, great. She definitely has hips.
In general I' say that very harsh primaries and fluorescents don't look good on white-skinned older women, but women with dark skin can look fantastic in them. Fortunately that leaves an immense range for everyone.