It’s easy to fall into a rut clothing-wise, particularly if you’ve been unwell, dealing with an injury, feeling stressed or simply going through a busy period of life. For many, this means you end up wearing the same colours, often neutrals or darker shades, all the time.
Research backs this up – psychologist Karen Pine found that when women are stressed, they neglect as much as 90% of their wardrobe in favour of a narrower, more repetitive rotation. Pine suggests that this can perpetuate negative feelings due to a concept known as ‘enclothed cognition’.
Enclothed cognition – the idea that what we wear can influence our thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
At its simplest level, this is why wearing a business suit might make you feel more professional than a T-shirt and jeans. But the concept of enclothed cognition also extends to colours and patterns – suggesting that clothing vibrancy might also have an impact on top of style and design.
This isn’t to say that minimalist wardrobes are bad - on the contrary, they’re practical and efficient, helping you to stick to a tighter budget while still rotating outfits. But adding splashes of colour can also have big benefits, as:
The most important thing to remember is that it’s all about what makes you happy. If you regularly wear neutrals because bold colours aren’t your thing, that’s fine! But if you’re looking for ways to get back into wearing colours, this is the place to be. Keep reading for our top tips.
The first step to wearing colour is understanding which shades suit you - and if you’ve tried this before, you’ll know that not every colour works for everyone. This is almost always down to skin undertones.
Your skin tone is the colour you see on the surface of your skin, which can change due to position (your inner arm is always paler than outer, for example) or things like tanning and sun exposure. But your undertones are deeper shades which are less visible but still affect your overall appearance.
People with cool undertones:
People with warm undertones:
Still unsure? You can also test this by trying on silver and gold jewellery. If gold complements your tone, you’re warm; if you light up with silver, you’re cool.
Jewellery isn’t the only thing that can suit or not suit you according to your undertones. Clothing matters, too. Fortunately, it’s simply to understand which shades suit your skin tone better.
Soft and golden hues look great on people with a warmer complexion. If in doubt, resort to the warm end of the colour spectrum and opt for reds, ambers, peaches and golds. Earthy colours, such as olive, orchid and violet, will also expose your natural glow.
Those with cool undertones glow in the colours of the ocean, such as emerald, deep blue, bright purple and icy pink. If warmer colours are more your thing, ruby and rose hues are a great fit, as well as pale yellows and beiges.
Once you know which colours are likely to suit you best, it’s time to start incorporating them into your everyday wardrobe – but how?
First of all, start small. A new approach can feel exciting, but there’s no need to overhaul everything at once. Instead, choose a few versatile pieces you can add gradually, building colour into your outfits in a way that feels easy and enjoyable.
Good candidates to begin with are:
As you grow more confident in wearing colour, you’ll naturally start to incorporate other types of clothing into your wardrobe. Remember the golden rule of shopping for new clothes:
Always identify at least one way you could wear the item with garments you already have before buying.
This helps to avoid adding statement pieces to your wardrobe that you’ll never actually wear.
Many of us tend to stick with neutral shoes most of the time, as they’re easy to match with different outfits and always feel effortless to wear. If this sounds familiar, the thought of wearing vibrant colours on your feet may be a little daunting.
Follow these simple tips to make wearing bold shoes more comfortable:
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to pair a bright, patterned outfit with neutral shoes and save more vibrant footwear for neutral outfits. This helps to avoid that look of too much going on at once.
However, the exception is when your shoes match some part of your outfit. For example, you could wear a red blouse with matching red shoes, or match your shoes to a single colour from a bold print or pattern.
Top tip! Buying shoes you know will match with one or two items you already have makes this part much easier.
You may have heard the advice to match your footwear with your handbag – and this can be a good idea if you have a bag in the right shade. But it’s not always practical to have handbags in a range of vibrant colours.
Sticking to a neutral handbag is perfectly fine and means you don’t have to sacrifice the use of your go-to bag for fashion. It also helps to avoid that moment when you realise you left your purse in your other handbag!
Instead, match your shoes with other accessories – preferably those closer to your face and/or neckline like necklaces, earrings, lipstick, scarves… This aims to draw attention upwards towards your face while adding a cohesive look to your footwear choice.
While contrasting colours may seem daunting at first, they’re a great way to make your outfit seem even more colourful with little effort. Something as simple as a blue dress paired with orange earrings, an orange pendant and orange heels can pop with vibrancy.
The best way to identify good contrasts is to take a look at a colour wheel - the colours opposite each other will have the biggest contrast. Alternatively, you could take inspiration from fashion-savvy friends, your favourite celebrities or style influencers who focus on real life dressing.
Navy blue is popular for a couple of reasons: the first being that it’s flattering against most skin tones, and the other is that it functions as a neutral when it comes to outfit choices.
This nautical shade is a great choice for a dark neutral if you’re not into harsher black clothing – in fact, navy and cream is a warmer alternative to black and white. Navy blue goes with all other neutrals, including greys, beiges and tans - but can you really wear it with other colours too?
The simple answer is absolutely!
What people often get wrong about navy is treating it like any dark blue shade. What sets navy apart is its muted nature, and that means it pairs best with other muted shades. Depending on your own colour preferences, this could mean:
At the end of the day, the key to wearing more colour in your everyday life is to choose items that make you feel joy. Advice from stylists can be valuable in helping you to pick out outfits or style a specific shade, but ultimately, the choice is yours.
You might already feel fine about your colour choices, especially in the summer months when we naturally reach for the more colourful items in our wardrobes. But even so, every now and then it can be helpful to take a look at what you’re wearing and determine whether it’s really making you happy. And if not, it’s never too late to make a change.
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