How to wear darker colours in summertime

Twice a year the company Pantone put out a colour palette that we should all be wearing – colours for spring/summer and autumn/winter. In my experience I have rarely seen any of their suggested colours make it into the shops. One or two maybe but then I don’t shop at designer shops, where you might find more of the colours Pantone advocate. In my opinion, these days You Tube influencers such as Lydia Tomlinson, Emma Hill, Lydia Elise Millen and many others are dictating fashion styles and colours enormously. These ladies don’t tend to go for colourful clothes but base their wardrobes around neutral colours, which certainly do all mix and match effortlessly together.

Whilst I agree that neutral clothes do look chic and elegant, having trained in colour analysis, I am very much for wearing colourful clothes that make us look healthy and glowing. You have to have neutral colours in your wardrobe of course as they will go with anything but you don’t have to stick to just neutrals and pastels. You can also wear the deeper and darker colours that are in your palette but in lighter fabrics such as linen, cotton or viscose so that they look suitable for summer. Here are some examples:

If you have deep, bright and cool colouring (Winter) try black, purple, forest green, dark navy, fuchsia or charcoal grey.

If you have deep, muted and warm colouring (Autumn) then colours such as aubergine, pine green, dark olive and chocolate brown will look good.

If you have bright and warm colouring (Spring) you have less in the way of dark colours in your palette but try cobalt blue, bright navy, chocolate, leaf green and bright purple to wear in summer materials.

If you have cool, light and muted colouring (Summer), try raspberry, grey, cassis, burgundy, dark purple and navy.

All the above colours can be combined with your best neutrals in accessories or other items of clothing. Of course, you have to go with what is available in the shops or online but as long as you keep your over all look summery, there is no reason why you can’t wear darker colours at this time of year.