From the casual to the modern, you can invest in your style with different neutral colour looks.
I love colours, prints, but more and more I have dedicated my attention to neutral colours. They help me create any look with prints or colours, and when combined they add elegance to the mix.
One of my favourite colours of the moment is grey. This colour has been my ‘wildcard’ for the winter season – the darker tones are great to give black a little break. Light tones help give a winter outfit more levity, even with heavier layers and fabrics.
How can you create looks with neutral tones and make it visually interesting?
- Pick a neutral colour that you like, that you are comfortable with;
- Bet on different textures and fabrics – that will add visual layers to your look;
- You can also bet in different tones from a same colour – this way you can create small contrasts between the pieces;
- If you’d like, you can choose a highlight spot with a different colour. You can do that with part of the outfit, with an accessory, make-up (lipstick) – in my case, my hair colour is usually a highlight.
In these pictures I’m using an oversized light grey sweater, and I chose to include a wool jacket that is almost the same colour (both from Zara) and grey trousers with a darker tone (from Laís David – almost vintage). And to complete the look I chose a pair of white boots (from Mango), and one of my favourite items from this season (I know for most this is a love/hate ‘marmite’ scenario), and a light grey fedora (from The Last Stop For The Curious), to keep the same pallet.
I’m betting in neutral colour looks, especially grey and beige, and maybe (or not) including a colour highlight to the look. In this picture you can see I chose to keep the neutral colours only, changing slightly the tones.
But neutral colours go way beyond grey and beige – we cannot forget white, black, blue – various tones, brown, camel, etc.
Something else that gave a little boost to my wardrobe this season was choosing lighter colour looks. I bet on some new combinations, and used items that were forgotten during the winter.
The colours in this picture are all based on graphite. They were taken in Shoreditch, one of my favourite neighbourhoods and spots in London – full of graffiti and street art.
Pictures are by Fernando BA, a long time partner of my work. To find out more about his photography work, click here.
