During the winter months, avoiding a wardrobe comprised entirely of black and grey can be a difficult task. After all, these are very safe colours that go with everything, never date, are flattering, and work well with darker days and duller weather.
But in each Autumn/Winter collection there’s always a couple of stand-out colours to brighten even the darkest of wardrobes, and this season it’s all about orange. Autumn/Winter 2011 catwalks across the globe showed an array of citrus colours, mainly oranges, some creeping in with subtlety, others bold and brash. A bright, bold shade will lift a tired look and accentuate your darker pieces by adding contrast and accentuating lines.
You can go all out with patterned, multi-toned pieces, or you can play up an all-black look with an orange accessory, like a hat, bag or scarf. Mismatching patterned pieces with monochromatic coloured pieces can also work. Orange is intense and vibrant and, unfortunately, a colour that many associate with community service overalls, so less is more.
Mix it with black, grey, tan, even shades of blue, or in summer go with beige, white and eggplant. Orange done well is elegant, refined and very stylish; if it’s good enough for French high fashion house Hermes to package all its products in, it’s good enough for me. Of course, you can’t judge anything by the package it comes in, but anyone who has ever been presented with a little blue box from Tiffany & Co will understand the way the mind comes to associate certain colours with luxury. This should be evident by the fact that Tiffany & Co actually trademarked their signature blue.