The theme for today’s post is playing to the strengths of our natural colours. That’s always our theme, but recently we’ve been learning how to get the most from our Seasonal colour palette, how to recognize our colours and so-important neutral tones. Now with the groundwork done, it’s time to create outfits, today for Soft Summer, 1 of the 12 groups of natural colouring.
Clothing will be mainly neutrals by viewer request and to reflect the modern world where neutral colours are a large part of how we dress, may be more available, and are excellent investments as lasting items.
The colours we're about to see could apply equally well as cosmetics or hair colour. Great colour for you is great colour, however you choose to wear it. Accessories look beautiful with neutral colours in apparel and we'll see how to use them to add excitement and personality to a look. In fact we’re going to build a list.
First, we earn the basics, as we have been in our recent posts, learning to use a system to keep us in our colour lane so we don’t wash up on all sorts of shores. Systems are the machines of the information age we’re living in, a way of thinking about the too-much information to get consistent results and improve our lives.
Once we have our colours analyzed, we know our group or Season. With that alone, we pull back the first curtain between us and our best appearance. The materials used in textiles and footwear, the metals and stones in jewelry, the waxes and powders of cosmetics, and hair colour, each have influence over how colour appears. Look to the e-books for each Season (under the E-Books tab in the main menu above) for a detailed discussion of each category.
Soft Summer 1: Neutrals and colour ranges
I began this image with white and navy, relatable colours for Summer neutrals.
We could take a moment to say that the colours look a little different on every monitor. I have two monitors and as calibrated as I can make them, they’re never quite identical.
Don’t worry if the colours in your palette are not exact matches. Our focus is how to make good decisions in the real world, not an idealized or theoretical world. Beyond exactly matching single ink swatches in a palette, looking at the Big Picture of holistic appearance and how colours work together and with us is a big step towards better choices.
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3729150
The white sweater is on the lighter cooler side of Soft Summer. I see a touch of gold warming the white, but white may be among the more challenging colour decisions. The next step is to see how it works with other colours in the Season. The earrings, scarf, and pearl are compatible with Soft Summer and the relationships appear comfortable.
With the shoe selection, of the 3 pink examples, the top colour is an example of a pink that is lighter and softer than the palette, but still shares a lot with Soft Summer. The second shoe is also good as Soft Summer pink, with the shiny burgundy band at the back that is too pigmented for this palette. The third pair is another good Soft Summer pink, but now the less conventional accent colour is bright orange, a colour with no relationship or shared properties with Soft Summer. Every reader may prefer a different pair for various reasons.
If asked which I would choose if I were a Soft Summer, the light pink shoe at the top seems washed out, possibly more due to the white background. I prefer shoes to look present and supportive. The burgundy area in the second pair looks confusing despite being a colour with similar versions in Soft Summer. My eye would be attracted to the bright orange in the lower pink pair but what looks energetic, athletic, youthful in a good way on another body type appears as costume on me. The effect is misunderstood, which relates to body type, not my Season. I and my inner voice would probably choose the blue striped slip-on.
The cuff bracelet is drifting into Soft Autumn warmth. Thinking about how the colours work rather than palette precision, the white sweater and the bracelet look fine together, but in a shopping situation, we may feel unsure of the commitment. What do we next if we can’t decide: give our eyes another comparison.
I added the gray sweater. Would it change anything for you? Slide your eyes up and down the outfit a few times and register your reaction or sensation. My sensation is overall good, and slightly better than the white because the accessories have more richness, more presence.
I wouldn't exclude the white though. It's easily at the 80-20 mark and I expect white to be hard to gauge from images and on white screens. I love how beautiful white can be for the wearer and my decision would be to see it in person. The gray sweater looks like an easy fit.
Soft Summer 2: Casual neutrals with accessories
Soft colours bestow special gifts. One is subtlety and with these colours, it sings. Too subtle to notice can happen, especially with neutral colours, and here’s where accessories can help. Neutrals are the background for colours and they enhance each other, like neutral eyeshadow and eye colour.
Here is a virtual lay-things-out-on-your-bed impression. Ideas surface by seeing items together, combinations we wouldn’t have predicted. The look on the left is more neutral-based. I enjoy the light to dark gradient from head to toe that we register because our attention would be diverted to colour if it were available. With neutrals, design and texture are more visible, a beautiful feature with neutral outfits for every Season.
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3729477
With the outfit on the left, the scarf is the single colour, so the blue looks more like a colour contribution than a neutral. The scarf also moves through a value range, repeating the gradient effect within the outfit condensed within the accessory.
The stone in the ring is almost black and it adds crispness, as if it sharpens all the other shapes, adding a small focal point without becoming a solid or heavy area. The black also adds value contrast (light to dark distance), as does the boot.
I prefer many types of contrast in a wide variety of outfits, rather than repeating our apparent value contrast in all outfits. The one 'formula' I keep in mind for all Seasons is having a holistic or average darkness level in overall presentation. For Soft Summer, the medium light to medium dark range looks good, essentially repeating the person and the palette.
On the right side, we’ve added more colour in green and blue plus an accessory, the scarf, with both colours. The overall darkness averages to medium or medium dark with the colours enjoying more of our attention.
Gold in the hoop earrings is muted metallic yellow green in brushed metal to soften the reflection, with an open circle design that looks terrific on Summers. The dangling stones sway when the person moves, as we see in both earrings, a peaceful effect, like a porch swing, that is lovely for Summers.
The jeans are more traditional Soft Summer white, with the visible trace of red orange to identify the warmth contribution from Autumn. I think of Soft Summer white as black tea with lots of milk, without the light peachy quality of Spring ivory or yellow.
The green scarf may be a more challenging choice depending on your tastes and if so, it may be good practice to decide if it’s the colour or the style that doesn't feel right. The colours do the job of uniting parts of the outfit together and with you. Soft black, cool rust, light and medium taupe, in a watercolour design are lovely, although the item could just as easily be a plaid flannel scarf. Inside the system or Season, everybody’s right.
Soft Summer 3: 9 to 5
Both outfits fall comfortably under the Soft Summer bell curve. The cardigan in the centre (for either outfit) is an interesting choice of neutral with the multi-colour earrings and a traditional pink and blue combination on the left.
I enjoy combining colours and having to think about my reaction. One of my benchmarks is, the longer I look at it, does it get better or worse? This look was getting better. My eyes could move around the colours feeling relaxed and engaged.
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3729262
On the right, the cardigan connects the dots within the outfit, through the stones and metals of the ring and the leather of the handbag. Similar tones running through items help to unite the parts of an outfit, here as one colour in mixed materials. Even the blue earrings are connecting.
Soft Summer colour compositions can seem quiet or conservative, and more if the styles are conservative as well. With colour, the impact (or lack of) on a pure white page is almost irrelevant because nobody including us sees apparel that way in the real world. Only we see our clothing in our closets and drawers. Others only see them worn by us. In predicting how a colour or outfit will look, it is essential to factor in the most powerful colour contribution of all, meaning the colours of the person wearing them.
Our theme today is, how to make the most of the strengths of this colouring and colour palette. Let's review those strengths. First, softness of colour, offering near unlimited flexibility for combining colours. Second, great ability to wear dark colour so long as it’s soft, offering the formal effect of black and white with more flattering substitutions. Third, the presence of Autumn gives wide variety of choice with shine and texture.
At this point, we've seen a few ways of adding interest to outfits. Let's start a list.
1. Use the wide available distance between lights and darks to create high contrast. You don’t need black, but as we’ll see, there are ways to take advantage of its availability.
2. Combine warm and cool side colours within the palette. People in blended Seasons, a warm and a cool parent, called Neutral Seasons, often have warm and cool associated colours in the surface colours, between skin tone, eyes, hair, lips or eyebrows. I wouldn’t interpret these as meaning the person is on the warm or cool side, distinctions that may be over emphasized or assumed incorrectly, although an excellent feature to repeat in appearance. The colour palette ensures that the warms and cools are within the range that is flattering for you.
3. Add a colour, and then another one. Because soft colours are not exaggerated, adding more in outfits becomes more interesting. The earrings with the pink top above are an example but the size of each colour area can be as big or small as you like. One of the miracles with these colours is that they almost never get in each other's way.
4. Connect colour dots using every part of the outfit through varied textures, here with cardigan, metal, gemstone, and leather together.
Soft Summer 4: Weekend to work
A light to dark range of blue jeans here. Great neutrals should add to the presentation, play an active role. The first outfit on the left is medium light overall, lower in value contrast, but complete, with the inherent darkness of blue keeping things from looking floaty. We have warm to cool contrast in the jacket with the jeans and the gold and silver of the ring.
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3729904
In the upper left, the tan pink or blush tones look gorgeous with Soft Summer colouring, with thoughtful placement of the shiny fabric as lining to act as a jewelry accent. Relative to this person, high smooth shine in large area may be too bright or sharp as the highlights approach pure white, but as a detail, it's inspired.
Beautiful contrast is created with varied textures in this outfit, with leather and lace, denim and lace, and shine in the lining of the blouse with the matte suede of the shoe. The visual experience is rich without including bright or dark colour. All Seasons wear contrast of texture but because Autumn wears a wide range of textures so easily, Seasons with Autumn influence can take great advantage of it in outfits.
Below, in the lower left, we’re going to the office and have switched the jeans for a skirt and the sleeveless top for an off-white sweater, leaving everything else the same. I’d add a cami or layer under the sweater due to the depth of the V, but that’s a personal choice. Value contrast may be a little higher but I didn’t plan it. I only add value contrast with intention for the 3 Winters, where it is most attractive and effective.
The ring is an example of warm to cool contrast, silver with gold. The 8 Neutral Seasons have a warm cool range that creates a space for warmer and cooler colours in outfits to average at the Season’s overall warmth setting, which is cool-neutral for Soft Summer. Small areas of too warm, such as the yellow gold in the ring or wooden heel, can work with the group, with the same latitude for related too cool colours from the cooler neighbour group, True Summer.
The group in the upper right is darker overall with the jeans as the darkest element but we don't sense black in them. The coat colour and texture are perfectly suited for this person in soft wine, combining softness with strength in the textile. For Summers, I love pink with gray, here in the coat and sweater, and also pink with blue, as the coat and jeans.
The boot is soft metallic cool beige in a combination of leather, faux fur, and metals. The black sole is understood in this aspect of footwear, with the rubber material softening the black. There's also enough darkness in the rest of the outfit to balance black, and placing it next to the darkest part of the jeans maintains gradual colour transitions. A pure black sole of this thickness might be more apart or heavy with the outfit to the left .
Below in the lower right, the jeans and boot have been switched out for whichever style of skirt you prefer and the shoe. The coat would stay and the ring is up to you.
What might we add to our list?
5. Add variation of shine, as matte and shiny, leather and suede, or leather and metal in the boot.
6. Add variation texture, such as lace, denim, and faux fur. Textured metal and smooth stone combine in the rings. Reserve high shine for small, strategic, areas.
7. Add black in small, strategic areas, balanced by the inherent darkness of the palette. (Avoid pure snow white, which may appear distractingly bright or separate from colour combinations.)
8. Use colour in surprising ways or an unexpected item. In the lower right above, we have a red shoe, but in this Season, colours are always comfortable.
Soft Summer 5: Scenes in a restaurant
In the upper left, the outfit features higher value contrast relative to the colours of person, achieving the desired formal or dressy effect.
One colour and a neutral compose this outfit, or might even qualify as two neutrals, with interest added as patterns in the accessories. In small areas, they are understood as creative or artistic pieces.
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3729947
Adding to number 8 on our list, which was add colour in unexpected items, add prints in uncommon items, such as the shoes above. The loafers repeat the colours in the outfit and the circular shapes in two of the earrings. The stripes in the high heel repeat the straight lines in the outfit. Both look interesting and well-chosen, without being extravagant in any way.
Below, in the gray dress and blue coat combination, the signet ring doesn't add another colour. The flat shoes in the outfit above could work well here, with Soft Summer colours to keep them grounded, rather than creating a bubble effect with the print.
We've been taught to require the excitement, the surprise, but too bright or bling relative to the person has a temporary aspect that leaves us looking for the next high. What is exciting to me and gets my attention is the unexpected. The stripes in high heels look successful, and not bewildering in the slightest.
Minimalism can be very exciting, even a kind of status symbol, like the signet ring outfit. The chunky shiny silver hardware with the blue bag may be the bling in this outfit, using unconventional metals (high shine, heavier weight) with traditional colour (Wedgewood blue) to balance the impact.
At the top right, the blouse is soft rose gold, continued with the monochromatic colour scheme in the accessories, and paired with a neutral in the pants. In compositions, monochromatic means versions of the same colour. Analogous refers to neighbouring colours on the colour wheel, which we will see in image 7.
Lipstick in the colour of the handbag, like the fur coat in the previous image, is simply ideal for most any person in this Season. Depending on how you define ideal in lip colour, I would adapt the sheerness or opacity of the formulation before going lighter or warmer with colour.
In the lower right, the gray wool dress is a good example of the Season’s black (and an excellent eyeliner), paired with the handbag in soft berry red. Worn by this person during a live colour analysis, when I ask the room if anyone would prefer this red to be redder, the answer is unanimously no, or it would be exaggerated in their awareness. All colours achieve perfect brightness when the right person wears them.
Number 3 on our list was add more colours. Outfits with an upper and lower half colour alone seem quite worn by Summers, and probably by any non-Winter group. Like a song with two notes or a garden with two colours, the natural colouring of the person offers a multitude of colour tones, which may be added to two-colour combinations as detail of colour, shine, or design. This ensemble adds detail of colour and looks elegant and intelligent. Cool willow green and touch of yellow would also be welcome.
Number 6 was add variation of texture, such as gemstone and crinkle fabric in the upper right. 6B might be, add unusual effects with texture, such as metallic lace in the bracelet with the dark gray dress. Soft with strong, Summer with Autumn.
Soft Summer 6: Colour + texture + shape + shine
Across the lower two rows, we have light neutral pants and neutral shoes, leaving plenty of opportunity in the rest of the outfit.
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3730178
Number 9: Resist matching.
Bag 1 would match Top 4, but with Top 1, it has more movement, the energy of any kind of contrast.
Top 2 with the ruffle is paired with a locket with a lovely etched butterfly design. Butterflies and ruffles could belong with the same story, adding interest here with more earthy colours than a traditional butterfly garden.
Bag 3 would match with Top 1, but we turned up the energy with glitter contrasted with neutral beige in the sweater, increasing the distance between the textiles and reflectivity while keeping colours similar.
In stack 4, the boots above the blouse are metallic duochrome blue, green, and gray, an interesting and surprising choice in an ankle boot (and a lovely eyeshadow).
Number 10: Play it unsafe.
Moving to the top row, I hope the pink ring is large. Your colour palette is your safety net. The pink could belong with Soft Summer, with the facets creating texture and areas of gray to soften the colour.
In stack 2, we added a second locket for a layered necklace effect. Should someone ask, isn’t that too much? , today, the answer is bring it.
Earrings 3 are great overall, although the gold is warm to the point of having orange tones. The effect may depend on the person. Many Soft Summer people have tawny-looking warmth in the skin tone or eyes, and for them, this could be a provocative choice, creating an association between the person and the outfit. Clothing that acknowledges the wearer is advanced appearance.
Earrings 4 are cool silver, not super shiny or cool to the point of blue chrome or mirror reflections, but they do introduce an edge of shine and colour. There’s a tough with tender pairing in Autumn and Summer and with the hard metal, cool colour, slightly chunky design, partnered with the brushed surface and circular shape that contribute softness, creating the contrast of soft and strong in a single piece of jewelry.
Soft Summer 7: Mix and match 1
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3730230
Beginning in the top left, the clothing items might be considered basic Soft Summer colours. The earrings may be cooler and brighter than the palette, with sharing of colours to hold the look together and make sense of why they're there.
Members of cooler Seasons may struggle with yellow. The ring is perfect because the yellow is either in Season or close enough in this small area, with the amethyst connecting the ring and the outfit. The twisted silver creates a rope effect is excellent for Autum-influenced groups.
In the top right, we have an item in an unusual colour meaning green jeans, and we could add the earrings from the outfit below. The colours are green, blue green, and violet, an analogous colour scheme (neighbour colours on the colour wheel), which offers an internal order or organization. Second, the entire look has a similar value level. As more colour and detail are added, two variables remain constant to steady the ship. Beautiful colour gradient in the bracelet and an easy neutral shoe and scarf.
In the lower left set, the dark gray denim in the skirt is a nice choice of black alternative with metal zippers adding interesting line detail. Soft neutral browns and pink coffee colours in the scarf create interest around the face, with the skin tone and hair, and eye makeup if you wear it. Sufficient darkness in the clothing items make sense of black in the ring, and areas are small with a lot of space that will be skin coloured when the item is worn. The bag is a beautiful soft grape colour, a good example of a colour being dark and soft at the same time.
In the lower right set, people often ask, if I'm not going to wear black, what do I wear instead? We saw navy in earlier images. I'd also suggest the colour of the sweater. It is available in many styles, price points, and times of year. Soft Summers are excellent at recognizing it and it may repeat or complement the colours in the eyes, always a bonus. The cardigan is a light medium member of this colour family within the palette, with several darker options.
The light pink in the flowered skirt is an example of colour that is too light or soft for the colour palette and can be low energy worn in large area. As part of a print, it cooperates beautifully with the other colours and may enhance surrounding colours. The blue bag to the right of the skirt is the reverse, possibly at the higher level of brightness for the Season but finding enough in common to add intentional energy.
Both lower row outfits feature the same scarf. With the blue cardigan set, we now have two prints in the same outfit. I enjoy the balance of non-conformism with good judgement and I see this easily on the side of good judgment.
Each bag on this page could work with any of the outfits, or as any other item in appearance, thinking of tights, hair accessories, watch straps, sunglasses, socks, and so on.
Soft Summer 8: Mix and match 2
Throughout the image, we notice combinations based in neutrals, the addition of colours and prints, and various textiles and textures. We have monochromatic, analogous, and more contrasting colour schemes with outfits averaging around the medium light to medium dark level.
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3730646
Add the natural colours of the person, and cosmetics if you choose to wear them, and the effect is magical. Soft Summer is the only colouring looks perfect and plenty wearing these shades. Like all of us, once they go beyond their colour ranges, the effect becomes hard to understand or artificial.
In these combinations, I see sophistication and a person who fully embraces every occasion, someone who’s not lost in the sauce of media and the visions of others. She’s using the system for what it can do for her.
List: Combining Soft Summer Colours
Let's summarize our list to close out this post:
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