Colour Me Badd // How to… work the colour popping trend for SS/’11?

How to… tackle the trend // Colour Blocking

Jennifer and I have been discussing just that (amongst other things, such as the best vintage shops in Paris, why men are strange and the perfect flare circumference – but that’s another blog post).

I’ve always penned myself as being fairly colourful with my clothing – that is, oftentimes I’ll find myself surrounded by a sea of boring commuters clad head-to-toe in black (and those horrific ‘jumbo’ pinstriped suits – yuk) on my journey to work. I see them looking at me, a mixture of disdain/disgust/delight at my mustard yellows, leopard print and faux fur when breaking out a bit of navy is daring in their eyes.

And the last time I wore head-to-toe black, I looked like I’d stepped out of an Emo convention, drained of all colour from my face, so I normally give that the body swerve.

Having said that, Our Jennifer has always been much more (hate this phrase, but here goes) fashion forward than most; always fully committing to a style statement and never watering it down

And there, our story becomes a Tale of Two Colour Blockers: Head-to-toe brights Vs pops of colour…

Natalie // colour popping

This was my first real attempt at injecting a splash of colour into my day wear (inspired by my name-sake Natalie over on Canned Fashion) – pairing a ‘safe’ black knit with cobalt blue cropped trews (both ASOS) and balancing that out with a leopard print belt (fun!) and neutral heeled brogues (boring).

The original plan was to wear these trousers with a fluro pink tee, but the colour clash was a little too ‘wacky kids TV presenter’ for my liking; I’m thinking it might work with some skinny khaki cargo trousers, though…) I still say brights go great with black – so there *blows raspberry at Jennifer*


My next foray into colour clashing craziness was this little ensemble: a draped silk blouse in hot pink teamed with indigo blue jeans (that surely counts as a secondary shade, right?) and jade green suede brogues.

I actually wore this on the same day that Jennifer wore her own take on this colour combo (see below) and it’s kinda interesting to see the two interpretations side by side. Bright and Brighter, if you will…

Jennifer // head-to-toe brights

My opinion on this is ‘man up people’.

I have spotted in our fashion hub of an office people pairing this seasons colour popping shades with black and neutrals; no no no, this is not the way to go. We must be brave or fashion loses it’s meaning – think of your favourite designer, how brave Christian Dior was to send out the New Look, how brave Marc Jacobs was to send out the ‘new new look’ in the Louis Vuitton AW/’11 show (ladylike with curves and bosoms).

We owe it to the designers to be brave in our interpretations of the beautiful trends they have sent out into the world for us to be forever inspired by.

(see Jennifer’s ‘Colour Clash’ post in full here)

So. What’s YOUR take on the colour blocking trend? Is the future (or SS/’11, at least) bright for you? Or is  it more a case of Colour Me Badd? And how fluro dare you go? Tell us below…

– Natalie Wall & Jennifer Heath

  • Comments

  • avatar
    nicola

    I’m in love with the green suede brogues. IN LOVE.

  • avatar
    Natalie

    Aww, thanks Nicola. They’re ASOS, natch. Though blue suede shoes would have been ‘hilarious’, right? 😉

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