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One neutral or many?

Dimity

I once read a book about how to create a good wardrobe. It was years ago so I haven't a clue what the title was, but the idea was that to create a good wardrobe, we should have one dark neutral and one light neutral and then a few colours that work with both neutrals. I've done that when packing for holidays heaps of times and it works.

Lately, though, I've been thinking that it's just too limiting for a real life, everyday wardrobe. I have heaps of black and I like black, but I want to wear navy, and grey, and brown too. How radical!

What do you do? Do you have lots of neutrals in your wardrobe or do you stick with one or two?

Dressing

34 replies

Latest reply was from Style Fan

Anonymous

I have a few neutrals I think. Off the top of my head... I have black, grey, cream, white and nude tones. I know some ladies on here consider bright colours like red to be a neutral too! Actually I have a red coat and I've been enjoying it as a topper over a lot of outfits lately. If having a more limited choice suits someone and helps them to build a small cohesive wardrobe then that's fine. Personally, I like more variety and choice so a minimal wardrobe is not for me. I think you should go with what makes you happy, though sometimes we have to make a few mistakes along the way before we find out what suits our lifestyle. With regards to holiday packing... I find that just picking a couple of neutrals and accent colours is a great way to create a travel capsule and I definitely do this.

crutcher

Veteran

I would have a difficult time sticking to a limited wardrobe and to just one neutral...I love to mix and blacks, navy, creme, some brown, gray all get thrown into the mix...

E

Veteran

I love neutrals and have navy, lots of shades of grey (from pearl to charcoal), taupe, cool brown, soft white, and a touch of beige/oatmeal/champagne in my wardrobe. I love colours and variety.

That being said, when I began building my closet a few years ago, I focused on getting one of each of my favourite clothing types in grey and navy, so that no matter what colours I added, I'd have something to wear them with. That strategy worked v well for me, as I'd rather vary colour than silhouette. Then I did the same thing w taupe and now I'n working on my soft white and champagne/oatmeal/beige collection.

E

Veteran

I forgot to add, as neutrals easily mix w another, I don't see a big point in limiting to 1 or 2 when you like more!

Susie

Veteran

I have a few- black, gray and white- that work well together. I also have some navy but I think I consider it more as one of my colors than a neutral, if that makes sense. And I also count denim as a neutral.

Deborah

Veteran

As you know I have mostly black, but I also have navy, grey and white. For colours I have a couple of cobalt tops, a red top, a green sweater and green satin blouse and an orange draped dress! I don't get tired of black so as you know I pretty much wear it daily, but my other neutrals all work with my black and I have a little punch of colour when I feel like it. I generally prefer myself in neutrals:). And my red top seems to function as a neutral also.

Thistle

Veteran

I have three neutrals: grey, black and ink. These ground my outfits, usually as bottoms. I then add color with tops.

I recently cut brown out as I didn't like it mixed with the other neutrals. And I felt like it needed special footwear.

UmmLila (Lisa)

Veteran

I'm with Thistle on the selection of neutrals, but I include white as well. And I also got rid of brown a couple of years ago for the same reasons.

Meredith

Veteran

I have a core mix and match capsule of essentials, mostly in gray, black, and white. I expect most of these items to work together in outfits. But I round out my closet with item-specific capsules (e.g. Pants) and I don't hesitate to add other neutrals as long as they won't be orphans.
Have you seen this Angie post? Might be from before you joined ylf.
http://youlookfab.com/2014/07/.....and-black/

Susie

Veteran

Like the others have mentioned, I don't have brown in my wardrobe. I have a caramel satchel and a pair of booties that mix well with my other neutrals but no brown clothing at all.

milehighstyle (Linda)

Veteran

All the neutrals for me, both in clothing and footwear. But I'm definitely not a minimalist.

Windchime

Veteran

Pre YLF, my neutrals were black and grey. They are both good colors on me, but I'm glad to report that I now wear navy and, most recently, white as additional neutrals. Like others have mentioned, I too crave a variety of colors in my wardrobe. Defining my best neutrals has helped a lot as I build a wardrobe.

Elly

Veteran

I love neutrals! They are some of the main colors in my wardrobe and I often mix them. I especially like dark neutrals, and after being inspired by a post Angie did on mixing navy or ink blue with black and charcoal and cognac brown I've given myself carte blanc. I have a lot of navy, black, charcoal, and olive green in my wardrobe and I wear them all together with accents of lighter grey, cream, pink, red, orange, purple, and blue.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

I think we've had a renaissance of neutrals in fashion in recent years. It used to be much less common to wear an outfit of only neutrals, and different neutrals together - would have been considered frumpy or boring. Monochromatic, or neutral plus bright, were much more common.

I think it's Janice at The Vivienne Files that often talks about a light neutral, a dark neutral, and a color or two. Her color schemes are some of the best I've seen, in blogs or in fashion books, as far as where you should start if you're looking to build a mix and match wardrobe or need to figure out where your holes are.

I personally have black, gray, navy, denim - and off white, if that counts. I used to have a lot more black - if I wasn't wearing denim I was wearing black - but have backed off it a lot because it felt boring and not so flattering. It's so useful, though, that I doubt I'd ever get rid of all of my black. I've never really loved brown and it doesn't really suit my coloring; the only items I have in brown are shoes, no clothes. I also have several pieces in olive, which depending on the shade can really act like a neutral.

(I think we're due for a rebirth of brown, actually, in fashion; it's been years since its been the trendy color. Recently navies and grays have been the neutrals in stores, seems like.)

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

Most of my wardrobe is neutral - taupe, navy, denim, black, white, ivory, charcoal, deep brown with some burgundy, plum and deep emerald green thrown in for interest. I do have cognac booties and a cognac bag that I sometimes also use as "color." I currently only have one red item (plaid flannel shirt) that works for F/W but would consider adding something red for S/S.

Gigi

Veteran

I agree that sticking with only one neutral is limiting, especially when your natural coloring works very well with neutrals. If you have an extremely small wardrobe, I think the idea is a good one, but if you have a moderate or large wardrobe, I do think that boredom sets in. The tactic would work well for creating a minicapsule, though, like for travel (as you pointed out) or for a shadow persona.

I have all kinds of neutrals in my closet. My main ones are black, dark gray, white, cream, and navy.

Jeweled

Veteran

Hi Dimity, I think it's valuable to have more than just one dark neutral and one light neutral in your wardrobe. Instead, you might have those two as your main ones, and then add some others to expand the variety of your outfits.

But you don't necessarily need to build out other neutrals beyond one or two pieces, if you don't want to.

For example, my dark neutrals are taupe, olive, and denim blue. My light neutrals are light khaki-tan and white. I have several items in each of these 5 neutrals.

I also have a few lone additional neutrals here and there in my wardrobe - a dark brown pair of jeans, a silvery-sage nylon windbreaker, etc. - and they work nicely in my wardrobe without any feeling of needing more pieces in those stray neutrals.

This works well for me, and I love the variety these extra "lone neutrals" add to my wardrobe - without feeling a commitment to build out any of them beyond that one piece.

Anonymous

My color palette is based on my coloring. It consists of two base-dominant colors (black and white because I love both these colors for different reasons). I add in olive and stone for interest. Then I complete it with three accent colors (chambray, medium pink, and vibrant red). My wardrobe revolves around seven basic colors. This system has worked well for me and I am extremely satisfied with it.

I have only in the last month started to experiment with grey. I have hopes that grey might become a third base color in 2015. I like grey a lot, but I personally find it hard to wear.

unfrumped

Veteran

more neutrals are great IF they work together or unless you have some separate but overlapping capsules where you just want to feature a certain neutral.

I still think the devil is in the details--so that navy can go with black and black with brown and so on , no rules against, but sometimes one combination is pleasing and another one is not. Texture and cut and fabric and tone--light or dark--all affect how I feel about the end result. But sometimes a different neutral works better than the same neutral--take grays for example, which can be hard to blend together, whereas each one works as a neutral with something else.

And once you include denim, it is kind of the great neutralizer( !) /bridging item. An outfit with denim can tolerate more disparate neutrals, IMO.

To me the neutrals with neutrals kick opens up lots of possibilities, but still requires I "test drive" the item.
Once I figured that out, that I can't just accumulate things randomly because they "ought" to go together, but needed to be sure the item really worked with other pieces, I started getting to a place of more versatility.

Joy

Veteran

I am a failure at limiting neutrals. I started with darks of black and charcoal, and white for a light neutral. Then my whites expanded to include ivory, stone, Pearl, etc. Then I found that a pale silvery grey was a great color for me so started getting a few pieces of that. It lead to metallics in silver and pewter. Fall came and I craved browns, especially chocolate. Late winter needed a taupe fix. Then spring screamed that corals and mint wanted to be paired with camel. I probably have every neutral now and am not sorry, but travel capsules allow just a couple...plus denim

Joy

Veteran

Oh, and summer wanted navy as a dark neutral. I also like navy in the spring. My seasonal closet switches often feature different neutrals.

Echo

Veteran

I love outfits built entirely around neutrals, so I think it is worth investing in several. However, as far as dark neutrals go, I generally stick to black. I simply have too much of it to allow very much brown or navy to play well in my closet. But as far as charcoal, light grey, pearl, white, taupe, etc. I find they all coordinate brilliantly with any dark neutral, and so they can all be easily incorporated.

Runcarla

Veteran

My wardrobe is predominantly neutrals: black, grey, navy, Jean , white and cognac ( to 'bookend' my hair). They all mix and match. Then I pick a seasonal colour to play with and invest in a few (4?) pieces.

Sometimes the colour stays ( cobalt, red) or goes ( blush) or gets phased out over time (purple).

shiny

Veteran

I like what Joy said!

The Vivienne Files says two neutrals then add an expansion capsule, which is a mix of the two neutrals. Then a capsule of accent colors. From there you can add more neutrals, and more expansion items mixing the neutrals.

I reorganized my closet accordingly this past fall. I have (from left to right) camel/olive (very small amount of space -- not my best neutrals but sometimes I want to wear these colors regardless); black (lots and lots); grey (2nd biggest category -- from charcoal to light grey); cream/white; expansion section (items that mix back + grey, or black + cream/white); then accents (plum, cranberry, fuchsia, blush, french blue, navy blue, cobalt teal, emerald).

So about 3/4 of my wardrobe (not counting scarves) are neutrals. And yes, navy is an accent, not a neutral. I am not including denim -- that is a neutral.

If you want to know when brown was last on trend, check out how long I've been a YLF member. I remember having lots of chocolate brown -- as much as I had black -- and Angie weaning me away from it! If it comes back on trend again (and I bet it will too) I may bite, but will keep in under control. The problem with brown is when I pair it with orange-based accents. Does not work for me. I'm better in blue-based/cool accents, or true neutrals.

Caro in Oz

Veteran

Most of my wardrobe is made up of neutrals, mainly ink, denims, warmish greys,beige & off white & a little black. I also use light olive & teal as neutrals - I love them with grey & denim blue. I tend to limit colours more than I limit neutrals because I know I don't reach for them as often.

Dimity

E, that strategy makes a lot of sense.
Deborah, except for green, those are my wardrobe colours too! They work really well for me too.
Thistle and UmmLilla I got rid of brown a few years ago too but now I'm thinking of bringing a little back in.
Meredith, that's the exact post that made me want to bring in some brown! I love those outfits, they look so warm and interesting and such a change from the 'black with a pop of colour' that I've been wearing. It's worked well for me but I just felt like exploring something new for a change.
Laura, I think you're right about the neutral rebirth. They really did have connotations of frumpy years ago.
Jeweled, Sterling, Unfrumped, and others, I love how self-aware and considered your wardrobes are. It makes so much more sense to have a plan and the discipline to stick to it (while still having fun, of course!)
Joy, I think I might experience this sort of neutrals-expanding wardrobe too!
Shiny, your closet sounds beautifully organised. It's always easier to get dressed when you can see what you've got and know where everything is.
Caro, I'm finding I don't reach for colours as much as I used to. Suddenly it seems as though they are screaming at me. Funny how perceptions change.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I am with Caro -- most of my wardrobe is neutral. Ink, navy, denims (from dark to faded chambray), greys (from charcoal to silvery dove), taupe, winter white & ivory (plus some optic white as accent).

I also have a fair bit of black, but this is used more like an accent colour in my wardrobe.

And then I have my colours. Claret, cranberry and raspberry reds, soft fuchsia and orchids, plums and periwinkles, blues (all of them -- and yes, blue is both a neutral and a colour in my world), the odd bit of blush, teal and forest greens.

Dimity

Suz, I love the colours in your wardrobe. Sounds beautiful.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I have lots of neutrals in my wardrobe: All shades of white (which includes stone and oatmeal), gold, silver, black, ink blue, navy, and cognac.

I do not wear grey unless it is covered in cognac patches like my Smythe equestrian jacket.

I have lots of colour too: citron, apple green, tomato red, turquoise, coral, shocking pink, blush pink, light blue and French blue.

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