Your favourite neutrals

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Angie is co-founder of YLF and its resident fashion stylist.

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Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Your favourite neutrals

— by Angie

on May 21, 2009

I love vibrant, saturated colours, but neutrals hold an equally special place in my heart. They often freshen up or tone down an outfit, adding the crucial element that makes it all work together. Their versatility makes them a very hard working component of a wardrobe. Clothing can also look its best in a neutral colour, especially if you’re after an ageless and timeless sense of sophistication.

Over the years my preferences for specific neutrals has changed. In my teens, white was my favourite neutral. That changed to black in my twenties with white and cream coming in second. In my thirties my preferences changed again and this is how I rank my neutrals today:

White and cream
Black
Blue denim
Red
Silver grey

Red is a bright, but acts as a neutral in my book. Blue denim is a fabric, and a colour at that, but its ubiquity has made it a neutral in the modern wardrobe. Silver grey is a new neutral in my wardrobe and I’m enjoying its soft and pretty possibilities for Spring and Summer.

My wardrobe would not function without neutrally toned clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories. They provide a strong foundation that works with every fashion trend and retail season. Simply brilliant. Your turn. How would you rank your favourite neutrals and have your preferences changed over the years?

Colour

39 comments · Add a comment

Debbie

Thank you Angie!

Mine are in order:
Black
silver gray
denim
white
brown

This is something to think about.

May 21, 2009 at 6:48 am

Kristers

Black
Black/white print
blue denim
brown
white
probably silver in jewelry and either cream pearls or rhinestones.

May 21, 2009 at 6:58 am

Ana

1. Cream
2. Caramel Brown
3. Red
4. White
5. Black
6. Dark Grey

Cream has always been my favorite neutral. It’s just so pretty and warm. When I was younger I used to wear a lot of grey, all different shades, but the only shade that I can really get away with is dark grey, or if it’s the exact right shade of dark, steely blue-grey. All the others just wash me out.

Other than cream, caramel, and red, I’d still rather wear a bright almost any day though.

May 21, 2009 at 7:02 am

Danja

(website)

Hmm, I never think in terms of neutrals bit if I have to identify them, I guess my neutrals would be the usual suspects:
1. black
2. white
3. beige
4. denim
5. navy

May 21, 2009 at 7:04 am

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I knew it wouldn’t be long before “black” made the top of someone’s neutral’s list. And there you have it! I wonder whether I think of my pearls as neutral? You might be onto something, Kristers.

Ana, you and I are “cream samies” (I think you’d say “twinsies” in America).

May 21, 2009 at 7:04 am

greenglove

Mine are not necessarily in order, depends on the season
Copper, rust, cognac
brown
Olive green
camel, tan, taupe,
cream, khaki
black
denim
brushed and antiqued gold jewlery

May 21, 2009 at 7:06 am

mom.huebert

(website)

For most of my life denim has been my neutral. In the last few months, however, since I began to take more notice of fashion and style, I have been using black and gray as my neutrals and I’m loving it.

May 21, 2009 at 7:06 am

Real Style Real People

(website)

I would just add olive green and tan/browns!

May 21, 2009 at 7:16 am

Joelle

My list is:

Charcoal gray
Black
White
Silver gray
Cream

I’d like to put silver gray higher up on my list but I don’t have very many silver gray things. I wear the few that I have very often.

May 21, 2009 at 7:29 am

Shari

Mine:

1. Black
2. Gray
3. Chocolate Brown
4. Taupe/khaki
5. Navy

I wear red a lot as a main color and a pop of color, and I often carry a red bag but I don’t consider it a neutral.

I love the creams, camels and bronzes but they look horrible on me.

I’ve started wearing white this season. I like it but with kids and dogs it isn’t practical. Doggie knows when I’m wearing black and she must rub againt me leaving blond fur, or white and she must jump on me leaving paw print.

I think for leather goods like shoes/boots/bags cognac is a great neutral.

May 21, 2009 at 7:29 am

Laura

I love grey, especially dove grey. It’s the neutral that makes me feel best. Second is navy blue, and Angie has convinced me to bump white up my list.

Question: If you look best in cool colors, is it best to avoid cream?

May 21, 2009 at 7:41 am

Linda

Brown, black, taupe, cream, olive green. I guess the last is not 100% neutral. Like, I wouldn’t necessarily wear it with every possible COMBINATION of other colors, but I would probably wear it with just about any other single color. I got some olive green summer shoes and they are proving very useful!

I can’t get into bright white or shiny metallics at all.

May 21, 2009 at 7:44 am

Patience

My favorites:
1. White and cream
2. Blue denim
3. Navy
4. Charcoal grey

I think my list probably changes with the season because while I like black I haven’t really worn much of it this season. In the fall that changes. For me, since I wear a lot of blues, red seems less of a neutral in my wardrobe even though it is appearing more and more in my closet.

May 21, 2009 at 7:49 am

Susan H.

My list would be similar to Angie’s, but I also like chocolate brown because it’s pretty close to my hair/eye color. I seem to have a harder time making it go with other colors/neutrals, though, so I end up wearing my black, red, white, gray, and blue denim much more. If anyone here has experimented a lot with brown, I’d love to hear your advice on how best to wear it…

May 21, 2009 at 7:58 am

Maya

Sticking to only the strict definition of neutral: black, inky blue, white, metallic (anything–gold, bronze, silver, pewter…doesn’t matter), and medium-dark gray.

Ink blue and white can swap places. Unfortunately I have a hard time finding anything in ink blue, but if I could, it would come in second. I like white best when paired with black or ink blue.

I like to use red and yellow as dual neutrals AND brights. Red-black-white and yellow-black-white are two of my favorite color combos.

Medium-dark gray comes in a distant last place. I can’t think of any other neutrals I am really crazy about.

I think my YLF challenge should be to create an all neutral outfit. Anyone listening?

May 21, 2009 at 8:10 am

Chris

Perfect timing since I did a bit of closet cleaning/investigation yesterday.

Current neutrals:
Black
Gray – charcoal and lighter gray
Brown/Taupe
Denim/Indigo
White/Cream

Past neutrals:
Red – I purged A LOT of red in past few months. I used to have to wear red seasonally and a lot of my pieces were looking worn and boring. I don’t have enough left to consdier a neutral!

In my teens and early twenties it was all about the denim. In late twenties, well it was the years of the Power Suit and I had a lot of black versions but also color (my fave was a red and white houndstooth!).

Thirties brought me to a place with dress code – black on bottom, white on top for a bit (so boring! And started an aversion for all white tops).

May 21, 2009 at 8:27 am

Sal

(website)

What a fun question!

1. Black
2. Brown
3. Khaki
4. White (though mainly in tops)
5. Blue denim

Black is just a staple to me. I know it can be totally abused as a neutral, but I still love its ability to make brights sparkle and pop. And since my non-neutrals tend to be really, REALLY bright, it’s a perfect compliment.

May 21, 2009 at 8:35 am

Antje

Veteran

Interesting question to ponder. Mine have most definitely changed over the years. For many years, black and blue denim were the only neutrals in my closet. I’ve been actively trying to change this, especially by adding more grey, white and -very new for me- cream to my wardrobe.

I also consider metallics a neutral and find myself wearing my metallic (pewter) flats ALL THE TIME especially when I wear a lot of color in the rest of my outfit.

I do wear tons of red and love the color -probably my single most favorite color in outfits- but I don’t quite understand why/whether it’s a neutral. I’m not sure it’s the kind of color I would throw into any outfit I wear, so I don’t know what makes it more neutral than, say, yellow.

May 21, 2009 at 8:42 am

Inge

– Almost all shades of grey
– White and off-white
– Dark blue denim
– Metallics for shoes (mostly dark silver/pewter)
– Ink blue

I love black too, but haven’t got all that many black pieces in my wardrobe. And I’d really love to find a gorgeous dark purple dress, I think that colour would be a fabulous neutral for me.

May 21, 2009 at 9:37 am

shiny

1. Blue denim (I now wear jeans practically every day)
2. Black (I have 8 black jackets and numerous black dresses so of course I have to have black on my list!!!)
3. White
4. Silver gray – also recently discovered. I love this color and can’t get enough.

Add yellow to the above for an accent.

I also have a complete second wardrobe around chocolate brown, khaki, champagne beige, and camel (used to *love* having a smart pair of crisp camel dress slacks for work), but I am not going to list that because I’m starting to think I may slowly wean these neutrals out of my closet and just stick to the above instead. I think I can wear these other neutrals (with gold jewelry) just as well, but I suspect it would make for a smaller and more efficient closet if I chose one or the other scheme. Then again I like variety, so this may never happen!

One neutral not on my list is navy. I do own a few navy/ink-blue tops, but as far as suits and pants go, I always feel weirdly nautical or dated for some odd reason?

As for red, I like blue-reds and cranberries. I used to own way too much red (tops, jackets, coats). I got bored of it and now a touch of red is all I need these days. But I would not mind adding a nicer red pencil skirt in three-season wool, and perhaps a red sheath. (And nothing beats pretty red toenails in the summer time).

May 21, 2009 at 10:12 am

Ellen

– Black (mainly for tops)
– Navy
– Grey
– Blue denim
– White
– Silver is generally the accessorizing tone that ties my outfits together. I love how it can feel polished yet casual – perfect for my lifestyle!

I only wear brown or cream occasionally, as whites, navys and greys look much better with my skin tone. I do like to mix browns with navys, greys, or blacks, but in that case the brown is more of an accent than a neutral.

May 21, 2009 at 10:14 am

KristenKP

My neutrals WERE: Black, brown, white, camel (in summer) and grey.

Now I am looking for more greys, navy, charcoals, and white, and avoiding black and camel as much as possible; they’re not flattering on me as much as I thought, and now that I’m starting over I can build my wardrobe however I want to.

May 21, 2009 at 10:27 am

san

Hmm. I feel like my whole wardrobe is neutral. I have dusky purple, dark red, off white, cool green and dark cool pink and blue. They seem neutral because they are greyed down. I feel best in things that are not flashy. For my metallic I like bronze and pewter over the silver and gold. I am so glad I am finally coming to terms with what I can wear. In my mind I would wear Ana’s colors. In reality I need to wear pretty much the opposite. I love coral but it washes me out terribly.

May 21, 2009 at 10:28 am

Oneirix

(website)

1. Black
2. Blue denim
3. Optic white
4. All shades of grey
5. Navy
6. Taupe

When I was in middle school I was a bit of a goth, so I wore black ALL the time, and my love for it certainly hasn’t diminished. I love using it as a back drop for super bright colors (although this is mostly in theory; I don’t own a lot of accessories, let alone super bright ones!). I am in a jeans coma, and also am obsessed with good quality denim, so blue jeans come in a close second. Optic white and all greys are practically tied because I am so drawn to them. I find monochrome with black, white, grey and some pewter or silver metallic very alluring. My favorite peacoat is in navy; I feel so classic and chic when I wear it! I don’t think I own anything in taupe, but Calvin Klein has been using it a lot and I’m kind of jonesing for a jacket or something.

May 21, 2009 at 10:44 am

Kari

My current favorites are: Dark or medium denim, cream, black, navy blue, white (despite that it’s harder for me to keep clean), or cognac (a new favorite for shoes!)

I also wear chocolate brown, smoky medium grey (somewhere between silver grey and charcoal) and a grey-ish tan (similar in tone to dove grey but more brown.) I am not a color expert so I’m not sure what the hues are called.

My favorite metallics are bronze, pewter, and silver. Most of the time I avoid gold because I don’t love it against my skin (although I have a couple pieces with gold accents or hardware.)

I wear a lot of red, but mostly as a bright. I wonder if I’d use it as more of a neutral color if I had blonde or brown hair instead of coloring it red?

I don’t really like myself in medium brown/taupe/khaki/olive.

May 21, 2009 at 11:19 am

Cricket

My faves are black, white, very dark browns, and recently trying ink blue. I only wear khaki in one blazer I have, and only with rich color paired with it.

For awhile, I stopped wearing black, but realized whenever I did, I got compliments. I do have a pretty high contrast between dark hair and light skin, so I’m guessing the black works somehow. I’m really not good at deciding what colors work for me, so I go by the compliments to decide.

May 21, 2009 at 11:43 am

Meream

(website)

Mine are:

1. blue denim
2. black
3. white
4. khaki

May 21, 2009 at 12:02 pm

cciele

In my youth: Black!

Now: Charcoal, navy, medium gray

Experimenting with: dark dark brown

May 21, 2009 at 2:14 pm

yublocka

(website)

I feel like greys are around everywhere at the moment. Until this season I only had a couple of grey things. Now I must have close to 10. That’s partly by choice, as purple is one of my fave colours and I am loving it with silverly grey, and partly because it seems to be all that is available.

Yesterday I went into both Kmart and Target looking for brown socks to replace the pair I was wearing that had MASSIVE holes in both heels. I couldn’t find one single pair of brown socks, but there were nearly 20 different styles of grey ones. Very frustrating!~!

May 21, 2009 at 2:46 pm

JewelryGirl

Gosh, I wear neutrals ALL the time it seems like!

1. Denim
2. Black
3. Medium & Dark Brown (I LOVE browns right now!)
4. Camel, Cognac, Bronze
5. Cream, White
6. Charcoal Grey (mostly in the winter I think)
7. Olive Green – I am really not sure if this is a color for me or a neutral come to think of it!

May 21, 2009 at 2:55 pm

Taylor

(website)

Black
White
Denim
Red
Taupe

May 21, 2009 at 4:06 pm

Gina

1. Grey
2. Brown
3. Black
4. Denim

I like brown better, but I tend to wear grey more. Grey is perfect for every season and with pretty much any color or shade or combination of colors – if you have the right grey.

Browns, I tend to wear more in fall color combos, or with just one bright color, like pink or red or turquoise. Brown is not quite as versatile as grey.

May 21, 2009 at 4:31 pm

April

Susan H. — I’m going to start a thread on the forum about how to wear brown… I also need some help with this.

Shiny, I second your feeling about navy, and I realize at this moment, I don’t own a single item in navy. Perhaps a random pair of socks.

I love charcoal gray, cream, black, and rich brown, but have a hard time finding browns that don’t look flat and lifeless.

May 21, 2009 at 4:47 pm

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Thanks, ladies. This was fun to read. It sounds like grey is becoming an all round favourite neutral. As for metals, I’m a silver and pewter gal through and through. I am a purist in this regard and do not mix metals at all.

Laura, generally cool skin tones wear white well and warm skin tones wear cream well. But I have a warm skin tone, wear warm colours well, and wear both white AND cream well. It’s tricky. There just aren’t good enough hard and fast rules about which colours work best on certain complexions. I’m convinced of that fact!

Antje, I guess I view red as a neutral because of my fashion buying days. It’s usually the next colour offered in an assortment of items after neutrals like black, white, grey and brown. It was not regarded as a non-neutral in the fashion world back then and I am left with the same impression. Old habits stick.

In my opinion, a flat dark brown is hard to wear. April, you actually hit the nail on the head with the word “lifeless”. On the other hand, rich chestnuts, cognacs and caramels are beautiful and generally more flattering, especially in textured fabrics. Quite delicious on the right complexion.

May 21, 2009 at 5:23 pm

Chloe

(website)

My neutrals have shifted over the year since I went from being a light blonde to a medium auburn. My current neutrals are:

-Cream
-Brown
-White
-Black
-Gold/bronze

But when I was blonde, I had almost no white (it’d wash me out) and tons of gray. I find as a red head, I just can’t pull it off quite the same…which bums me out, because some of my favorite things in my closet are gray!

I’m keeping ahold of them, just in case I ever decide to go back…

May 21, 2009 at 11:13 pm

AlexandraI

This post brings me out of ancient lurkerdom … because this is the first time EVER somebody else considered red as a neutral. Red is my one failsafe fallback neutral – I always feel good in it, I feel nothing can go wrong, and because I love it so much I have a lot of things to wear with it. If all else fails, I wear red. Except for funerals of course.

I hate wearing black, probably because I do so associate it with funerals.

My two other favourite neutrals are and always have been grey, which I think looks great with every colouring and is tragically underrated, and camel.

And thank you for writing such a great blog

May 23, 2009 at 2:53 am

Simply.Femme

All grays
Black
Brown
Tan
Taupe
Camel
Red
Olive
Slate blue, which seems neutral to me
and
very little navy — I have never liked it very much
a bit of white — I just find it hard to wear and keep clean

The big change has been the addition of brown. In my younger days, I thought with my brown hair and brown eyes, it was too much of the same. Now I probably wear it 50 percent of the time.

When I moved my clothes into a walk-in closet a few years ago and saw them all together for the first time, I was shocked at how somber it looked. Black, gray, brown, and tan as far as the eye could see…and the odd shot of red, which I do wear like a neutral. This sent me on a mission to inject color and pattern into my wardrobe. But I am at heart a neutral lover and would have no problem picking out a dozen outfits I have worn made up entirely of them.

May 23, 2009 at 10:52 am

Sarah

In no particular order, mine are black, white/cream, dark denim/navy, dark grey, and olive green. The first three I wear the most, and the later two I throw in for variety. Great topic, Angie. It’s fun to see what colors different people like.

May 27, 2009 at 2:32 pm

Ruth

In no particular order: medium to dark gray, grayed navy, medium to dark blue denim, pewter, taupe, black (not near face), claret red, and purple.

December 8, 2011 at 5:34 am

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