It’s taken twelve years for chocolate brown to return as a trendy neutral, and it’s about time. Strangely, it didn’t even feature as a fringe trend. Why the perfectly lovely neutral was banished from fashionable existence makes little sense. Let’s hope those days are over.
Chocolate brown is the last dark neutral to join the party since navy and ink blue became fashionable constants alongside black and grey. I think shades of dark brown should be a neutral we see every season, because it’s another way of celebrating variety.
Chocolate brown comes in warm and cool variations, so there’s a shade for every complexion. Cool shades are laced with grey and blue, and warm shades with yellow and orange. It’s represented in most wardrobe items this season, as seen in the collection of items.
Chocolate brown is a magical dark neutral that can create an assortment of personas. It is richer than black and warmer than grey. It can be as cool and military as dark blue. It can be as hard-edged as black and as preppy as navy.
Like all neutrals, shades of chocolate brown look splendid with other light and dark neutrals. Gone are the days that wearing black with brown is a faux pas. In fact, I can scarcely believe it was a faux pas since it’s always looked fab to me. It also looks fab with lighter shades of brown and white, and shades of dark blue.
You can wear chocolate brown with most other non-neutrals, depending on your affinity for colour-mixing, and your preferences. It looks amazing with other earth tones, sour brights, pastels, muddy colours and jewel tones. It’s not a neutral that requires much thought on how it will remix with the rest of your wardrobe, especially if you’ve built a complement or capsule with it.
Most of my clients like some shade of chocolate brown and will be happy to see it return to their wardrobes. For some, it’s their “black” and a favourite dark neutral. For some it’s brown in the form of patterns only, especially in leopard and snakeskin. For others it’s good in footwear, belts and bags.
It took a while, but I’m back to wearing chocolate brown. I’ve been building a complement with light blue and shades of white, and enjoying the fresh-for-me combination. I will also wear it with citron, chartreuse, tomato red, turquoise, shocking pink, toffee, cinnamon, blush, navy, ink blue and black. Not sure whether I will wear it with olive and burgundy, but maybe. The colour is VERSATILE.
Over to you. Do you like chocolate brown, and have you missed it? Will you wear it and in which wardrobe items?
