I agree that any colour can be used in any style, as has been pointed out by Angie and previous commentators, but certain palettes do get associated with certain styles--pastels with preppie, neutrals with classic, dark tones with rocker, earthy with boho, and so on. Using terms like "polished", "edgy", and "hard edge" is even trickier because one person's "edgy" cobalt jacket could be another person's "polished" version depending how the rest of a person's wardrobe skews.
I suspect that you are on to something, though, with the reality of searching for an item outside of its "normal" palette. While someone on the forum could no doubt find a "RATE" leather jacket in a pastel pink, it would be definitely be easier to locate the black version. Same goes for a "polished" business suit in neon orange. Styling the "unusual" version might also require considerable more effort on the part of the wearer to fit what "edgy" or "polished" means in a personal style sense. In this context, I'm tending towards agreeing with you that our colour palettes can get set by our style preferences and vice-versa.
ETA: Just a thought, after reading Angie's explanation of "hard edged", I realized I've always thought of brilliant optic white and chrome yellow as "hard-edged" colours, and platinum as the "hard-edged" metallic, more so than silver. Greys, to me, have always been soft, unless they were almost charcoal. Maybe, like Una, I'm confused about what colours would constitute a "hard edge" colour palette. Or is "hard-edged" just about hardware?
