Colour blocking 2019 - YouLookFab Forum

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Colour blocking 2019

Katerina

Veteran

Dear Fabbers,

I love colour block outfits and try to learn more about colour blocking. I have found this picture on Escada’s website - right up my alley, I would love to wear that outfit :-), see pic 1. This is perfection to me, sigh....

I was searching for interesting colour block outfits to try to imitate and among others I found some beautiful images from 2011 - they looked very modern to me, actually I could not tell they were some 8 years old....(pic 2).

So I wonder if there are any new colour blocking techniques or combinations for 2019. Are there some colour combinations that just caught your eye - don’t have to be “new”?
Do you colour block your outfits and do you have any favourites and any tips?

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28 replies

Latest reply was from Katerina

rachylou

Veteran

Now you have me thinking why one outfit reads as colour blocking and another as disparate pieces... Love the jewelled buttons on that first jacket btw... I feel as tho if I wore three items in different colours they’d just seem mismatched... hmm...

Anonymous

I love your examples. These caught my eye on Zara, color combos I enjoy wearing.

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Anonymous

Boden tends to do some, there were some dresses with different color hems and such. I was seeing a lot of yellow paired with black and white earlier this year, but now lots of pastel and blue and white or black and white prints everywhere.
I do some color blocking-today red lace skirt and bronze blouse. Eta-added pic. In general I like colors of the same or similar darkness and near each other on the color wheel if color blocking righ now. But your coloring is high contrast, so the bolder combos would work for you!

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Cardiff girl

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These are certainly colourful examples of colour blocking!l agree that the Escada outfit is lovely,especially the jacket.ln response to your question about personal colour blocking here is a photo of an outfit I posted during the week long challenge of posting your daily outfits in February.This is the closest to colour blocking I ve got recently.Its not really something I actively seek to do but don’t mind if an outfit turns out that way.Have you got any personal examples to show us?I m sure with your lovely wardrobe you can come up with something interesting.

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Katerina

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Opaline, these are great! The pink and red combination is gorgeous,

Suntiger, what a beautiful outfit, great job! You look great in earth tones and in lower contrast combos. And you are right, high contrast is more flattering to my coloring.

Cardiff girl, I remember that outfit well from the challenge, it is gorgeous on you. One of my favourites!

Here are some of my colour block attempts, although I usually use only two colours and add neutrals.... These are from spring 2018.

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Anonymous

Ooh love!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Katrina, modern colour blocking is about combining ANY solid colours together. There isn't such a thing as, "those colours don't work together", IYKWIM. And there is no limit on the colours in one outfit.

Cardiff girl

Veteran

Is that second one the rhubarb and custard inspired one?love them both ,you are so lucky that you can carry off such gorgeous,deep colours.

Katerina

Veteran

Thank you, Suntiger!

Angie, thank you for the advice. This makes it easy and very difficult at the same time. Thinking about Rachy’s reflection.

Cardiff girl, yes. It is the one Thank you for the compliment.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Intention, confidence and verve

Brooklyn

Veteran

I am interested in colour blocking again and I have a little mood board going on my phone. I use pictures from nature as well as fashion pictures. I am colour mix challenged! At the moment I am particularly interested in combining teal (my current colour obsession) with magenta, aubergine and other purple tones. I haven’t actually done this yet. At this stage I am just thinking about it/planning for our spring.

Here are some pics. I don’t think the fashion pics are particularly modern but the first one: combining teal, purple, leopard and dark green fascinated me!

I love your outfits K. You are a natural at this

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Bonnie

Veteran

The only color blocking I've done is wearing this cardigan and I haven't tried it myself but I love the Escade outfit you shared. Your own examples are beautiful.

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SarahD8

Veteran

I think a key to color blocking is straight lines, especially strong horizontals, right angles, and sharp divisions between colors within a single garment — some combination of those elements separate “color blocking” from “different solid colored garments combined in an outfit” to me.

Gretchen

Veteran

To me, color blocking needs to have strong differentiation. Either the piece is clearly 2/3 distinct colors or the pieces are single colors worn together. I really like it when I see it on a specific piece, but I'm not good at doing it myself.

Katerina - those pictures of you are amazing
Brooklyn - I love your color scheme, and am now craving leopard boots!

Bijou

Veteran

Wow, I love your colour blocking and adore the Escada outfit - every element is just stunning and I can so see you wearing this.

Great fashion is beyond time - YSL and his SS1971 collection, looks current and fresh even today, the work of a true master. I really love the unexpected colour combination from YSL in the 1980's of yellow, pink and purple on a most beautiful model - perfection!

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Katerina

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Angie, yes, I suppose. Your comment made me smile. My sister, who is really chic and stylish, when I wear some “unusual” colours and a lot of them in one outfit, usually sais something like: “Wow, now this is wilderness!”, hahaha. I have intention and confidence, anyways

Brooklyn, I like your mood board. Teal, magenta and purples combination will look great on you. The first image is interesting, the leopard boots are fun addition here. I was thinking if they are treated like a solid here, but to my eye the add pattern, which is unexpected. I look forward to your spring theme already!

Bonnie, lovely cardigan! I also like colour blocked pieces.

Katerina

Veteran

SarahD8 - good point!

Gretchen, thank you!

Bijoux, thank you! Yes, both pictures look current and fresh. I think it’s also thanks to the large diversity of trends and styles and all the retro references there are today, which makes it possible to imitate many styles from different fashion eras. But you are so right, the best fashion IS timeless. The yellow, pink and purple outfit is divine....

Mainelady

Veteran

This is a great post. Katerina, I like your inspiration photos and love your personal color blocked outfits! Once upon a time I thought of color blocking being strictly in one piece of clothing, like the sweater Bonnie shows. Now I understand that separates in solid colors give the same effect, when done with intention. Often there is some thing that adds a bit of connection or cohesion among the pieces. I also think a bit of structure helps, but I can’t quite identify why that is. As Rachylou points out, a bunch of solid colors could look like a mismatch or mistake. Perhaps landing upon a successful color blocked outfit takes a bit of planning, precision and trial and error.

Staysfit

Veteran

As I look at your color block examples I thought of a color wheel, there are color complements, contrasts, or triads in the various outfits, and I wonder if that plays a role. The complements are not necessarily a direct complement, but instead may skip a color so there could be two colors separated by one paired with a contrast.

Example: pink and orange are complements separated by some space, but not as much as in a triad, blue is the contrast.

I think a key to a good color block is to get the intensities of the colors in the same family, or at least make sure they look good to the eye. For example with the rich warm tones that Brooklyn is playing with, it might take away from the richness of the look to use a light cool taupe-y tan.

Katerina

Veteran

Mainelady, thank you for looking and commenting. I agree with you, it is probably harder than it looks like to get it right. Precision.

Staysfit, thanks for the advice, it is brilliant. You are very good at this!

Bennett

Veteran

I totally agree with Staysfit. This is foremost about understanding and using the color wheel. Then choosing to pair the right intensities of the colors so no one item stands forward or fades away.

But proportions also make a difference.See how the first outfit in Bijou's pic #2 has taken two contrasting colors from the color wheel, yellow and purple. The yellow of the jacket and the purple of the sash are similarly deep in their color. They both also take up about the same amount of visual space when considering the three items that make up the outfit.

Now the designer has chosen another lighter, but also vibrant shade from the purple family for the dress which makes up a lot more of the visual space in this ensemble. I think this works well because the lighter shade takes up twice the visual space of each of the other more saturated colors, creating a balance.

This is difficult for me but so interesting. Especially difficult when going from a two-piece outfit to a three-piece outfit. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Mirjana

Veteran

I like to see color blocking on others, beautiful for you Katerina.

bj1111

Veteran

as a fan of monochrome, i surprised myself by loving these. the jewel tones are the same intensity and warmth/coolness and you have three colors which look really intentional.

too few or too many and it looks like you got dressed in the dark. instead it all goes. well done!

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

Some gorgeous looks - Katerina I especially love you in the orange blazer and purple trousers.

The Cat

Veteran

I often wear ensembles consisting of items in two non-neutrals and one neutral. All my clothes are in COOL colours, so though they may be very different from each other, they somehow look harmonious together anyway.

Another technique I often use is to first pick one patterned item (e.g. a scarf) in multiple colours and then add solid items in various colours found in the scarf pattern.

Helena

Veteran

Katerina, your style and personal colouring were made for bold colour blocking! Can't wait to see it in your WIWs. I love the ones you shared above.

Anonymous

I'm more into pattern mixing than colour-blocking, but you've inspired me to try it today with a new citron green/yellow top I'm wearing . Let's see what topper and accessories I can pull together to make a statement out of it

That said, to my eye it's all about proportions of the colours in the total mix, and continuing the effect with appropriate makeup and accessories. I think one wants to avoid too match-matchy of a look (adding some textural interest in bag, jewellery, shoes etc and not just sticking on red earrings to match a red pant IYKWIM)

Katerina

Veteran

Bennett, thank you very much for the brilliant analysis. So helpful. I wish it was easier to do

Mirjana, bj111 and Shevia, thank you!

The Cat, thank you very much for the tips. I use the scarf technique as well - it is a good way to connect unusual colours together. Interesting about the cool colours together, I have not really thought of it this way.

Torontogirl, thank you.

Lisap, thank you for the advice. The proportions of the colours is for sure an important aspect. I think it is quite difficult to achieve - looks easy when YSL or Escada do it :-). New citron green/yellow top and a statement outfit? I am really intrigued. May we see some WIW?