Moving away from the dark side - YouLookFab Forum

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Moving away from the dark side

jenanded

Veteran

I have made the call to move away from the dark side - AKA the black miasma of my wardrobe. Black is easy to buy, match, pack and doesn't show my klutziness...

Does anyone have experiences of HOW they were able to diversify from black and still have coordination?

I already have some bright tops/jackets but... Love to hear your ideas! Oh and I am not a brown person... So guess I am trying to work out how to make a wardrobe with pinks, blues, purples as my central colours (without looking like fairy floss!). I

17 replies

Latest reply was from moira

Mo

(website)

Veteran

Have you tried olive/army green? I find it goes with just about everything. I wear blues and purples as well, along with red and, well, green lol,

K. Period.

Veteran

I think going for tone on tone is a nice way to start breaking up the black dependency. If you go for deeper (or lighter) tones of colors that you already wear, it feels comfortable and yet is different. But I'm a big fan of black and pastels too, especially with pink. It takes pink from saccharine to Chanel.

Oh my gosh and yes to what Mo said. I love olive with those colors.

Raisin

Veteran

Eek, I don't know...I'm moving towards black! I would probably start by adding colorful accessories like belts and scarves though. Why do you want to go to pinks purples and blues now?

Kate

Veteran

I second Mo's' suggestion of olive/army green and would add gray, in all its shades and tones, as well as ink blue.

Kristine

Veteran

How about cream? It's a nice contrast with black and lightens everything up, but it doesn't look too sweet (especially with black). I like grey a lot too, some of the drama and practicality of black but it mixes really nicely with all kinds of colors.

Aida

Veteran

I would suggest starting out by having only one black item in an outfit before moving onto other neutrals. Charcoal works very well in place of black, but you won't get as high a contrast; cream and white work REALLY well in place of black AND net you the high contrast. Having two dark neutrals that work well together can help breathe some life into your black, as will adding a light neutral as well. Then you can happily add your other proper colors with ease. The other option is to have both bright and muted items with your core colors; so an outfit that would feature pink would also use burgundy and plum, or an outfit that features turquoise would also use navy and olive.

DonnaF

Veteran

Too much black is sold!!! I look for black & white and black & cream prints and various shades of gray, especially charcoal. Most other neutrals don't work with my coloring. I have and wear an embarrassing number of scarves; some with deep black and others with flat black. I am short, so I have to be careful about high contrast color blocking cutting my body in half. As for colors, many of the ones that flatter me most aren't sold this time of year or are in style! Yellowish greens and corals really look good. . .

Caro in Oz

Veteran

I noticed you like Sonia Delaunay. What about using this dress as inspiration? I think these colours look fantastic together.

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cinnamon fern

Veteran

White! And white and black prints! I think black + color + white basically always looks good, whereas just black + color can so easily go wrong. Really, I cannot repeat enough how much easier it got getting dressed for this mostly dark neutrals person once I added a bunch of white tops.

Deborah

Veteran

Jen this is part of the journey I have been on and I am still navigating it. As soon as I brought in colors and patterns it didn't seem quite so easy to coordinate my wardrobe. I find that at this early stage of introducing color, more thought is required putting outfits together. It's also helped me see how much I do like neutrals and I am now moving towards solids and away from pattern (in clothes not accessories) and considering what other neutrals I can add so I'm not always in something black. Blue and Navy are starting to become key in my wardrobe, and I am now exploring grey and taupe. I already have quite a bit of white and cream and I do consider red a neutral in my wardrobe. In short, I don't have an answer, but I would suggest much playing in you closet will help you gauge what coordinates well and what doesn't. For me it's been trial and error. I think pinks and purples would be gorgeous on you and would pair well with most neutrals.

jenanded

Veteran

Thank you - quite a few, and different solutions, to play with what I have! I am so fickle. I think I saw some capsule with NO black and it all looked so 'together'! and then started lusting. I will indeed play with some of these ideas... How much fun! and Caro, obviously my sonia delaunay obsession is in the open - I love that jacket! and the blue and pinks - well think they are the colours that are working for me right now! Jen

Vix

Veteran

Hi Jenanded --

Recovering blacktexile-a-holic checking in (currently relapsing with fall purchases!).

Great variety of advice upthread; as you noted, lots of different directions to consider.

I went into my own process in great, possibly excessive detail on Astrid's recent color-related thread here:

[the posts I'm talking about are about halfway down]

http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....lors-again

Cliff Notes version --

I originally started buying random colors to "brighten" the black, but that didn't work. I hated color on me more, not less!

From there I started analyzing the colors that seemed to flatter me and began buying to create "color-color capsules" that centered on limited shades. Blue/green and rose/purples -- sounds like you and I have similar taste there!

I also explored dark neutrals other than black, which got me to charcoal and espresso. [I didn't get very far away, but they are the right shades for my skintone and often look better with my chosen color-colors.]

I still buy and wear tons of black. All-black, black with other dark neutrals, black with a bit of color etc.

But now I can do color-color plus neutrals and even ALL color-color if desired. Not sure I escape looking like fairy floss, though....

Let us know how it goes for you!

ps Not sure if you've seen some of the recent color threads -- in addition to Astrid, Suz and Clearlyclaire come to mind...a search may get you to others whose names unfortunately escape my addled brain.

JuneBug

Veteran

I think jewel toned colors will really compliment the black that you already own. You could include these colors in shades of an emerlad green, teal, acquamarines and rich purples, either as a bottom or a top. You could also add metallic shades to your wardrobe, or if you aren't comfortable with such a strong statement on a large area like a top or bottom, you could include it in a bag, shoes or jewellery. Personally I find the color blocking trend too trendy and I like to steer clear of that as I don't think I could carry if off properly, but if you think you can, then black is the perfect base to start with!

TraceyLiz65

(website)

Veteran

Having neutrals is so important but too much black is a problem for most of us. I have made a concentrated effort to add other neutrals including brown, tan, grey, navy, and olive. I recently gave a fashion lesson to a future fashionista who is just 6 on the topic of neutrals and the importance of them....

rachylou

Veteran

Some thoughts:

- Replace black with blue, charcoal, dark purple, burgundy, forest green, etc. - even red (!)
- à la k can shop, do tone-on-tone
- Go monochromatic (one color)
- Do complementary colors (on the color wheel, the complement of a color is the one opposite - e.g., red/green, blue/orange, yellow/violet)
- Do analagous colors (colors next to each other on the color wheel)

The color wheel is very interesting...

MsLuna

Veteran

Depending on your colouring, a great black substitute would be charcoal. Grey plays tricks with the eye: it appears as though it's the complement of the colour you pair up with it. So I'd say give it a shot!

Other options: NAVY!

moira

Veteran

I have found myself buying gray a LOT. Today I just bought a pale gray argyle sweater with pale pink, fuchsia and a bit of bright yellow. This will be worn with either gray trousers or a pair of gray trousers with hot pink and white pinstripe (very subtle). I find gray to be almost as versatile as black, but softer. It can be tricky though as there is some gray with a bluish tinge (my preference) and some that is more greenish.