I have an older cashmere cardigan (J Crew) that is a color that I think of as lemon yellow. I was not completely satisfied as to how this color played with cognac.

First picture I have it paired with an "orchid blue" t shirt from J Crew. The v-neck on this t-shirt is too low for me, and so I added my blue turkish tile scarf. Still not loving the J Crew cognac belt and Madewell cognac boots with these lighter colors.

I did two switches on this outfit. One I did not photograph because I was trying to retain the cognac idea and it involved swapping out for blue belt and boots. That worked perfectly well, though.

However, I was thinking about why the cognac and the lemon did not work, and I decided it was because the sweater color was too light next to the bold cognac. So I changed over to a citron sweater (the t-shirt is still underneath it fwiw) and added the neon yellow handbag for good measure.

Also, I was thinking about who looks good in yellow. Yellow and citron can be iffy for me (I can look too pink-faced in them) but they are working today. Even though I generally try to wear flattering colors, I find that using Laura Mercier Radiance Primer under tinted moisturizer is very helpful in making any iffy color look a little better.