How to Make Colors Work that Don't Suit You

Bespoke Style is a personal style newsletter. I mostly wear custom and vintage pieces. My mom’s a tailor and thanks to her, I grew up with the art of fashion and style in my DNA. I’m bringing that to you with this newsletter.

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Enjoy! - Johanna.

Hiya,

it’s been a while. I didn’t have a lot to report on the cool outfit front - I’ve been mostly spending time indoors, working from home, and holing up inside during some grey weeks in January.

An Attic Find & My Color Season

Last weekend, when I cleaned up some boxes in the attic, I found a wonderful, cool, lovely wool sweater from my youth. It's cyclamen pink - a sneak peek for spring. Younger me had good taste in color, for sure! :)

I washed it and immediately had to wear it, see below.

In color theory, I’m some sort of spring (clear or just regular-ass spring), so fun, warm colors look really good on me.

Do you know yours, by the way?

Knowing your colors is the ultimate cheat-code for sensible shopping and getting pieces made. Together with a fit and style that works for you, colors are the key to making clothes look like they were made for you.

Fashion cycles do the opposite. They pick colors for us. Remember the cerulean scene from the Devil Wears Prada? Miranda Priestly in her scarily haughty voice levels pre-makeover Andy when she illustrates how color seeps down from high fashion to the consumer base. It’s a bit different now, because we have Instagram and TikTok. The principle is still the same.

And while sometimes it can be inspiring, when fashion trends make you pay attention to certain colors in a new way, I find it a bit boring. One summer, everyone is wearing khaki, another, it’s bright florals. Sometimes, you’re lucky and the colors of the season fit you. In other years, well, you’re stuck with looking like a clown.

I prefer being the pilot of the colors of my sartorial universe. I buy vintage and create things with my mom (my tailor) that make me shine, color-wise.

How to Make a Color Work That Doesn’t Suit You

When you look at the colors above, you can probably guess what doesn’t work on me: black. It gives me the sparkle of…er, a loaf of brown bread. In German, we call it grey bread, which illustrates the point even more. No luster, no charm.

it just so happens to be, though, that my favorite pants for winter are dark grey (almost black unless you get very close) and one of my warmest coats is also black.

So, what do you do, when you want to leave the house looking put together (and alive, dare I say), while also being warm?

But, first, let’s look at the outfit:

Outfit details:

Sweater: Vintage Benetton, Pants: Vintage wool from Salzburg brand Madl, also worn here and here, Coat: Vintage, Boots: Marc O’Polo, also worn here and here.

To soften the effect of the overall dark outfit, I used a vintage silk scarf to create a barrier between the black coat and my face. I like how the red of the scarf is in harmony with the pink of the sweater, while lending some warmth to my face.

Here’s the scarf from up close:

What do you think? Did it work?

You can comment on this edition by clicking the button below:

Have a stylish day,

Johanna

PS: *Source of Color Chart 

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