Wearing wide leg pants & neutral tones

Two things you’ve been seeing me wear a lot lately? Wide or straight leg trousers, and an abundance of neutral tones. This is what I wore yesterday… always a risk as whenever I wear white, I spend the whole day trying to avoid little grubby fingers.

Wearing Forcast top; H&M trousers (old but similar style here); YSL slides (affordable option); Polene bag; Mejuri, Linjer & Missoma bracelets; Arms of Eve earrings; Stella McCartney sunglasses

I talked a bit about these style shifts in a recent post, but one thing I didn’t share was a new “tool” I’ve been using when getting dressed every morning. In the past, I probably would have “bookended” an outfit like this. Meaning, matching the colour from my top to my shoes. A simple trick for sticking to colour schemes and overall can create a cohesive look. But a couple months back I saw this referred to as a colour sandwich, and it’s something I can’t seem to unsee.

Now instead of bookending certain outfits, I’ll look at creating blocks of colour or contrast. With the outfit above, you can see I went with a block of colour. Creamy/ivory tones from the waist down, even reflected in my bag. From a visual perspective, vertical columns represented in your outfit can give the illusion of height. So this can also be a useful tool if you’re petite and want to appear taller.

To create contrast, I’d opt for a colour which doesn’t match my top or my trousers. Probably a black shoe as this still feels timeless and classic. I’d probably also change my bag too, maybe to a camel colour to keep consistent with the hues in my top. Or if I was feeling bold, something more vibrant; which as a side note, the colour wheel can be used when trying to understand which colours to match with your outfit. For some “colour” contrast, opt for colours on the opposite side of the colour wheel. Otherwise a softer approach is analogous colours; colours which sit beside each other on the colour wheel.