086/ The Role Of Non-Colour Colours: An Experiment
Nine outfits + tapping into the latent potential of your existing wardrobe.
Hello readers!
The idea for this newsletter came to me as I was looking at the collage of my foundational pieces from Part 2 of my How To Build A Foundational Wardrobe series.
Seeing the pieces laid out in front of me, I instinctively began to draw invisible lines between tops and bottoms, then blazers and shoes, making outfits in my head, when it dawned in me…
On “paper,” I was having fun connecting my “non-colour” colour — khaki, burgundy, muted out yellows, pinks, and browns — foundational pieces with each other, but I wasn’t doing it in real life.
I went through my outfits from the past year, which confirmed what I had suspected: when I introduce colour into an outfit, even “non-colour” ones, I tend to pair them with my old faithfuls of black, white, grey, navy, silver, off-white, etc…
As I was thinking through this, Tibi’s colour wheel came to mind:
It occurred to me that most of my outfits stay within the shades of Rings 1 and 2, sometimes blending in a Ring 3 “non-colour,” and occasionally popping them with a bright Ring 4. To help you visualize what this jargon means, I’ve added some photos below.
Examples of Ring 1 + 2 outfits:
Examples of Ring 2 + 3 outfits (notably, which are heavy on Ring 2 shades and light on Ring 3):
Examples of Ring 1 + 2 + 4 outfits:
Not only do I lean heavily into Ring 1 and 2 colours, when I introduce a Ring 3, it assumes a bit part in the overall production. As for Ring 4, they’re so bright, you can’t help but notice them.
And thus, the beginnings of this newsletter: what would happen if, instead of mixing my Ring 3 pieces with my usual comfort zone of Ring 2 shades, I mixed them with each other? What about with Ring 4 colours?
Whenever I start putting one of these edits together, I inevitably think something like, “what if I don’t have the right — or enough — pieces”? Which is exactly what happened. It reminded me of how I had wanted to do a corporate edit for the longest time but thought I couldn’t because I didn’t have any “corporate” clothes. That assumption turned out to be preposterous:
In fact, this is the kind of deeply ingrained idea that I help my clients undo so they can move towards a more versatile, integrated wardrobe:
“I wouldn’t wear this to the office”
“I would never have thought to put x and y together”
Little did I know, I had been holding onto a version of it, too. Once I got into the flow, it was clear that I could make many corporate outfits with my existing wardrobe.
(You can read that piece here.)
Similarly, even though I don’t have a lot of Ring 3 pieces, once I got going, I saw so many ways to use the ones I have (or my husband has, as it were).
All to say, this newsletter is not about you going out and buying a bunch of non-colour colour clothes, but encouraging you to explore the latent potential in your existing closet!
For those of you who truly don’t have many Ring 3 pieces, I’ve started with an example that requires minimal adjustments. I’ve put my Ring 3 outfits side-by-side with outfits I’ve worn in the past to help you see the impact of the different shades.
Note: it’s not that the “befores” aren’t as good as the “afters” — on the contrary, at below left is one of my favourite outfits! It’s simple and neutral, and checked all the boxes for me to feel chic, modern, comfortable, etc…
At below right, I swapped the sweater for another Ring 2 shade (from white to navy), and also changed the light blue dress shirt (Ring 3) around my waist to a brighter blue one (Ring 3.5), and my black sandals (Ring 1) to a ballerina shade that Miu Miu calls “cocoa” (Ring 3). It’s a small variation, but the result is a greater overall depth of colour: