Colour me happy
Adding interest with colour, texture and pattern
As a self-declared minimalist, I can tend to oversimplify my outfits. But more and more, I’m feeling drawn to styling that uses colour, texture and pattern to create a unique blend of personality and individuality. Despite my natural tendency to choose the simple, the plain and the block colour, I’m seeking an infusion of this ‘expressive minimalism’ into my wardrobe. As I’m a bit unsure as to where to start, this post is an exploration of ways to help ease myself, and you if you’re game, into this ‘midimalist’ territory - a clever term coined by
to describe the somewhere place between minimalist and maximalist dressing styles - and to learn the ways of using colour. My starting point is to:Take inspiration from ‘style heroes’ to whom the use of colour, texture and pattern comes more naturally.
Create unexpected colour combinations, taking inspiration from a little book, created over a 100 years ago!
Intrigued? Me too!
But where’s the sustainable slant you ask? My Style Rush being a journey towards more sustainable style through ‘rewearing, shopping sustainably, buying preloved and knowing when and what not to buy’ after all. Just know that no purchases were made in the making of this movie post! I was pleasantly surprised to find more pieces in my wardrobe with which to explore this ‘style’ than I had originally thought and I’m hoping you do too. This forage resulted in the teaming of an old but much loved floral dress (H&M) with a new-ish (but preloved) track top from Wales Bonner x Adidas, and marks my leaning into ‘expressive minimalism’.
Style Heroes
First stop, fashion editor and style blogger Erica Davies. OMG I have such a style and all-round attitude crush on this lady! If you don’t follow her, I would strongly encourage you to start. Her IG feed is a glorious eclectic frenzy of clever colour combinations, print clashes, playful accessories, and the most flattering of silhouettes. Erica is a masterclass in bringing together an outfit in such a joyful, fun and unique way. She builds outfits with depth and richness by mixing colours from ring (3) and ring (4) of the Tibi wheel, and finishing off with accessories that either tie in or compliment the overall colour scheme. I also admire how she recently spoke about her ‘stage of life’ struggles and feel a kinship, being of a similar age and stage.
What’s a My Style Rush post without a mention of one of my biggest style heroes
! Irene often uses vintage pieces to add pattern and texture to her outfits. I would LOVE an afternoon in her local ‘consignment store’! Her colour use is also inspiring as she often teams a bold ring (4) colour with a ‘no-colour’ from ring (2) to create a statement but balanced pop of colour.
A keystone in the Lisbon style influencers set, Portuguese stylist Bárbara Santiago is one of my favourites. Think red trousers, brown suede fringe jacket, striped jumper and black bandana scarf - she just has an impossibly cool and anything-goes-style! What inspires me most about Bárbara is how she combines feminine (feminine being one of my three style words) with more boyish pieces, like pairing her Rixo leopard print dress with bright yellow Onitsuka trainers. Love it!
A Dictionary of Colour Combinations
Can you believe that this seemingly modern little book of sample colour combinations was created in 1918?! It’s a virtual bible of ‘traditional and unconventional (colour) combinations, allowing for creative exploration and experimentation’, which I have just purchased. I’m so excited for this to arrive and to ‘browse’ my wardrobe for inspired colour combinations. I’m particularly drawn to the sample combinations of navy, forest green and lemon yellow, and lilac, sage green and rusty red, which I would never have considered putting together! See Monikh’s inspired colour combination below.
Inspiration and wish list pieces
This last fortnight, sandwiched between the 9 to 5, has been a sun-drenched indulgence of family time, beach days and evenings by the river. My (three) girls are at a lovely stage and quality time with them is such a reset from the rest of life. I’m soaking up every second while they still want to be around me! So I’ll be honest, I’ve been doing more ‘that’ and less ‘this’. Saying that, we have a very lovely family holiday coming up shortly at a very beautiful hotel in Ireland, so it’s been on my mind to seek out some versatile day and evening looks. I realise that there’s not much colour or pattern here (what can I say, I’m an L plate midimalist!) but there is texture.
I love Dawn’s take on bermuda shorts for evening wear and plan to wear my linen pair from Only (via ASOS) with a similar scoop neck tank from Zara and white heeled from Mango (old but similar here).
Louise’s holiday pic reminded me to pack this cute woven Rouje bag which I managed to find preloved a few years ago. It’s such a good holiday evening bag and adds texture and colour (mine is the orange/ pink colourway).
And what can I say, this is one of my all-time favourite outfits from
! I found a similar style skirt from Zara (it’s so good that I’ve posted about it twice!) and I can’t wait to style it for day, with a tank and flip flops, and for night by swapping out the flip flops for kitten heels.
Thank you so much for stopping by and for supporting My Style Rush. I hope you’ve a lovely week and to see you next weekend, Jenny x
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Hi Jenny, I’m honoured to be mentioned! Thank you for introducing me to the Dictionary of Color Combinations - I googled it immediately and found a copy on Amazon! What a great discovery! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
I also incline towards minimalism, but love color. I mentioned on another Substack that I use Rothko as an inspiration - no one can say his paintings aren't minimal and modern, but they're so stunning color-wise!