by Jorunn Hernes (Norway)
I get the most wonderful inspiration from the readers of my Nordic Simplicity blog. I loved this comment from my reader Mandy, who is a Soft Summer and shone a light on the (blue) elephant in the room.
Challenge accepted.
Blue is an easy colour for Summers, perhaps too easy, to the extent that besides mauve and dusty pink, it’s the most loved colour in the Summer palettes.
But let’s follow Mandy and forget for a minute how lovely blue is as part of any Summer’s wardrobe, and look at some examples of Soft Summer outfits completely free of blue.
I have three style boards to show you.
Mauve and green
I started with the fun pants in green and mauve. Such a delightful pattern, and it gives all kinds of opportunities to play with colours from the SSu palette. To support this, I picked a couple of dark burgundy pants. If you are of a minimalist mindset, you could easily have enough with one of these. Moving on to tops, two tops in antique rose, short and long sleeve, and a dusty sage green top. Combining these with a soft and comfy cardigan from the same mauve colour family, you can mix and match and layer these items in a myriad of ways, and to complete the look, adding a lavender bag and green shoes would not go amiss, along with a staple pair of neutral sandals.
Green and green
Moving to another segment of the SSu palette, let’s pick outfits from the calming greens, with the merest hint of lavender. Again, starting with a pair of pants in green and floral, we can build a wardrobe of lush greens that there are so many of in the SSu palette, and insert a little greyed lavender for interest.
Look how many green pants I found! I paired the pants with a cream and green blouse and many green tops and added a light lavender top picking up the hyacinth flowers of the pants. I think it supports the green without reading as overly blue in this context.
Soft Summer neutrals
Let’s not forget neutrals. When you know your neutrals, you can build an entire wardrobe out of them, and then bring in colours according to seasons and trends without replacing the staple items of the wardrome.
And the secret recipe for looking polished and “expensive” is extensive use of neutrals. And since all three Summers excel at using tone-on-tone and monochrome outfits, let’s explore how that would look for a SSu using (almost) only neutrals.
Such a glorious range of neutrals, from pale straw to pinkish beige and greige to deep taupe.
And since I’m obsessed with floral patterned pants, I couldn’t resist sneaking one in there. Granted, it has pinks and greens, but the overall impression is one of delicate cream of caramel light beige. Add three more pants in beige and taupe, and you have the backbone of a very elegant capsule wardrobe using mainly neutrals. The tops are kept in neutrals, combining pale straw and dark taupe for the striped top, and the very delicate yellowish white for the blouse, a tank top in solid beige and a sark long sleeved deep pinkish brown top. All these can be combined all around and makes for a super capsule wardrobe for traveling. Pair the outfits with sandals or shoes and scarves and necklaces, add a smart jacket and you’re good to go anywhere. Put a bathing suit in your suitcase with these items, and you can go on a cruise for a week and be well dressed enough for anything from dinner with the captain to promenading on the top deck.
Would you like more?
And should you wish to go deeper in exploring neutrals, the mini-course Neutrals for the Summer Seasons will open for enrollment soon, over on my website nordicsimplicity.com:
