Today I'm continuing my soft pink color combo series with black, an ubiquitous neutral that is even more popular than usual in the winter months. A muted shade of pink has lovely contrast with the depth of black and creates a striking color combination.
If you missed the first post in this series, you can catch up here.
The Inner Column
The inner column color formula is a top and bottom piece in the same/similar colors. A dress or jumpsuit in a single color/print is the one-piece way create an inner column, but you can also create it with separates.
I started this outfit with items most of us probably have in our closets: a black top and black pants that form a neutral inner column of color that could be the foundation for a thousand different outfits. I added a long dusky pink cardigan over the black long-sleeved blouse and rolled up the sleeves to create a bit of fun contrast of black against the lighter pink. Because my cardigan has a bit of volume to it, I decided to wear it over skinny pants, but as with every color formula, you can use it with any style or silhouette of clothing. Black wide leg pants with a short black top and cropped pink cardigan would have a different look while using the same color formula. And of course you could switch things up by wearing a pink column with a black topper over it instead.
I selected a scarf with black and pink...but a darker and brighter shade of pink than in the cardigan. I chose this scarf because I thought the tan/beige and white neutrals in the scarf would help lighten up the look. I often like layering a long pendant necklace under a short scarf so I added my go-to silver daisy pendant to match the metallic color in the rest of my jewelry. This worked nicely to repeat the floral theme of the scarf too.
My tan/black cheetah Oxfords are a match made in heaven with the scarf that has a lot of those two colors and shares irregular blotchy round organic shapes with it. You could certainly wear black shoes/boots to continue your inner column of color but I really like how the animal print bookends the outfit, balancing with the scarf and my blonde-hair-plus-black-headband at the top.
My all-DIY bracelet stack was built around a new paper bead bracelet set in a black, burgundy, and slate blue color palette to coordinate with a print blouse in my wardrobe. Neither the burgundy nor this shade of blue are in my outfit, but nevertheless I thought the dark, moody, and icy colors were an interesting addition to a black and pink winter look. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}
The top paper bead bracelet was made from two identical pages in Coldwater Creek catalogs featuring a tunic in a burgundy and white print. Because the scale of the print was very small in the images, you can see bits of the print on the rolled beads.
The colorblocked paper beads (third from the bottom of the stack) arose from another of my experiments in adding paint to a catalog or magazine page. In this case, I liked the colors of the jackets in this catalog image but didn't want so much white space so I painted over the white background and the text with silver metallic acrylic paint.
Not only did the paint add a different color to the rolled beads, it also created visual texture with the shiny metallic paint contrasting against the smooth matte surface of the paper. Both these beads and the previous burgundy/white ones are a bit chunkier than they'd otherwise be because I rolled two strips together for each bead.
The last paper bead bracelet (bottom of the stack) is also from paper with a small scale design, this time a photograph of many, many shorebirds (egrets? herons?) in an Audubon magazine. These beads turned out really cool.
My DIY earrings are more matchy-matchy with the colors of my scarf than the bracelets are, even though I didn't make them to go together. (You'll see below that the scarf that inspired the earrings has some strong overlap in its color palette with the scarf I'm wearing.) The vivid pink, blue, and white beads do a great job of repeating the light and bright colors of the scarf while contrasting well against both my hair and the scarf. It's funny that the debut of these scarf-inspired earrings occurred with an outfit featuring an entirely different scarf, but this isn't the first time this has happened to me!
The Modern Twin Set
As discussed in the previous post, the modern twin set color formula is a top and topper piece in the same/similar colors. This is one of my very favorite color formulas in every season...since I live in a location where even in summer I can get away with a tank top + lightweight button up shirt or the like.
In this example, I am wearing the same black pants and print scarf as in Outfit #1 above with a long-sleeved T and puffer vest in matching "light sepia rose" (both pieces from Christopher & Banks in December 2020). This time I did pick black flats that continue the color of my pants as well as a thrifted black pendant necklace.
Here are two extremely similar outfits using the same black pullover sweater, floral print skirt, and light pink scarf. In the first outfit, I wore a black tuxedo jacket to complete the twin set and finished it with tall black boots. In the second outfit (two months earlier), I wore a black moto vest and black ankle boots.
The Colorblock
The colorblock color formula is a top and bottom (and optionally, a topper) piece in all different colors. You can execute this formula more strictly with clothing items of all different solid colors or more loosely by incorporating prints as desired. My examples here use a soft pink sweater with black bottoms, though of course those colors could be flipped around.
This outfit has a dusky pink sweater and black skirt tied together with a multi-color butterfly print scarf that includes both black and two shades of pink. I added black tights that continue the color from the skirt with maroon ankle boots that repeat a version of the magenta pink in the scarf and provide a low key color pop to the look. (And yes, May 1 can still call for sweaters and tights in Minnesota...)
The black skinny pants make another appearance in this outfit with a pale blush pink pullover sweater and another bridge piece scarf that pulls the two pieces together.
No round up of soft pink fall/winter outfits is truly complete without my sweet blush pink rabbit sweater making an appearance! This outfit includes a different pair of black pants with a cut that could be described as a slim straight leg. Instead of wearing a scarf that combines black and pink as in the previous outfits, I chose a black and silver/grey leopard print scarf and flats in the same color scheme to keep the rest of the outfit apart from the rabbit sweater in simple neutral colors.
The Freezing River
With the calendar flipping over from November to December, winter weather arrived in St Paul, bringing colder temperatures, a dusting of snow, and patches of snow-covered ice on the Mississippi River. A couple days ago, the high temperature reached the mid-40s F and the ice on the river melted. But I am not sad about it. There is more than enough winter weather coming our way so I'll enjoy a brief respite that feels like a visitation of fall in December.
Do you like to wear black in the winter? What do you think of muted or light pinks for fall/winter outfits? Do you consider blush pink to be a neutral? Have you seen cold temperatures, ice, or snow in your area yet this winter?
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