Fall fashion is dominated by the deep, warm tones associated with autumn foliage in mustard, orange, rust, maroon/burgundy, dark green, and brown. Then in winter, the standard color palette turns to deep, cool jewel tones like emerald green, eggplant purple, red, cobalt blue, magenta/bright pink, and teal plus black. But I think that soft, muted "moody" shades of pink can be a great way to bring some unexpected but lovely color to a fall/winter outfit.
One way to think about how to wear soft pink in the cold seasons is to consider the various standard ways to combine colors (whatever they may be) into an outfit, which I call color formulas. Color formulas take into account which pieces in an outfit are the same/similar color and which ones are different. For example, most women have heard of the "column of color": a top and bottom in the same color. But that's only one of many different color formula options you get when considering how you can allocate color across the four standard outfit pieces of top, bottom, topper (jacket, cardigan, vest, etc.), and accessories.
It's important to note that a color formula is different from a color combination (such as soft pink + brown) and is different from an outfit formula (such as sweater + wide leg jeans + sneakers + scarf). A color formula is more general: it can apply to any color or color combination, and it can apply to any style/silhouette of clothing and accessories. It's about which pieces in an outfit are the same/similar color and which pieces are a different color. For example, a navy t-shirt and navy joggers with a grey hoodie is an inner column of color, and a two-piece red sequined fancy dress with a black velvet jacket is an inner column of color. Comparing these two very different outfits, the specific color choices vary and the style of the clothing varies, but both of them follow the color formula of the inner column with a top + bottom in the same/similar color.
The popularity of the matching set at retailers in the last few years is a good example of color formulas in action. Whether you have a matching set where you purchased the pieces together or you have items in the same/similar color in your closet that you can put together yourself, thinking about color formulas could help you get more mileage from your existing pieces...and perhaps help you identify wardrobe holes to add to your shopping list.
Today I'm going to share some of my previous OOTD in the color combination of soft pink and brown (inspired by my soft pink and brown outfit for SIA May Belfort) categorized by the color formula that they use. I hope this gives you some inspiration for wearing non-traditional colors for fall and winter outfits and/or ideas about how to use color formulas with the pieces in your wardrobe.
The Outer Column or "Suit"
The outer column/"suit" color formula is a topper and bottom piece in the same/similar colors. Unlike an actual business or formal suit in which a jacket and pants/skirt are made from the exact same fabric, the "suit" color formula can be used to put together pieces in different fabrics and even slightly different colors as long as they are similar and coordinate well. An example of this I wear frequently is dark blue denim jeans + navy cardigan. No one will mistake this for a literal suit, but it has that suit-like quality of using the same/similar color for the bottom and topper of the outfit. Of course if you do have a true suit made from the same fabric, that fits this color formula too!
While we often think of traditional suits in neutral colors, they certainly don't have to be limited in that way...and neither do "suits." For a soft pink + brown outfit, you can certainly make the "suit" in brown, but it's also quite fun to make a colorful pink "suit" and wear a brown top. In this outfit, I put together a cardigan and pants in similar shades of dusky rose to create an outer column of color. You'll see that they definitely aren't 100% matching shades of pink but they are similar enough to coordinate to my eye. (How similar is similar enough? That's up to you!)
The brown/pink leopard print scarf ties together these two colors, but the outfit would work perfectly well without it. I tend to be on the Color Integrator side of the Color Blocker to Color Integrator continuum so I like to wear a print bridge piece. Those who are more Color Blockers might prefer to skip it.
I will note that I added a scarf that has several shades of pink as an accent color. When you have multiple versions of a color in your outfit, or you just aren't sure that your pieces are similar enough in color, adding a print piece with a range of that color helps make the combination look more intentional. It provides a story like "I purposely made this outfit have various tones of pink" instead of "I didn't notice that my clothes are different colors from each other, oops." Again, I don't think the dusky rose "suit" in this outfit needs a scarf like this to make sense, but if you were feeling iffy about your "suit," a multi-tone accessory can provide an extra dose of cohesion to the look.
I snuck in another color formula to this outfit: the matching top + shoes that I demonstrated in a previous set of posts (Part 1, Part 2). I wear this color formula a lot in the summer, taking advantage of the colorful flats in my wardrobe, but it can be used in any season. To execute this formula on a colder fall/winter day, you could choose boots or shoes that cover more of your feet (and/or wear socks) in the same/similar color as your top.
My all-DIY bracelet stack was built around a paper bead bracelet set in a blush pink, tan, brown, and gold color palette, which was another great bridge piece for my outfit. I shared the paper bead page to bead details in this post. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}
My earrings are a pair of bead soup "3 beads on a stick" stacks that I made to coordinate with the paper bead bracelet set...as is my wont. The pale pink color of the pink quartz beads stands out nicely against the brown scarf.
The Modern Twin Set
The modern twin set color formula is a top and topper piece in the same/similar colors. As with the "suit," you may be familiar with the older, more rigidly defined version of this idea; the classic twin set is a matching shell and cardigan in the same color of sweater knit, but the modern twin set color formula encompasses a broader range of options. T-shirt + hoodie. Blouse + blazer. Tank + button up shirt-as-jacket. Turtleneck top + vest. Etc. Etc. However, if you do have a traditional twin set or other matching set consisting of a top + topper, that works too.
In this example, I am wearing the same brown T as in Outfit #1, this time with a brown jacket to create my modern twin set. I have added light dusty pink pants to create my soft pink + brown color combination. The same brown/pink leopard scarf and brown leather flats make their appearance again too. Instead of wearing the scarf in the typical infinity scarf manner, I have looped it around my neck and tied a knot for a more vertical appearance.
For colder weather, a brown sweater + brown quilted/puffy vest makes a great modern twin set. In this outfit, I used a blush pink floral skirt with the brown twin set to create my desired color combination. Remember that you aren't limited only to solid pieces when working with color combos or color formulas. This skirt has a lot of pink with a sparse floral print so it tends to come across as mostly pink. Again I matched my footwear to my top by adding tall brown boots (a nice variation from the more common "match shoes/boots to your skirt/dress" approach). I drew out the green from the skirt's print and added a green scarf for an extra pop of color.
The Colorblock
The colorblock color formula is a top and bottom (and optionally, a topper) piece in all different colors. In its truest form, your clothing items are all different solid colors and you don't have any multi-color bridge pieces in the outfit. For example, a pure colorblock outfit could be a white T-shirt, blue denim jeans, grey blazer, black boots, gold necklace. However, it's also OK to be a little looser in your interpretation when creating an outfit using the colorblock color formula...as you'll see in my OOTD examples below.
This two-piece outfit is an easy colorblock look with a dusky pink pullover sweater and brown jeans. I chose my trust brown leather flats in a "shoes matching pants" option that is very traditional and honestly does look great. So far, so colorblocked. You could take it farther by accessorizing with scarf and/or necklace options in any metallic and/or any color but pink or brown. But true to my Color Integrator tendencies, I added my tried-and-true brown/pink leopard scarf as a bridge piece. The final result doesn't have the full-on COLORBLOCK look due to the scarf, but it still started with the basic colorblock color formula of top and bottom in different colors. That's the beauty of these formulas - you can customize them for your own preferences, tweak them based on your mood, work with the items you have in your own closet, etc.
Here is another variation on the formula: blush pink pullover sweater, same brown jeans, tan ankle boots, and a leopard print scarf...this time in various shades of brown to pull together the jeans and boots but without any of the pink of the sweater. My jewelry includes a gold, rose gold, and brown bracelet stack plus gold hoop earrings with glass pearls in various rosy brown tones. So the soft pink in this soft pink + brown outfit is represented only by the sweater (and honestly, by my skin tone too, haha).
Now let's take a look at a 3 piece outfit example of the colorblock color formula. The same blush pink pullover sweater as Outfit #5, a brown quilted vest, and a blue denim skirt create the basic foundation of a colorblock outfit. The boots are cognac, which is distinctly different from the dark brown of the vest and can be considered an extension of the colorblock "all different colors" logic or a variant on the theme of brown, depending on how you want to look at it.
The scarf does function as a bridge piece in this outfit since it contains both pink (multiple shades) and beige (a version of brown), but it's a bit of an interesting one since neither the dark brown of the vest nor the cognac of the boots is represented. It also contains a bit of black rather than the brown of the outfit. But I think it works quite well here despite these varying neutrals. Sometimes we can overthink things and assume that if we're wearing a brown vest that the neutral in another pieces must also be brown. Of course brown with brown looks great, but it's not our only option...and not even our best or most visually interesting option every time. My husband's position on neutrals (which I think is much more common among men) is one that it pays to remember: the whole point of neutrals is that you can wear them with other colors and each other without worrying about it. The combination of dark brown vest, cognac boots, and beige and black in the scarf looks good and has more variety and interest than if all three pieces were dark brown. Now on some days, I'm all over the matchy-matchy, but it's also nice to change things up and mix in multiple neutrals. If feels iffy to you but you'd like to experiment: try with something like this scarf that has a print with just a bit of an off color like black and see what you think.
This massive bracelet stack is a set of 5 pink aventurine and brown wood bead bracelets I made from an Annie's bead kit. (You saw one of them in my recent SIA May Belfort post.) I like each one individually, but as a set of 5, they are overwhelming even to me! So I picked the two bracelets I liked best and set them aside, then took apart the other three and made a necklace out of them. I tell you, friends, making beaded jewelry is amazing. After so many years of sewing, cross-stitch, paper crafts, etc., I love that you can make something out of beads and, if it didn't work out or you get tired of it or whatever, you can just easily take it apart and the beads are in perfect shape to use again in another project! Not like fabric, yarn, thread, paper, etc., that can be difficult to impossible to re-use.
Another day, another bead soup stack earring pair! These earrings were made using wooden beads and spacers to coordinate with this scarf. The longer cream wood bead at the bottom provides some nice contrast against the cooler, dark beige of the scarf background, but the overall color palettes of the scarf and earrings are similar enough that they go together well.
In this outfit, I did the 3-piece colorblock again as the basis of my outfit with the same brown vest, a different blue denim skirt, and my beloved blush pink rabbit sweater. I repeated the dark brown in my tights/boots and went simple with my accessories: gold leather earrings, silky gold scarf in my hair, and no scarf/necklace! I know, it seems like I must have forgot to finish getting dressed but I do occasionally let the cute bunnies on the sweater stand alone.
The Print Mix
It's arguable whether the print mix fits well into the color formula family but I wanted to include it as another way of thinking about how to put an outfit color palette into action.
In this more color-complicated look, I combined elements of the colorblock approach and the print mix approach. I have selected pink in a print skirt (as seen in Outfit #3), maroon for my sweater (an accent color in the skirt), and dark brown for my vest and boots. I could have worn a solid pink button up shirt under the sweater but (1) I don't have one and (2) with just a hint of it peeking out, this is the perfect time to add some subtle visual interest with a pink print mix of gingham check shirt + floral print skirt. I used the shirt collar to frame this delicate ruby heart necklace that my mom bought me to commemorate my graduation from my masters program; the dark red of the gemstone is great with the maroon sweater.
The Sad Old Potato
This is not a color formula (though I can readily imagine a drab brown outfit that gets this nickname and desperately needs a hearty dose of soft pink to pretty it up). It is a warning. Once your potato reaches the stage where with 6 flicks of a marker even I can transform into a miserably pitiful toy that looks like a Depression-era precursor to the old-school 1950s Mr Potato Head, it's no longer food.
For further reading:
-I go into a lot of detail about some specific color formulas with winter outfit examples in this post, and if you've never read it, it's lays a good foundation with useful tips for executing color formulas.
-In this follow up post, I discuss how to create outfits using both color formulas and color wheel combinations.
Do you like to wear pink and brown together? Are you a fan of seasonally non-traditional color combinations? Do you have a favorite color formula? Did you know that the original Mr. Potato Head had just the plastic eyes, nose, mouth, etc. with pushpins attached, and that you had to supply your own actual potato??
Blogs I link up with are listed here.
I love these outfits. The scarf with the blossoms and birds is so lovely. Thank you for sharing it with us at the Crazy Little Lovebirds link party #66.
I absolutely love pink and brown together and I love how you call it a color formula. So much better than color recipe that I always talk about. XOXO Jodie
Oh wow, that is a great colour combination, brown and pink! That gives my skirt a bit more options!
I like your combos. And accessories. Very nice :)
I love all these shades of brown and pink. I have very little of either color in my winter wardrobe but I do have bright pops of pink in my summer clothes.