Thinking about clothes colours

I'm still not bored of this outfit. You'll see it again this summer.

Perhaps it’s because of sewing that this has only just hit me, but I’ve never really thought about the colours of the clothes in my wardrobe. Browsing fabrics the other day – I know I don’t need any more Liberty fabric, but this season’s ‘Jude’ print is the perfect 60s-does-deco design – I was trying to work out my favourite colourway, and it hit me that the one I liked best probably wasn’t the one I’d wear.

Why? Not enough things to wear it with.


In my goth days pretty much everything I had was black, and everything that wasn’t went with black, so I never really had to think about the colours in my wardrobe. When I started knitting, I found I invariably honed in on the teals and turquoises. And since then I’ve amassed a kaleidoscope of clothes, but I don’t own as many as a lot of bloggers and often struggle to find things that match in terms of colour and ‘mood’. (Yeah, my clothes have moods. Hippie mood, witchy mood, smart mood, space-age mood…) One solution would be simply to buy more clothes so I have more to choose from, but I’m not sure that’s a good plan. I don’t have space for them, and I don’t need them. What I need to do is make sure any new acquisitions or makes fit around the existing ones, that they match in colour and mood.

Liberty Jude fabric. I'd wear all these colours.

Navy and red are easy for me to build outfits from, as I have a decent amount of both, and they generally fall into the smart/office/mod moods. Navy's also one of the few colours where I have a decent amount of vintage/repro, with 20s beach pyjamas, a 40s-style House of Foxy dress and late-40s cardi, and my Modshoes and boxy bag. I do have garments that are navy or have elements of navy in that I bought for last year’s India trip, and they’re slight misfits as they’re more casual in feel, but generally fine with linen trousers.

Hippie holiday clothes. Yeah, navy...

Black is tricky because over the years I’ve come to realise that the 1980s maxim of black going with everything isn’t actually true. Okay, it’s not going to actively clash, but it can really suck the impact out of the rest an outfit. And that’s not the colour’s fault, it’s because I’ve been lazy in how I use it. When I used to wear mostly black, any other colour would have more impact, so I’d work it in carefully, perhaps echoing it in other accessories, or accepting that it would be used in the statement piece. I don’t treat black like that. Navy’s pretty much a neutral too, but I treat it with much more respect, using it in accessories or ensuring it’s echoed in whatever other garments I’m wearing if I choose solid navy skirt or trousers. My poor old black skirts and trousers just get slung on as an afterthought. So, I need to think about blouses and tops incorporating an element of black – and perhaps some of my other favourite colours, for versatility. My black pieces tend to be more 30s-40s in shape, so that's something to bear in mind when picking fabric to wear with them.

Teal, turquoise and green are oddities as these cover most of my clothing moods. I probably have more actual vintage incorporating one or more of these colours than anything else. However, I do have a few garments in these shades that I’ve hung onto because ‘they’ll do’. I also have a lot that doesn’t fit. And my greens are mostly dresses or tops – that’s where the black trousers get dragged in. No more! My 2019 Make Nine includes some skirt ideas, so let them be, or contain, green or turquoise!

There are a few outliers in the wardrobe – a grey and pink skirt, grey knits – but I’m not planning to get rid of them. I will, however, be wary of buying/making any more in those colours or yellow. I’ve got brown accessories and tweeds but no daywear; that’s a gap to fill in.

So there’s sort of a plan in there: prints containing black or brown, solid greens and turquoises. That’s good? This weekend the plan will go right out of the window anyhow as I'm hoping to make my rocket top (MORE DARK BLUE).

I know loads of bloggers are way better at combining colours than me. Do you have a lot of clothes? Or a lot of a few particular colours?