The easiest and best ways to wear colour right now

Bright colours and menswear don’t always go hand in hand, mainly because so many find comfort in the muted simplicity of monochrome or khaki and navy. But adding colour to your daily outfits doesn’t have to mean brash, over-the-top clashing – it’s more about having a baseline of varying colours that you can weave in and out of different looks depending on the occasion. So, where to start?

It sounds simple enough, but trends are trends and with the best will in the world, we can all get swept up in them. Knowing which colours best suit your skin tone and hair colour (and ignoring what trendsetters are saying) is perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle. A quick and easy rule of thumb? The paler you are, the less vibrant the colours you should pick, so go for deep and rich shades instead, like dark green, burgundy and deep red. If you have a darker complexion, you can afford to go bolder and brighter with vivid orange, yellow, red and more. 

There are a lot of archaic rules when it comes to matching colours together, such as ‘blue and green should never be seen without a colour in between’, and the like. Our take? Don't listen. Colours don’t need to match, they don’t need to ‘go’ together. The main thing is that they look good – and make you feel good. So don’t be afraid to contrast your colours and mix and match bold neons with muted neutrals. Whatever floats your boat. 

Tonal quite simply means varying tones of the same colour. So, a khaki and a darker green, a navy and a colbalt blue, and so on. And while we’d love to get every man wearing a dash of bright colour, we know it’s probably wishful thinking. So if the thought of boldly going with bright shades brings you out in a cold sweat, think about mixing and matching tonal colours to add depth and a point of difference to your outfit. And who knows? Once you start here, you might find it hard to stop…