50 Shades of Yellow – Antonia O'Brien

In reaction to the grey skies and fog I’ve started to crave bright colours; it feels like that point in the year/ season/ month/ week to ditch glum for bright. Yellow is not an easy palette to work with, oft draining you of colour or making you look jaundiced. I have a love/ hate relationship with yellow and mustard tones, often loving them on other people and thinking they are just too – too spicy for me. Yes, spicy. When I was hosting at Stylist Live, the magazines’s fashion director Alex Fullerton presented a gorgeous slideshow of the trends for winter, from velvet to romantic lace and then spicey yellows from turmeric to mustard. Since then I have embraced the tones, what do you think?

How to wear it?

Like with all strong colours and prints this punchy palette works best in unfussy and clean shapes. To work with yellow think of investing in basics like a silk blouse, tailored trouser or cashmere knit that you can style with your neutral go-to’s i.e. cropped denim, navy, charcoal and tailoring. I styled (photo above) an Equipment blouse with a pair of 3.1 Phillip Lim wool flares and a wool-silk mix blazer from my favourite brand, Joseph. I wouldn’t usually choose head-to-toe mustard yellow but the sharp dark jacket breaks it up and makes it wearable; this outfit genuinely put me in a good mood! Should you not be sure but fancy tapping-in gently, look to accessories. Zara always has a brilliant selection of handbags and shoes that echo the catwalk trends and don’t even get me started on Mansur Gabriel, I love their colours and pared-back designs – urg – so gorgeous.