The "Dark + Light + Bright" Trifecta
A style recipe for those of us who find monotone a bore
There was a time when my winter wardrobe consisted of nothing but navy, grey, and black. I probably harboured smug thoughts of myself as this chic early-twenty-something who had resolved the question of personal style, while her peers stumbled through Zara rudderless — emerging in cheap ensembles of whatever colours happened to be trending but would soon be passé.
My foray into chroma-deficient minimalism didn’t last long. I got bored of wearing puddle-coloured cashmere and my signature grey trousers all the time. Even branching out into camel and brown didn’t provide the spark I was hoping for. The initial peace I found in a restrictive, uniform closet turned into frustration — yet I kept buying more of the same colourless stuff, believing that my sartorial restlessness could be quelled by acquiring the perfect black sweater.
Fast forward a few years, colour and pattern have returned to my wardrobe in a big way. Nevertheless, when I recently switched over my closet, I realized that my cold season wardrobe is still dominated by dark and mid-tone neutrals — a palette I feel increasingly lukewarm about. For some time, I’ve observed this strange dichotomy between a fun, buoyant summer wardrobe and winter clothes so heavy and austere.
Where my style currently sits, I am more drawn to bold, saturated colours than ever. After putting away my warm weather clothes — a rainbow of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue — I was slightly saddened to be left with a drawer of Marie Kondo’ed sweaters in grayscale and cremini brown.
I don’t want to completely overhaul this part of my wardrobe; there are plenty of old favourites that perhaps don’t work with each other anymore, but still have potential to be of great service in this new era of style. And despite my impatience to achieve a more ideal colour distribution now, I’ve added a number of pieces over the years which are working to infuse the balance of lightness and brightness I crave.
There’s a gradual shift in my fall/winter style towards more tonal contrast and pops of primary hues. More recently, it’s come together for me that the outfits I’m most attracted to — and feel best in — follow this rule: an element of dark + an element of light + an element of bright (i.e., a vivid colour or pattern). I’ll illustrate this concept with some sample outfits below.
I present a uniform I particularly enjoy for fall: barrel leg pants + half-sleeve knit + A-line jacket. This first figure offers up monochrome versions of the outfit structure in dark, bright (red), and light tones. While there’s nothing wrong with this styling approach — in fact, I am always encountering advice extolling its virtues — the dark and light iterations feel a bit flat to me, and the red is visually overwhelming.
Here, we’ve shuffled some things around. These looks break away from that stark uniformity, pairing darks alongside a light or bright piece for contrast. I like these iterations — and have been sporting plenty of outfits just like these — but they seem a bit predictable? A tad too obvious and classic-leaning, perhaps.
Now we’re onto the good stuff — at least to my eyes. I love the blocking of dark, light, and bright red (but you could swap it for any bold colour) elements. In these examples, I’ve translated the concept to pieces of clothing, but this formula can certainly be achieved by incorporating accessories, as well. Picture the first outfit in the second set with a red neckerchief. Or the all-light ensemble with black leather boots and a kelly green tote. You get the idea.
The vibe is crisp and fresh — the style analog to taking a bite of that perfect fall apple. As the days get cooler and greyer, I find myself increasingly drawn to this approach as an antidote to the sluggishness that so often accompanies diminishing hours of daylight.
When I look at my cold weather wardrobe, I like the colour story that’s unfolding: navy, charcoal grey, and black on the dark side; cream, dove grey, and oatmeal as lights; red, cobalt, and matcha green for a visual jolt. There’s an oversupply of darks, especially in the bottom department — but as much as I lust for another pair of light trousers, there is a good and practical reason for this. On the other end of the spectrum, my brights mostly exist as thin layering knits and button up shirts — this has worked well, but I’m feeling ready to expand beyond. Like many people on this platform, I’ve been playing around on Indyx with wishlist items and it’s amazing to visualize how a cherry red shoe or shiny leaf green coat could completely transform staple items in my closet I’m struggling to find inspiration in.
On Indyx, where I’ve been faithfully logging my outfits for a few months now, I can see that my fall outfits are still skewing dark in comparison to what I wore over the summer. There are very few outfits I’ve put together that I flat-out didn’t like; however, it’s clear that my favourites of the bunch are ones that follow this blueprint.
I have no concrete plans to buy more clothes at the moment; my priority is continuing to wear what I have, and play around within this ruleset to find new looks I’d love to repeat ( à la Alberta Rose). I’m also keen to experiment more with bright accent pieces, like my red handknit scarf, colourful wool socks, and jade necklace. Although I’m not dying to wear the mid-tones in my closet right now, I am finding ways to work them into outfits in combination with darks, lights, and brights to attain that eye-pleasing level of contrast.
This styling template is likely not for everyone, but I’ve come up with a few reasons as to why it’s been working for me:
I almost always wear separates — usually a three-part outfit consisting of pants, a top, and an outer layer. This makes it dead easy to apply the dark + light + bright rule.
My complexion is a neutral mid-tone. While I don’t care so much about “colour analysis” or what looks “flattering” with my skin tone, I prefer the look of dark, light, and bright colours against my face much more than muted, in-between shades.
These outfits are still primarily composed of neutrals, imbued with just one audacious colour (typically). It feels exciting, but also relatively safe and simple to execute (I think would fall into Kelly’s midimalist classification).
Canadian winters are long and gloomy. This year I’m adding wearing lighter tones and brighter colours to my beat-the-winter-blues toolkit (along with vitamin D and good hot cocoa).
There’s nothing groundbreaking about this outfit formula (once you conceptualize it, you’ll see it everywhere), but I’ve enjoyed leaning into this easy-to-remember rule when I have barely five minutes to get dressed in the morning. It’s also providing a framework for more intentional shopping, helping me clearly distinguish what I’d like to add and what I definitely don’t need more of. When I dress in this combination, I look and feel more awake — perhaps my perpetual state of sleep deprivation is another reason why I’ve embraced it.
Love this formula, the colour categories you've come up with are so easy and intuitive to understand :) I never appreciated brights until I moved to a place with colder weather.
if you ever feel like making your Indyx account viewable to other people.. know that I will be pinning it immediately!