HOW TO WEAR PASTEL OUTFITS - As a Grown Up?

• The Hatista
• Colour Post
• April 7th 2023 / Revised: March 26th 2024

For a few seasons now, we have seen beautiful lemon, mint, peach, pale pink and powder blue hues around. A few years ago (2016) Pantone named two pastels the "colour of the year" – They couldn’t pick just one, so named both Serenity Blue and Rose Quartz. Pastels are back on trend, and here to stay for a long time. Going all pastel though makes you feel either washed out, or like a Girl headed of to the Easter Parade, so follow these tips and adopt some pastels that will keep you on trend and ladylike.

Mix with Neutrals for a Pastel Pop

If you are a beginner in the world of pastels, then stick to the basic minimalism. Use just a few pastel coloured garments in the outfit, and mix with Neutral Colours. Think of the perfect balance, and mix pale green or pastel mint with Navy, Grey or Beige tones. Mixing with Neutrals will make the pastel piece pop. One of my personal favourites is popping Peach / Apricot with Grey.

Generally, go for pieces with clean and sharp lines, which places the emphasis on the shape rather than the pastel shades. If you can’t do without some fancy details, you’re best going with lace for adding the drama to your pastels. Many designers use pastels for lace pieces, creating a real poetic impressionism: whether it’s a dress, top or skirt, lace works well with pastel shades.

You can never go wrong wearing pastels with black or white separates. You can either wear pastel skirts with white or black top and complete the look by adding cool sandals or platform shoes. Adding a Pastel to Black or White outfits will jazz up your persona.

For Racewear you can go for the dress kept to a very simple line dark neutral, or black, then go for a real head turning headpiece, matched to the colour of the Shoes and Bag. All the attention is on the Pastels, but the overall impression is certainly not overly sweet and girly.

This post includes affiliate links - suggestions of items I've hunted out on the Internet for you. If you see anything you like, click the links and decide to buy the suggestion, then the retailer will give me a little commission (maybe even enough to buy a latte) to thank me.

Multi Tone Pastels

One of the most alluring ways to nail down the pastel trend is the pastel colour blocking. Thus, you can confidently combine pastel pink with pale lemon, blue with mint green, creamy orange with purple, or again follow Pantones selection of Pastel Blue and Pink.

Without any exception, all pastel colours work great with each other and you can even mix and match more than two pastel shades in one outfit.

Bubblegum pink, and Radiant Orchid has been a recent pink/purple hybrid for fashionistas.

It’s also fun to wear pastels with darker, or brighter shades of the same colour to create a monochromatic style. By pairing bright and pastel shades of a colour in your outfit, you’ll add personality, and move confidently out of 'Easter Parade' territory.

Worn with Darker Bold Graphic Prints

I adore the below outfit for a day at the races. A long A Line skirt, or dress in a Bold Floral print is the perfect fit for a day at the races, or formal wedding, and in a print that also features darker shades, you can bring those colours in to darken the outfit in other pieces too, like the shoes or jacket.

All over pastels can look very flat and washed, especially on light toned skins. Adding in the accessories in deeper colours, picked out from the colours on the dress, adds pops of colour and creativity to the outfit.

Two Trends, One Outfit

I love the fashion-forward combination of a futuristic metallic with candy pink, for friends and family attending weddings.

The metallic trend is going nowhere fast, but no one wants to go over board with their metallics anymore than they do their pastels (unless you're the bridesmaids under strict instruction to do so!). With both Pastels and Metallics being so on trend currently, and with neither being something you want to wear head-to-toe, worn half and half is a marriage made in heaven.

Some Other Fabulous Pastels I've found for you:

Below is a Gallery of other Internet Finds for adding Pastels to your wardrobe in small doses.