Ideal Clothing Colors for Pale Skin
Contents:
- 1. Guidelines to Color on Fair Skin
- 1.1 Skin Undertone
- 1.2 Pastels
- 1.3 White and Black
- 1.4 Neutral Colors
- 1.5 Jewel Tones
- 1.6 Blue
- 1.7 High Luminance
- 2. Colors to Wear if You Have Pale Skin
Choosing the perfect color of clothing based on what pairs well with your skin tone can feel overwhelming. We’re not saying that you have to be an expert in the area, but we do recommend becoming well versed in colors that work best for you.
It’s important to know what makes you shine, and what makes you, well not. Finding colors and the proper shades of those colors is crucial if you are looking to stand out in a crowd, and not fade into the background.
Not only do you want to feel powerful at work or at an event, but you also want to look powerful too, right?
In this post, we will address what clothing colors work wonders for pale skin, and what to stay away from. So take some notes!
We promise that regardless of what you were previously taught to believe, choosing the color of your wardrobe based on your skin tone can change your overall look for the better.
The Best Color Choices for Pale Skin
If you have pale skin, it’s best to wear colors that are saturated but don’t clash with your skin undertone. Wear clothes that have a medium amount of luminance and a decent amount of chroma.
Please note, not only does your skin tone affect these results, but so does the color of your eyes and hair. This is not a foolproof guide! Results may vary for every individual, especially with personal preference.
Continue scrolling for all the information on the ideal clothing colors for pale and fair skin. You’ll even find a helpful image with all the top suitable colors towards the end of the article.
Guidelines to Color on Fair Skin
Don’t Wear Colors That Match Your Skin Undertone
In order to do this, you will need to discover your skin’s undertone. Not sure what that is? Well, undertones are the natural colors under your skin’s surface. They don’t change throughout the year as our skin tone does. Playing on these hues is the best way to accentuate your overall beauty.
Pale skin rarely tans, instead, your light skin burns under even the slightest bit of sunlight. You probably have blue or green eyes, with blond or red hair. This skin color normally has a cooler undertone.
The hue (left) of the skin (right) makes the skin color look rather pale when you pair both together.
Any color that has the same hue as your skin tone will wash you out completely, creating a very unflattering look to your appearance. You want something that will add a good amount of contrast to help bring out your best features! But not too much contrast, as that will be too harsh. Just the right amount to help your natural tones pop in a flattering way.
The same pale skin would benefit much more from a hue other than its own, making it appear less sickly.
However, it is important to remember that your eye and hair color can change the way things look on you. Optometrists suggest that although your skin tone might be very light, if you already have some natural contrast from your hair, then you can handle more contrast in what you wear.
Wondering what undertone you have and how you might go about finding it? Head over to our recent article: “The 10 Golden Rules For Color in Fashion” for a quick and easy way of how to find out your true skin undertone.
Avoid Most Pastels
Don’t wear something that will wash out your color more than necessary. This means you need to steer clear from certain pastel tints. Certain pastels can dull you out more than your skin color already appears.
The wrong tint of pastel can portray you as meek. Any hues that are “washed-out” can force you to look washed-out too.
If you are tanned enough, though, then pastels can actually make you look even more tanned. It just takes enough brown in your skin. If you don’t have that brown (yet), then stay away from most pastels.
If you are looking to sneak these in, as you love the color scheme itself, try not to wear them close to your face, or all by themselves. Find a pastel tint, such as baby blue, and don’t let it overpower your outfit, this will keep you looking your best. We suggest adding a pop of pastel to your socks or pocket square as an accent!
A great example of such a “pop” would be our Very Cherry socks.
Learn how to use accent colors correctly and easily in our article about accent colors in men’s fashion.
Depending on your skin undertone and how much natural contrast it has to your hair and eyes, pastel colors can look great, though. Generally, the less natural contrast you have, the easier it is to pull off pastel colors.
People with darker skin or olive skin have it much easier when it comes to wearing pastels. Light and bright colors suit dark skin very well.
Skip White and Black
Similar to washed-out colors, it is important to stay away from stark colors as well! Unfortunately, black isn’t a universal color as it is often advertised as. Don’t wear anything that appears too harsh against your pale skin tone, this includes white and black.
The contrast of black will be too drastic to your pale skin, creating an extremely harsh look. Therefore, leaving your skin looking pale. It also gives a gothic vibe to your overall appearance, stripping you of your color (unless this is your aim- then this is perfect, and black is the color for you).
White, on the other hand, will not be enough contrast, it will be too little against your pale skin and can make you look sick. Remember, white is too close to your skin color; it will clash, and wipe you out.
Side note: if you have a pale complexion, but with darker hair, then you might be able to pull off black. It won’t look as drastic as it would on someone with pale skin and pale hair, as you are considered high contrast and can wear high contrast color schemes.
To learn more about dark and light colors in fashion, we suggest reading up on our article on the topic.
Wear Neutral Colors
Wear the proper neutrals. Even though we’re telling you to stay away from white and black, we do suggest wearing grays, browns, and greens. These colors can help bring the most needed life back into your complexion. They won’t make you look dull or washed out, instead, they will help you look less pale, which is the overall goal.
Aim for a gray that is darker than your skin tone, as a lighter gray can wash you out (What? Again..?). Being on the paler side, we suggest medium to charcoal gray shades. A medium gray will offer just the right amount of contrast, without being too dramatic or overwhelming.
Hot tip: Try one of the most trending colors of 2021 - Ultimate gray!
The contrast of a medium gray against your pale skin will look fantastic. The same goes for brown. This can help a more pale individual look more alive!
Do you have blue eyes to go with your rather light skin? Check out our article on how to make blue eyes pop to learn more about the use of neutral colors.
Gravitate Towards Jewel Tones
Anything emerald will look fantastic with your fair skin! This deep and bold green will look striking against your complexion, bringing life to your appearance, especially if you have green eyes (#swoon). We also highly suggest other jewel colors as well, such as amethyst, sapphire, and ruby. These bold colors will play up your complexion and contrast them in the right way.
This deep green jewel shade suits the skin next to it perfectly.
If you can wear a certain color in the form of jewels, you can also easily wear it on clothing.
Contrary to the green jewel tone, this dark red jewel tone makes the skin next to it look rather pale. This is because it has the same hue as the skin.
Personally? Emerald Green is a color you cannot go wrong with. This is something we see a lot of fair skin individuals rocking, and we strongly support it. It represents a royal power we cannot get enough of.
To learn more about the green hue and all its variations, read up on “What Does it Mean if You Wear Green?”
Be Careful With Blue
Shades are extremely important, as we previously noted with the gray category. Certain shades of a specific color can make a giant difference with various skin tones.
For example, blue can sometimes make someone with fair skin look odd, especially if the blue matches their veins. This will make their underlying hue (= undertone, remember?) stand out, and not in a good way! It might make you look ghastly.
Blues in all shades and tints can be powerful. Often, they are easy to wear but for cold, pale skin they sometimes aren’t. Socks: Style Punk
Be careful with the shade of blue you choose, because it can make you look sickly and cold. It is the coldest of all the colors, after all.
Give navy a go! Navy is a great way to pull a look together effortlessly. Navy is known as a powerful color, helping you appear more dominant. You can also consider a royal blue, this color can accentuate your appearance, rather than clash and diminish it.
Go Bold, but Shy Away From High Luminance
Very luminant colors, for example, yellow or orange, will overpower you. They are too bright for your skin tone, and not in a good way. If you want a extreme pop of color, we suggest sticking to certain bold colorings, but nothing in the “high luminance” category.
Save those light+bright colors for your accents, such as socks or pocket squares. Just don’t wear them on a large scale.
Slight pops of these colors can bring an outfit to life, especially when you enjoy them. Check out our “Very Cherry” or “Pine-Able” sock collections for the perfect amount of boldness to add to your style!
Colors to Wear if You Have Pale Skin
Since we’ve covered what not to wear, we can now put together a nice list and diagram of colors you should wear if you have fair skin:
The following diagram shows the colors that are best suited for fair-skinned individuals:
If you have light or pale skin, you show wear these colors. They’ll (most probably) look fantastic!
Now you have a basic color guide if you have pale skin. Go out and rock it.
Now, we are in no way stating that you cannot wear any of the colors listed above to “avoid”. Try out everything – you might be surprised how good it looks. If you think you look fantastic in a certain color, then don’t let anyone tell you differently! Be bold, be you!
And yes, you’re awesome! (Obviously - you’ve read this far…) ;-)
Also, if you’d like to show your appreciation, we’d seriously enjoy a nice Google review. It would help us out a bunch since we’re pretty slim (to say the least) when it comes to online feedback on third-party platforms.
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