Experimenting with Blue and Green

A fresh color combo on my radar

Green has been a popular color for a year or so, but from my experience, it is a non-trivial one to style. When you buy army green pants, they feel almost like a neutral, but they are really not. With a true neutral, like brown, you can dress in almost any color, but with green, there are minefields. Too much red with the wrong shade of green and you look like a Christmas tree; monochromatic green outfits require meticulous matching of shades—a stark contrast to, let's say, gray or navy. So it requires some consideration, and once you accumulate some green pieces, the question becomes how to style them.

I then discovered a bit unusual pairing of blue and green. My obsession with this color combo started with an Instagram post by Sartorial_Saunter (private account), where I saw a blue and green combination that felt really fresh. Once I started looking, I began seeing this combination everywhere! So I decided to experiment a bit and tried to decode when and how it works best.

First, I took my Tibi pants as a base and tried different blue tops.

Left: Gilyte shirt, Tibi pants and bag, Cos shoes, Right: Cos shirt, Tibi pants and shoes (all old)

I was not too impressed with these outfits—nothing really special, and they are the dreaded “two”—two elements in the outfit rather than the balanced three.

The outfits improved greatly when I added a third element in terms of a navy coat—it seems that green + light blue + navy can carry a lot of combinations and even work with various shades of green.

Tibi pants and shoes, Cos shirt (all old), The Curated classic coat

I then tried to use my Uniqlo green dress as a basis for combinations and used this baby blue button-up from Cos to liven up the dirty-ish green and khaki of the dress. I quite like this outfit on the left. As a side note, buttoning the shirt with the top button only feels very current for some reason and in line with the current blazer silhouettes.

The outfit on the right is from previous weeks (styled by my 4yo :) ) and also kind of works? The blue bag adds a touch of unexpected to an otherwise neutral outfit.

Both: Uniqlo dress, Tibi bag, By Far boots; Left: Cos shirt; Right: The curated sweater.

I then played more with the dress and added blue tights. This is a look that is quite a statement - and I still cannot decide if it looks cool or childish. I do like the bold green and blue pair, but it feels like something is missing on the top - for example, a patterned bag, bold accessory, or something else.