If you, like me, have recently discovered you’re a Soft Summer and getting dressed now feels more difficult than ever, you’re not alone. I have done my research, so you don’t have to. I’ll break it all down for you so you can get dressed, and shop more confidently knowing what colours will always work with your complexion.
Neutrals are the foundation everything else is built on, so getting them right makes a bigger difference than any statement piece. I figured neutrals were neutrals; surely black, white and beige were safe? It took a while to realise that those “safe” basics were exactly what was making my outfits feel a little off. In this post I’ll cover the best neutrals for Soft Summer, what to avoid, and why it makes such a big difference.
What makes a “Soft Summer neutral”?
So you are in the summer colour season — we all know that means your complexion is generally cool toned, and cool toned colours look best on you. The Summer season is divided up into three categories; Soft Summer, True Summer and Light Summer. What exactly makes you a Soft Summer? Muted colours. Light Summer looks best in airy light pastels, while True Summer’s colour palette consists of slightly more saturated, brighter colours — but less saturated compared to winter colours.
Highly saturated colours such as electric blue, cherry red and fuchsia are typically too high contrast on a Soft Summer. The same goes for stark black and white. Most capsule wardrobe articles will tell you black, white and beige are your core neutrals. However, beige is often too warm toned for Soft Summers. So where does that leave us? Your core neutrals need to be cool toned and muted, think charcoal, plaster, off-white, muted espresso, and light grey.
The best neutral colours for Soft Summer
Let’s split this up into clothing categories. In curating my wardrobe, I have collected tops, bottoms and outerwear in my best Soft Summer colours. This also ensures all your wardrobe pieces are interchangeable, this is a basic capsule wardrobe concept.
Bottoms: For casual everyday wear, I reach for light muted blue jeans and light grey pants such as these ones from Nude Lucy. For a more dressy look, I reach for my charcoal dress pants. These may be a little darker than what’s considered perfect for a Soft Summer palette, but you can make it work — just wear darker neutrals on the bottom rather than close to your face, where they’ll have more impact on your complexion. Muted Navy is also a great neutral for Soft Summers.
Tops: For tops I tend to go for lighter neutrals — off-white, stone and taupe are my most reached for. I find lighter neutrals close to the face work better than darker ones, and they mix easily with everything else in my wardrobe. A good example is this Carr Top in Pebble from Henne, the colour sits right in that sweet spot of cool-toned and muted without being stark.
Outerwear: I avoid long black coats as these just feel a little too harsh. For a dressy neutral coat, I have a cool toned brown one, or a lighter stone or plaster coloured one would work here too for daytime looks.
Neutrals to avoid
Most capsule wardrobe guides will talk about black, white and or beige as being your core neutrals. While this isn’t wrong, they just don’t complement a Soft Summer complexion as well as the neutrals I’ve mentioned above.
White: Stark white is too high contrast and will wash out your complexion. Try looking for off-white pieces instead, like this off-white tank from DISSH. It’s muted enough to not look too stark on a Soft Summer.
Black: A stark black can look far too heavy on the muted tones of a Soft Summer. Greys and charcoal are typically muted enough to work here instead, like these wide leg pants from Charcoal clothing.
Beige/camel: Most colours in this category are warm toned, which clashes with a Soft Summer complexion. There are cool toned beiges however — they’re just a little harder to find. Try searching for items listed as Stone, Mushroom, Taupe, Pebble or Greige, and avoid cream, camel and oat. This top from AJE is a great example of a cool-neutral beige.
When I was first building my capsule wardrobe, I collected staple pieces in classic black, white and beige. The pieces all went together and were interchangeable, but something just didn’t quite sit right. That’s when I realised the undertones and colour saturation weren’t quite right for me.
This doesn’t mean you need to do a complete wardrobe overhaul — just a little edit. I now make sure any new pieces I buy are cool toned and muted. My stark black jeans can still work, but I pair them with a cool toned, muted top so the outfit doesn’t feel too heavy.
Once you find your core neutrals as a Soft Summer, getting dressed becomes so much easier. Everything starts to mix and match naturally, and your wardrobe feels more effortless without needing to think too much about it.
If you’re still not sure about black specifically — whether to keep it, ditch it, or how to wear it — I go deeper on that in Can Soft Summers Wear Black?
If you found this helpful, save it to Pinterest so you can come back to it when you’re shopping — and drop a comment below if you have a favourite Soft Summer neutral I haven’t mentioned!
