How to wear orange? 7 color combinations to get you started!

Orange is not the easiest color to wear as the color can be quite bright and overpowering. However, if you look more carefully there are actually a lot of fabulous ways to wear orange in all kinds of color combinations.

In this updated comprehensive guide I show you how to wear orange in a number of surprising ways.

As I usually do when I look for inspiration on how to wear a certain color I visitited colourlovers.com. It’s a great site where you can create your own color combinations or get inspired by those of others. Here is what I found.

The versatility of orange

Can you believe that orange looks so good with so many colors? It’s actually proving to be quite a versatile color.

I have seen orange in the shops in all kinds of shades from very bright to more demure colors, so you can just pick the color orange that suits your complexion and temperament best and mix and match with all these other fine colors.

You don’t even have to buy a garment in this color. Just adding a scarf or a bag will already give you that orange flavor and will add some flair to your outfit.

Here are four quick tips to inspire your styling with the punchy hue.

1. Pair orange with neutrals

A great way to let the bold tones of your orange piece stand out without competing with any other color, is to pair orange with neutrals. From black to nude shades, your look will be more clean and refined with the fun and punchy characteristics of orange.

2. Go with prints

Combining bold orange hues with unique prints is a very effortless approach to putting together a visually interesting look, with enough of a bright dimension to lighten up your look.

3. Embrace the purple-orange clash

Orange and purple are a style favorite when it comes to contrasting combinations. Visually appealing, the two dynamic shades create a bold and chic look when paired together. The key here is to ensure you add a neutral piece to the look to keep it from being an overwhleming display of colors.

4. Accessorize with orange

Not ready fur a full bold display of orange? You can add the punchy color as a highlight to your look by incorporating as an accessory and go to beauty tool. We particularly love the butter nail polish shade, Butter London Silly Billy pictured below, which is very flattering on a number of skin tones.

Let’s take one color combination to the test

Although I love them all, I picked Storming Psychedialia as the inspiration for some outfits that I created at Polyvore. In this set orange is only visible in a subtle way and is mainly added as a pop color. Have a look at what you can achieve with these colors! Very stylish and certainly not boring! You can mix and match and add more orange if you like to all these outfits.

Here are a few more ideas

Want to add some orange to your life? Here are some fabulous orange items you can buy right now!

Want to know how to wear other colors too?

I have created several color guides for popular colors right now:

Do you plan to wear orange this coming season and which color combination is your favorite?

Sylvia