Swatch Combo 8 - Kid-o-rama

Wow! The big block of yellow breaks up the sickly baby pink and blue pastels down the bottom.

Trend Love!

This is a colour trend I really love... using bright, light (almoist fluro but not) pastel-ish colours with really light grey backgrounds. Grey is usually a colour you would think to be really boring, but when using such a subtle but energetic colour with it, it completely changes grey's 'boring factor'. I really love this use of colour... to my eye it's the perfect calming but energetic balance of lighter colours.

From visuelle.co.uk

Blossoms at Home...

After my last post I thought that I shouldn't dis-count the brilliance of Australia's own 'cherry blossom' like tree... the Jacaranda! At the moment Jacarandas all across Brisbane are in full bloom. Seeing a little of their vibrant pastel purple colour makes me smile.

Blossom Baby

Right now (as always usually), I wish I was in Japan. Both times I've been I've been unfortunate enough to miss cherry blossom season, so next time I go I will be sure to go when the flowers are in full bloom. The delicate pink of the flowers is so enchanting. It makes the trees looked like they are topped with light pink candy floss! Though I doubt somehow that the flowers would taste as delicious...

Mmmm Laduree!

I have been lusting over a sweet snack all afternoon. What better to stumble upon while surfing the net than these amazing Laduree macaroons! Laduree is a famous French patisserie/cafe whose specialty is these fantastically coloured macaroons. The combination of colours is so eye catching. You would expect them to stick with neutral, pastel, soft 'baked goods' colours, but instead they have thrown in some intensely coloured ones! Though lime green and aqua blue are colours that are usually avoided when colouring food, somehow here they look deliciously edible and inviting.

Samoan Buses

Samoans like to ride in colourful style... Very loud colourful style! They use a combination of pastel colours and bright colours, much like how they paint their houses. Instead of bus numbers, perhaps people know which bus to catch because of its colour! The second bus from the top is a slight variation on a primary colour scheme... blue, yellow and instead of red, pink. This addition of pink gives it a fun carinval look, instead of a bold, blocky, childish primary colour look.

Samoan Houses

I recently went on a six day trip to Samoa. With my colour resource in mind, I was more than pleasantly surprised at the variety of amazingly coloured houses that lined the roads! Pastels, brights... it seemed that using only neutral colours would have been a high crime against the Samoan way of life!

I still can't quite put my finger on the fixation with (in particular) pastel colours. A lot of their traditional art, material etc uses very bright colours, but not pastels. I'm taking a wild guess and saying, perhaps pastels were all they had at the paint store! Samoa is a small place and many things aren't readily available. But obviously, pastel exterior paint is in bountiful supply.

The most striking combination that caught my eye was the light green and light purple together, reminding me of a delicious peppermint candy or pretty little flower. The people and the culture over there are so relaxed and vibrant, no wonder they like to have houses that bring these types of thoughts to mind!

Marc Jacobs - NYFW SS10

Marc Jacobs' latest collection was a direct rebuttal of the usual black leather studs and bondage look that has been so popular on the runway lately. He deliberately used a soft pastel colour scheme in mostly variational primary colour tints.

ABOVE: Mixing the lightest of blue tints with white. The geometric diamond cut pattern in the white pulls the outfit away from being overly girly and old.

ABOVE: Nude is introduced with white. It almost blends into the skin and brings the plain white away from being too bride-like.


ABOVE TWO: Really light primary pastel tints used here. You can predominantly see a pastel blue, and the pastel reds (pinks) and yellows mix together so you can also see a touch of green. This is certainly colourful but makes the clothing feel delicate, soft and feminine.


ABOVE: Here the collection starts to use monochromatic muted primary colours for entire outfits. The tints and shades mix together subtly and softly (the outfit is mainly balanced by a light pink tint of a dusty red). The outfit is all pink but it isn't strenuous on the eye.


ABOVE TWO: Above is an example of muted sea blue tints and shades being used to create monochromatic outfits. The balance of tints and shades is just right. The outfit looks calming, soft and sophishicated.


ABOVE: This is an interesting mix of blue and pink. The colours are usually asociated with male and female babies and here they are mixed together into an underwear-esque outfit! The pink is a bit muted and dusty, so it doesn't scream in your face 'babies', though the combination of the two does look incredibly girly, especially in a material like satin!

ABOVE: This cool blue-ish tone of grey looks very clean and futuristic. If it weren't for the neck ruffles the outfit would look almost sporty. I like though that the ruffles have been added. It turns the colour unexpectedly into something a bit softer.