Purple Phase: purple with pink, red + denim

Hi, hi.

We're a couple of weeks into the Purple Phase now [it's running until the end of November] so I thought I'd take two minutes to check how it's going, so ...

How's it going?

If you already like purple ...

•  have you been tempted to try any of the colour-combinations so far?
• a few people have let me know about their blog posts and they've now been pinned to the Pinterest board.
• Show me yours!

If you didn't like purple before ... or you didn't think that you liked purple ...

• are you a convert yet?
• have there been any palettes in particular you'd consider trying?
• anything seem wearable yet?

Thanks to those who've been in touch so far both here and on Twitter.

This week the words: "I thought of you when I was playing with the purple mist." were music to my ears as I'm never quite sure who's reading / listening ... so to find that out ... was just so much fun! So was learning that a painting on a restaurant wall reminded someone of my colour-palettes and how did I learn this? She tweeted me, while she was there having her lunch opposite the painting! The whole scenario made me smile, lots!

OK, now all the fun stuff's out of the way, it's time to move on to the all important business of convincing to you wear purple ....

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When I blogged the previous colour palette, from a page in my journal,  [the one with plum, fuchsia + cream] it reminded me of a retro-floral summery top I have ... so that was the starting point for today's combination.

Hopefully it will show how the palettes can easily crossover from craft projects to outfits and vice-versa. So here it is:

I think I paid the grand sum of £1 for it, in a sale at Internacionale years ago! I wanted to use it as a way to show an easy way to introduce purple to your wardrobe:

• as part of a pattern, mixed in with other more familiar colours,
• and as a part of a very casual look:

It's certainly not particularly the easiest item to wear: it's very bright, very patterned and that little frill on the shoulder really distracts me!

And I probably wear it more in the winter than summer despite the palette and design feeling initially quite spring/summery.

I'm much more comfortable in it when I wear a cardigan over the top:

•  I find shades of purple are made much more wearable/usable when paired with natural shades and neutrals.
• So this charcoal/brown cardigan feels like a good choice to tone things down.
• Imagine if I wore a matching lilac cardy with it ... it wouldn't be the same outfit. It might be pretty, but it wouldn't have the same relaxed, casual feel.
• And as for the jeans, well, they go with purple because they go with everything. Everything!

So, I had my splash of colour and I added in some safe neutrals and/or denim, now what?

Remember, last time I extolled the virtues of balancing out colours in any scheme by repeating them, well, that's what I tried to do with the shoes:

Top: Internacionale ¦¦ Cardigan: H&M current season ¦¦ Jeans: Primark ¦¦ Shoes: by Converse

So, there we go. Another palette, another outfit using purple.

Another glimpse into both my wardrobe and my tiny back garden!

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I'll be back on Monday with the first of several posts created by guest bloggers. So make sure you swing by to see Sian Fair's fabulous take on Purple Phase!

Until then then ...

Julie :-)