Wearing a Lightweight Scarf

Posted on November 10, 2021 by Categories: Blog

Do you know how to wear your lightweight scarf so it goes well with your top and makes you look marvellous?

Generally, the more transparent the scarf is, the more it shows the colours underneath, so you want to make sure the colours blend and play together nicely!

Generally, white, or lighter coloured top will make your scarf show off its colours more clearly. Any other colour will add its own shade into the mix, which in some cases will really compliment the scarf and other times might dull it a bit.

Lightweight (semi-transparent) scarves

It’s usually the safest for semi-transparent scarves to be worn on colours that are not too far, or are a lighter or a darker version of your scarf. If you look at a basic colour wheel, you might want to choose colours that are close to the colour of your top, not the opposite. For example, pink might not look the best on green, but will look nice on purple. Blue will look better on green or purple, but not quite so good on yellow or orange. You want to avoid too much contrast in colours. White colour is also safe, dark grey or black works quite well with darker scarves of any colour.

With that being said, this is just my recommendation, not a rule! Experimenting is always the best way to find out for yourself. Have a look at the examples lower down the page.

If you’ve had your season colours done, you will want to stick with your spectrum of colours and not the whole colour wheel.

Advantages of semi transparent scarves

When the semi-transparent scarf goes well with your top, it can create a beautiful play of colour tones as the colours blend together. It can look more subtle and diaphanous.

Light weight scarves are not as warm as the heavier ones, so I wound’t rely on them to keep you warm in the Winter, although they are still suitable under a warmer layer. I sometimes combine two scarves, which will make them a bit more bulky and warm (btw I offer a discount on buying more than one scarf 😉 ). You can still wear them when the weather is warm, although probably not during a heat-wave! Unless you soak them in water first, which can be actually quite refreshing (I’ve done this!)

Heavier weight scarves

These guidelines don’t really apply to more opaque scarves, because heavier weight scarves will not show the colour underneath, therefore it’s just a matter of which colours you like wearing together. You can go for a bolder “pop of colour”, adding a contrasting colour instead of a related one.

See for yourself in these examples

Contrasting colours

You can see how the colour of the top underneath influences the colour and vibrancy of the scarf – the green colour comes through the pink scarf and dulls the colour a bit. If you like that effect that’s fine, but if you were hoping for a more vibrant colour, you might want a different combination.

Closer colours

This is the same scarf as on the left, but it looks more vibrant – the red colour of the top comes through and brightens up the colour of the scarf.

A few more examples of colours playing nicely

Tune in for more tips about wearing scarves soon, this time it will be from an expert stylist, coming soon!

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