Wearing Yellow All Year Long

Wearing Yellow All Year Long

The meaning behind the colour Yellow

Notably, the colour yellow is the most luminous shade on the spectrum. With it being both a bright and happy colour, it can be the key go-to choice when picking out a colour to wear come Spring and Summer.
Colour psychology tells us how the shade can bring on feelings of warmth, brightness, energy and attention (which goes to explain why school buses, taxi cabs, and traffic signs are painted yellow and black). Like all colours, there are different feelings and emotions behind each of their uses. With yellow, when thinking positively, it stands for freshness, clarity, optimism, remembrance and loyalty. On the other hand, the use of yellow could also be viewed as both cowardice and sickness.
The choice of wearing yellow is one you can do so confidently, as the shade in itself can make you look youthful and healthy.
van gogh quote reading 'how wonderful yellow is. it stands for the sun' on a bright yellow background.

Reasons You Should Wear Yellow

With the choice of wearing yellow looking more promising, we thought we would take you through more reasons as to why you should wear yellow – besides the fact that it’s a stunning, happy colour!

Yellow goes with lots of colours

Using the colour wheel, which we’ll go into more detail below, you’ll find that this shade can go with various other colours – even bold colours like blue.

You can make a statement

A bold suit, or dress, in one solid colour – is something anyone can powerfully carry off when making a statement. Opting to wear one shade, like black, whilst professional can be taken a step further by wearing a bold shade like yellow or red.

You don't have to branch out into other colours

Whilst yellow is one of those shades that go with pretty much anything, you can opt to allow for it to be the statement shade. So whilst your dress or top may be the main colour, you could opt for neutral shoes and accessories. Doing so allows the main garment to do the talking, with the pressure of other shades taking a back seat.

There is a shade for everyone

Whether your skin tone is light, medium or dark, there is a yellow shade for you. From mustard to canary, from butterscotch to lemon and from corn to gold - there is a shade for every skin tone out there. We go into more detail on what shade suits you best below!

How to Wear Yellow

The colour wheel is a visual representation of colours, with hues arranged according to wavelength. Colour wheels allow colour relationships to represent geometrically and show the relationship between primary colours, secondary colours and tertiary colours – Invision App
a detailed colour wheel showing various colours in different stages of shade.

Using the colour wheel for the colour yellow

Using the colour theory wheel, you can use both complementary and analogous schemes to combine into the perfect outfit. Complementary colours of yellow include shades that are opposite it on the wheel, which would be pink/blue/purple. The shades on either side of yellow on the wheel, the analogous colours, include those orange and green tones. 
The outfit looks that we’ve found which follow the ‘colour theory wheel rules’ include these gorgeous looks:

Complementary Colour Looks

four images, side by side, showing a choice of yellow and blue outfits including yellow trousers with a purple coat, yellow top and shorts, yellow top with blue skirt and a yellow dress with a blue jacket.
Left: Woman pictured walking down a sidewalk wearing a stunning royal purple coat, black vest top, bright yellow chino-style trousers and leopard print shoes.
Right (set of 3) image cred: blog.luulla.com.
 

Analogous Colour Looks

Wearing Yellow in all year round

Luckily, this colour is perfect all year round! Whether it’s a yellow spring dress or waterproof hunter wellies for walking your dog, you can get your yellow fix 365 days of the year.
Our favourite yellow looks and how you can wear them include:
 

The Best Ways to Wear Yellow (by our customers!)

One of DivaCatwalks customers wearing the yellow Chiswick Pencil Dress.
Image Credit to: @carlamodeamsterdam wearing our Chiswick Pencil Dress in Blazing Yellow.
Diva Catwalk Customer wearing their Ubrique Pencil Dress, pictured near a beach and pool whilst wearing sunglasses and drinking from a cup.
Image Credit to @mandyvictoriab wearing our Ubrique Pencil Dress in Blazing Yellow.
 
@agentblonde.007 wearing the yellow PENNY Pencil Dress by Diva Catwalk
Image Credit @agentblonde.007 wearing our Penny Pencil Dress.
a woman pictured wear Diva Catwalk's Bodiam Pencil Dress in bright yellow.
Image Credit to @style_illuminated wearing our Bodiam Pencil Dress.
A woman posed in front of a glass window wearing Diva Catwalk's Lakewood Dress.
Image credit to @susanne.schoene wearing our Lakewood Pencil Dress.
@julesstandishcolour wearing Diva Catwalk's colour block Reggie pencil dress in yellow/black/white-cream with flute sleeves.
Image credit @julesstandishcolour wearing our Reggie Flute Sleeve Dress in Mustard Yellow & Vanilla Cream.
 a woman pictured wearing Diva Catwalk's Cloud Off Shoulder Pencil Dress in Blazing Yellow.
Image credit @SerendipityBoutiqueKilkenny wearing our Cloud Off Shoulder Pencil Dress in Blazing Yellow.

Yellow on Skin tones and Undertones

Before we go into detail, we thought we’d briefly discuss the difference between your skin tone and your undertone. An article from Skinkraft, it shares with us how your skin tone is the surface skin colour, whereas skin undertone is the subtle hue underneath the surface. So, to sum up, you can have a cool undertone both light and dark skin, just like you can have a warm undertone with light or olive skin.

So, does yellow suit my skin undertone?

To identify your undertone all you need to do is check your wrist. Where you see your veins, make a note of how you see them. Are they a shade of purple? This means you have cool undertones. Whereas, if your veins look more green then you're considered to have warm undertones. If, however, you find your veins being neither or a mix of both then you might find you're in fact... neutral. It doesn't sound very exciting, does it? But wait... it is! Neutral tones are fortunate, read on to find out why!

Cool Undertones

Cool undertones should be wary of bright yellows, to prevent washout, and instead stick to lighter shades of yellow, like the pastel yellow behind this text!
patone colour swatch with shade 'pastel yellow' displayed and text describing the colour.
 

Neutral Undertone

Neutral Skin Undertones are fortunate in that they can wear pretty much any shade of yellow, whether dark mustard or bright yellow and suit it perfectly. Having a neutral undertone means that your undertones are roughly the same colour as your actual skin tone. Our favourite is the silk Cornsilk Yellow Shade for this undertone!
 patone colour swatch with shade 'cornmilk' displayed and text describing the colour.

Yellow and Your Skin tone

 Whether you're a yellow lover or hater, there is a perfect yellow tone out there for you - the key point is finding it!

Yellow and Pale Skin

Cooler skin can wear yellow, however, it is important to try the shade of choice out against your skin. It's quite easy for a solid yellow print to wash out a cooler skin tone, which can lead to the person looking tired and pasty. So, if you're looking for ways to incorporate yellow, without fully wearing it, you could choose to add it to your accessories - like a handbag or on footwear.
 

Yellow and Neutral/Olive Skin

According to InStyle, they suggest if you have a neutral skin tone then you should try to avoid yellow shades that are too bright or vibrant. Due to this, they suggest you wear a softer version like corn-silk or buff. Shades like lemon print or chartreuse work perfect with the skin tone.
 

Yellow and Dark Skin

The best shades of yellow when you have warm skin, include darker yellows like mustard, dark gold and medallion. Adding these types of shades to your look could include our Lydia Short Sleeved in Mustard Yellow. What’s more, you could incorporate brighter tones into your accessories like earrings or even makeup, like the one below.
two photos of a woman, from two different angles, showing darker yellow eye makeup applied to her eyelids.
You can get this exact look here.
 

Celebs in Yellow by Skin Tone

Warm Skin Tone

Warm skin tone celebrities include Beyonce, Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian and Viola Davis - to name but a few! 
a combination of three images - first image shows Beyonce in a flowy dark yellow dress, Jessica Alba in a short, strapless, yellow dress and finally, kim kardashian dressed in a bright yellow mini dress.

Neutral Skin Tone Celebs

Neutral skin tone celebrities include Selena Gomez, Drew Barrymore and Kerry Washington. They all equally show how to empower through yellow!
a combined image of both selena gomez and kerry washington both wearing stunningly bright yellow shade dresses at events.
two images of Drew Barrymore combined, side by side, wearing a pouffy yellow dress at the GQ Fashion Awards.

Cool Skin Tone Celebs

Cool skin tone celebrities that you may feel easiest to reference to, in their love of yellow, include Mindy Kaling, Nicole Kidman and Cara Delevingne.
actress mindy kaling pictured at two different events wearing below-knee-length dresses in different shades of yellow.
two images combined, one to the left showing cara delevingne wearing a bright yellow dress whilst modelling - the next a photo of Nicole Kidman pictured at an event wearing a high neck, patterned, yellow dress.
 Have you enjoyed this article? Let us know via social media using our links below!