Grey is a year round color for work, especially in lightweight wool and other seasonless fabrics. It’s professional looking and a shade that is known as the color of intellect, knowledge and wisdom; perfect for work. However, let’s be honest, grey isn’t exactly winning any excitement awards. It’s sort of drab and dreary at times, especially once the weather starts getting warmer. Who associates grey with spring?
I do love grey, I wear a lot of it. No matter what time of year it is it’s a great base for most of my outfits, and I don’t even work in an office. It’s softer and less stark than black and is certainly just as versatile. In today’s wear-to-work post, as we are getting into the warmer season (hopefully), I am going to show you how you can take your stalwart grey work outfits and continue to wear them. As this bleak, cold winter starts to come to an end, I think we can all use some tips on how to brighten up our wardrobes.
How to Brighten Up Grey Work Outfits For Spring
Outfit #1- Pair grey with soft pastels
Pastels can be very passive and soft for work. However, when paired with grey, these pastels look professional. At the same time, the pastels help the grey look less dark and dull. A double win.
This J. Crew jacket and skirt suit has been styled with a mint top from Reiss, a pair of soft peach heels from Coach and a pair of rose gold earrings from Givenchy.
Outfit #2- Style grey with brights
The beauty of grey is it is like black, you can wear anything with it. If you don’t accessorize grey it can look a bit bland, but the versatility of the color means you can add in some brightness to not only make it more flattering against your skin but also make it more springtime looking.
In this outfit, I added bright tangerine and pink to this grey Reiss dress with a tangerine shrunken cardigan from Boden, a pair of pink pumps from Charles by Charles David, a tangerine and pink pendant from Stella & Dot and finished the look with a pair of stud earrings from Ann Taylor.
Outfit #3- Pair grey with white and ivory
Grey can either be pulled down with dark colors or brightened when worn with less heavy shades. Take, for example, how this soft grey cardigan from French Connection looks when it is styled with this pair of ivory trousers from J. Crew. To keep the look soft and sophisticated for spring, I layered a buff colored cami under the cardigan, added a pair of beige flats from MICHAEL Michael Kors, and finished the look simply with a bib from Bauble Bar.
Grey can look like you haven’t let go of the winter weather yet or like you are embracing the warmer months. It’s all in how you style your grey work outfits that will make them look like you are ready for spring.
I love grey and just got a merino wool cardie. I’m going to ‘spring’ it up by wearing it over floral tops with pastel jewelry.
Awesome!
Bridgette, can you dosome posts on how to wear a lace skirt and on how to wear a crochet midi or maxi, please? I love the long crochet skirt in the Boston Proper catalogue (especially the brown or stone ones) but I don’t want to look like a Texas cowgirl, like I’m wearinf a costume. I had a bias cut mermaid white crochet midi I got at a thrift stofe and I wore it to death (but not creatively; this was before I knew e
anything at all abt dressing – b4 I started readin yr bog!). THANKS
I love the 2nd outfit. I tend not to buy grey ‘cos I think it looks dull on me. But outfit 2 is not dull at all. Though I am quite bold with mixing colours, would have never thought to mix grey and orange. It’s pretty!
I LOVE this article!!! I don’t own a LBD but I do have a LGD:D So it’s nice to see it styled for spring!! Thank you again!
I have always leaned toward tan for spring, but this year I had decided to try gray. My daughter suggested keeping my grays on the warm side and that has helped me use gray with the warms already in my closet, but I do love the icy grays too. I am able to wear many colors from both cools and warms as long as the are strong enough in contrasts. By the way, Europeans love to mix gray with orange. I prefer beige and gray together myself.