Let’s be honest about why you don’t. Not for want of taste — you have plenty. It’s that navy works, grey behaves, and nobody has ever been laughed at in camel. There are codes. The codes have served you beautifully. Cary Grant spent an entire career inside them without once looking as though he were trying. And yet: meh.
Here is what the codes leave out. Colour is the quickest way to look like a man who got dressed on purpose rather than a man who got dressed in the dark. It reads as confidence, which is a handsome return on the price of a jumper. It implies an interior life, possibly even opinions. And it is — though menswear almost never admits this — enormous fun.
So. If your wardrobe runs almost exclusively to black, navy, white, and grey, this is for you. One rule before we begin: one coloured thing at a time, everything else neutral. That’s the whole rule. Find your level, buy one thing, move up when you’re ready.
Level One: Minimal Visible Risk
Socks first. Hackett’s mercerised cotton comes in shades that spend their life inside a shoe and surface only when you cross your legs. Wear them with a dark trouser and a dark shoe, so the flash at the ankle is the only event.
Level Two: Contained to the Extremities
Colour at the edges, where it can be removed in a lift, and denied outright. An Hermès pocket square, which shouldn’t ever match anything else you have on. A pink Dior cap or Brunello Cucinelli’s luxe beanie in rich russet will enliven even the most conservative of get-ups. Or keep a flash of colour near the ground with a pair of boldly hued trainers.
Level Three: Detectable at Close Range
Knitwear is where most men baulk, and it is the easiest win of the lot. Loro Piana’s cable crewneck in fiery vermilion sits beautifully against navy; over a baby blue shirt, collar out, it is the whole outfit. Colour works best against pastels — and against the greige already hanging in your wardrobe.
Level Four: Colour Below the Equator
Coloured trousers sound like a far bigger leap than they are. Bordeaux and oxblood have very nearly the versatility of navy — treat them exactly as you would treat navy and stop thinking about it. Both are excellent with a denim shirt, layered under beige cashmere when the weather turns.
Even Brunello Cucinelli, a house that built an empire on shades of oatmeal, has taken a bullish position on burgundy this season, with both a drawstring style for weekends and a beautifully draped pair for more formal settings (with a matching blazer for when you really want to make an entrance); Hackett’s tailored chinos do bordeaux for the rest of the week.
Level Five: Structural
A jacket is the one item you cannot hedge. It frames the face, it is what people register before they register you, and it is the thing you are seen in most while wearing it least.
Tom Ford’s cashmere blouson with a suede collar comes in turquoise: over a white shirt and navy trousers it reads as deliberate rather than loud, and over burgundy — which sounds like too much and isn’t — it reads as a man enjoying himself. The ruby suede Harrington is a different flavour of boldness and will sing against caramels and beiges. Keep everything underneath quiet and let the jacket speak.
And grey? Let’s leave it to school uniforms, where it was picked for its resistance to both stains and joy.
