Pastels — colours desaturated with white to create soft, pale versions of their saturated originals — are among fashion's most deceptively challenging category. They appear easy (they're soft, they're non-confrontational, they don't demand the confidence of bold brights) but they require specific attention to complexion compatibility and styling to prevent them from washing out the wearer or creating the slightly colourless, slightly dated impression that poorly worn pastels produce. Getting pastels right, however, produces some of fashion's most elegant and most distinctive looks. This guide covers how.
Which Pastels Suit Which Complexions?
The challenge with pastels: because they're pale, they contain less colour to create contrast with the skin, which means the complexion and the garment can blur into each other in a way that vivid colours don't. The key is finding pastels where there's sufficient difference between the garment's tone and the skin's tone to create visual definition.
Cool complexions (pink or blue undertones): Cool pastels work best — lavender, powder blue, icy pink, mint green, soft lilac. Warm pastels (peach, yellow, warm mauve) can look murky against cool-undertone skin.
Warm complexions (yellow or golden undertones): Warm pastels work best — peach, soft butter yellow, apricot, soft coral, warm sage. Cool pastels (icy blue, lavender, mint) can look washed out against warm-undertone skin.
Deeper complexions (medium to deep skin tones): Pastels create maximum contrast against deeper skin tones, which means virtually all pastels can look vibrant and beautiful. The ‘washed out’ problem that some pastels create on lighter skin tones doesn't typically apply.
How to Style Pastels Without Looking Washed Out
Add a neutral anchor. Pastels worn with a clear neutral (white, cream, black, or camel) gain definition from the contrast. A soft lavender blouse with clean white wide-leg trousers and white accessories reads as crisp and deliberate; the same blouse with similarly pale accessories can lose definition.
Use texture. A textured pastel — a ribbed pastel knit, a quality lace pastel blouse, a quilted pastel outer layer — creates visual interest through the fabric surface rather than through colour intensity. The texture provides the definition that the pale colour can't provide on its own.
Try tonal pastel dressing. Head-to-toe pastel in a single or closely related tone (a soft lilac-to-lavender-to-white outfit; a soft green-to-sage-to-cream combination) reads as deliberately editorial and sophisticated rather than washed out, because the colour story is clearly intentional.
Contrast with a bold accessory. A single bold-toned accessory — a vibrant bag in a saturated version of the pastel's parent colour, a bold metallic shoe, a statement earring in a contrasting jewel tone — anchors a pastel outfit in a way that makes the soft colour read as deliberate foreground rather than accidental background.
Browse Fashionfitz's dresses in pastel spring and summer tones, and explore blouses and shirts and women's tops in soft seasonal colours.
Frequently Asked Questions: Pastel Fashion UK Women
Are pastels only for spring and summer?
No — pastels in autumn and winter have a specific and distinctive aesthetic that's increasingly well-represented in contemporary UK fashion. A soft dusty rose cashmere knit in November; a pale mint quality velvet blazer in winter; a dusty lavender quality wool coat — these read as unexpected and sophisticated precisely because pastels in their typical summer associations are being worn in a seasonal context that creates contrast. Autumn and winter pastel dressing is a very intentional and currently prominent fashion aesthetic.
Can you mix different pastels together?
Yes, and pastels from the same temperature family (all cool, or all warm) mix naturally and often beautifully. A soft mint and a powder blue and a pale lavender (all cool pastels) work together in a tonal multi-pastel outfit that reads as carefully considered. Mixing a warm and a cool pastel (soft peach and icy blue, for instance) requires more care because their different undertones can create visual competition. The safe approach: mix pastels from the same temperature family, or pick one pastel and surround it with whites and creams.
