Inspirationail’s Colour School – What to Wear with Reddish-Purple

Welcome to the reddish-purple week of Team Inspirationail’s Colour School, if you haven’t already be sure to check out lessons on the basics & colour combos as well as red, pink, yellow, green, grey, black, white, brown, beige, blue, orange, purple, rust, mango, lime, teal & violet and this week we are looking at the best colours to match with cozy reddish-purple.

An Educated Guess

This is the colour of deep evening sunsets, combining the warmth of red with the deep, intensity of purple. These are great colours to use on almost all skin tones & includes the girly staple pink. This is also one colour we highly recommend using in your cosmetic arsenal.

Here are a few tips you can utilize to help you decide what to wear with your favourite reddish-purple.

Radient Reddish-Purple

This fab colour is one that all of Team Inspirationail can agree on, it’s feminine, bold and highly addicting. Whether you like it on your lips, fingertips, ear lobes or feet this is a colour we highly recommend carrying over into accessories & cosmetics.

Skin Tone Matters

This is a warm colour family and that makes is surprisingly versatile and easy to wear for everyone. Lighter skinned divas can enjoy everything from the lightest pink to the deepest burgundy – keep darker colours sheer or sparkly. Darker skinned lovelies can also enjoy most reddish-purple shades but should avoid overly glittery mid shades & super sheer pastels.

Tertiary Reddish-Purple

This is a colour that can range from sweet and innocent to bold and brash depending on the shade and medium you choose. Reddish-purple is a tertiary colour which generally tend to be more muted than primary & secondary colours. Our advice is to opt for sensuous, silky fabrics, bright patterns & daring accessories. To learn more about tertiary colours be sure to check out our colour basics lesson. There are several ways you can use the colour wheel to help you decide what to wear with your reddish-purple.

Complimentary Colours

Complimentary colours are opposite to each other on the colour wheel and provide a higher degree of contrast. The compliment to reddish-purple is warm greenish-yellow which we actually kind of like as an accent for such a rich reddish hue. Try warm limes, shimmering pastel greens or shimmering leaf greens.

Analogous Colours

Analogous colours are directly next to each other on the colour wheel, these tend to be more monochrome & often easier to match. Reddish-purple’s nearest neighbors are red and purple, both of which can be a challenging match. If you like a challenge try bold true reds, intense amethysts or deep velvety reds.

Triad Colours

Triad colours are equally spaced out along the colour wheel & similar to compliments they provide higher contrast. In reddish-purple’s case it’s yellowish-orange & greenish-blue (both also tertiary colours). These two options offer some interesting matching ideas & if done right can work together. Try shimmering mangoes, iridescent sea greens or bold turquoise.

Split-Complimentary

Split-complimentary colours start with one base colour and then takes the two colours next to it’s compliment. Sounds confusing, but the concept is simple. When we use reddish-purple as our base, it’s split-compliments are yellow and green. Both of these colours can be used with reddish-purple, but you should proceed with caution. Try rich metallic golds, cool limes or warm pineapples.

Team Inspirationail’s Picks

We like using our colour wheel to help find combinations we’d never have come up with. Although, we’ve been known to utilize on our keen fashion to match colours too (fortunately we have loads of that). For red-purples we like pearly whites, glimmering armor greys or light sophisticated neutrals.

Your Two Cents

In the end, you have to make the decision…you are the one wearing the reddish-purple. We’ve given you a few new ideas (and a few tried & true ones). Please leave us your red purple-matching ideas in the comments below, we’d love to hear your ideas! Be sure to also check out the Inspirationail Colour School lesson round-up.