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

Welcome to the bluish-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 and this week we are looking at the best colours to match with dusky bluish-purple.

An Educated Guess

This is the colour of the sky as night takes it over and makes Team Inspirationail daydream about of the feel of tropical night air. Dusky and deep, this colour makes a great substitute for dowdy black as it is slimming with a hint of glorious and regal purple.

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

Bountiful Bluish-Purple

This is a rare colour indeed as darker shades tend to look better on lighter skin tones and vice versa. It is one we don’t often recommend for cosmetics, as it can be overbearing & difficult to get it perfect. However it makes for smashing accent pieces and bold accessories.

Skin Tone Matters

Bluish purples are cool toned colours an one of the few that actually look good against light skin. Lighter skinned divas should opt for everything from bold, vampy darks to light shimmering violets, avoiding anything too matte or creamy. Darker skinned lovelies can enjoy most shades as long as they have an added element like pearl or glimmer.

Tertiary Bluish-Purple

The softer the colour the more of your body you can drape with it. If you prefer bolder tones, stick to accent pieces and accessories. Bluish-purple is a tertiary colour which generally tend to be more muted than primary & secondary colours. Our advice is to opt for rich, luxurious fabrics, bold patterns & vivid 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 bluish-purple.

Complimentary Colours

Complimentary colours are opposite to each other on the colour wheel and provide a high degree of contrast. The compliment to bluish-purple is warm orangish-yellow which is not a colour we’d generally select, but it can provide some workable matches. Try light shimmering mangoes, sweet corals or ripe peaches.

Analogous Colours

Analogous colours are directly next to each other on the colour wheel, these are more monochrome colours & often easier to match. Bluish-purple’s nearest neighbors are blue and purple, both of which aren’t so easy to pair with this deep shade. If you are up for the challenge try shimmering sea blues, deep true purples or bold hot blues.

Triad Colours

Triad colours are equally spaced out along the colour wheel & similar to compliments they provide higher contrast matches. In bluish-purple’s case it’s yellowish-green & reddish-orange (both also tertiary colours). These two options offer some interesting matching ideas & if done right can be great together. Try warm limes, deep fiery reds or bold tangerines.

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 bluish-purple as our base, it’s split-compliments are orange and yellow. Both of these colours can work, but should be used with caution. Try rusty oranges, warm yellow golds or happy canary yellows.

Team Inspirationail’s Picks

We like using our colour wheel to help find combinations we’d never have come up with. Although, we also utilize on our keen fashion sense by working up our own matches (fortunately we have loads of that). For blue-purples we like creamy greys, shiny metallics or light sophisticated neutrals.

Your Two Cents

In the end, you have to make the decision…you are the one wearing the bluish-purple. We’ve given you a few new ideas (and a few tried & true ones). Please leave us your blue 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.