In Living Colour: the Essential Spring Tones

The Russian abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky once said that "The sound of colours is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with base notes, or dark lake with the treble." Colours cajole the senses, and play with emotions in such an innately powerful way that half the time we hardly even notice we're being influenced by them. Nature's abundant spectrum of tones plays out its harmony on a daily basis, and the best we can do is try to emulate the sounds in our homes, and of course in our wardrobes.

For Spring 23, the influence of colour was very much on our minds. We attempted to understand the nuances of meaning in each and every fabric that was chosen, so that when the collection was viewed as a whole, the palette made sense. The blues complemented the creams, that showed off the oranges that provided accents to the greens which cosied up to the khakis. Cohesion is key. It was important that the colour palette be at once bold and refined; adventurous and dependable; arresting and understated. 

But viewing the collection as a whole is no easy task when everything is hung up on rails, so we asked the brilliant artist Jon Beaumont (who also happens to be our Lambs Conduit Street Store Manager) to create an artwork that represented the essential colours of the collection. Using abstract shapes suspended in space, Jon's work perfectly showcases the interactivity of the tones, and if anything reinforces the calls we made when choosing the fabrics all that time ago.

The collection then is a versatile amalgam of core tones with vibrant accents. While there is plenty of multi-seasonal navy and grey hues, these are offset by more seasonal core tones such as ivory, light indigo blue, tobacco, and olive green. Then come the brighter, bolder accents of burnt orange and ochre to add emphasis. Pattern has been kept to a minimum to netter let the tones play out - where we have used it, we've gone for classic stripes, pinstripes, and heritage checks to provide an essence of geometry to the pieces.

What's more, curating a collection chromatically can also make it easier to shop, as you can better see how the pieces might fit into your own wardrobe. Of course, if you like to dress monochromatically, then this might just be a godsend as you can now see the tones together, so head over to our colour-coordinated shopping page to see the collection laid out tonally.