Cobalt blue is the colour of summer
Photo: Matt Monfredi. Hair & makeup: Anna Durston
Introducing the most glorious colour. The one I’ve been wearing all summer. Is it cobalt? Sapphire? Yves Klein? Or could it be ‘Blue, blue, electric blue’ the colour of David Bowie’s 1970’s room… Take your pick. This vibrant shade has superb mood-boosting properties and the ability to enhance any outfit. Keep it classic by teaming cobalt with brilliant white, try a raspberry pink or soft burgundy contrast (a la Roksanda) – and who doesn’t love the combination of indigo and burnt orange?
Cobalt is the colour of a beautiful summer sky, and it is joyful. I’m into the blue.
More blue, for you:
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STYLE NOTES
First photo: Linen dress on loan from Toast. Bangles from Branch Jewellery. My own earrings.
Second photo: Crinkle cotton relaxed shirt from NRBY. Striped cotton trousers, Jigsaw. Brazilian Stripe Mules, Penelope Chilvers. Leather tote bag, Mimi Berry. All items loaned for the shoot (though I may have held onto the super shirt and trousers!)
Discussion (20 Comments)
I’m all about the blue! That’s a good idea, Debs. Waisted dresses rarely fit me as I have a very long body…
Gill Wild says:
Ditto! Is anyone listening?me and Em and Anthropology are two that have. Me and Em have lovely cobalt blue, emerald green and navy cotton dresses….all the same style and brilliant to roll up and put in your suitcase.
Mrs Tonia says:
Beautiful photo Alyson. Dress a perfect shape and colour with your complexion and eyes. It’s not a shade of blue I wear. I’m not much of a navy wearer though blue has creeped into my wardrobe via indigo, shades of denim. It’s versatile. Good with pinks, orangey reds, white etc.
Boadicea says:
As long as it’s not a hard tone, any shade of blue is tops with me so am drooling over Deb’ C’s colour choices today. Deb, I am green with envy!
Susanna says:
Beautiful outfits! As I’ve gone pepper and salt, I wear way more clear/bright blue, and much less black. Also find that soft greens and khaki work well with the fading hair. It’s all about giving my face a bit of a “lift” with color. And I’m with you and Deb about wanting different waist-drop lengths. I too have a long body and have to be so careful, especially when choosing my favorite Boden dresses, so many of which have a distressing tendency to be short-waisted on me.
Nicola says:
Like Deb I have a ‘blue’ addiction and am fine with it. I didn’t realise until a designer helping me with a renovation said he noticed how much I liked blue as every time we met I was wearing it! So we ended up with blue tiles in the bathroom…
I love the Toast dress on you Alyson – it looks so comfortable. I’ve looked at it but Toast is beyond my reach at the moment due to the Australian dollar being in free fall and Toasts exorbitant international postage and returns. If M&S and Boden can offer reasonable rates I don’t see why Toast can’t. Perhaps they don’t want the business.Hi Nicola. I’ve got several Toast dresses in corduroy and fine cotton semi-fitted tops with loose skirts plus an ikat woven indigo one. I bought none of these full price but managed to get them well discounted in the sales. So good value for the versatility and quality. These garments were from the Toast concession in John Lewis department store. This no longer exists and it’s a shame. The local Toast shop no longer puts discounted garments on the shop floor as previously. On the website only. So perhaps sale time purchases would be possible for you.
Hi Mrs Tonia – unfortunately as I’m overseas the concession outlets are not available to me either. So I will continue to dream….
Penny Chennell says:
I have that blue Toast dress. I am long waisted but it is fine on me.
It has been a real investment. It is one of those dresses to wear when one is just not sure what is appropriate for an occasion.
It always gets a compliment because the colour is really wonderful. It has a thick material too so will easily be suitable for the Autumn.
I have had a very sad year and there is something so soothing about this dress. I treated myself and felt guilty about it, but have never regretted buying it. I don’t wear any other colour with it …it really is the star
I love blues. Super article Alison.Annie says:
One of my favourite purchases ever was a pair of sling back heeled electric blue espadrilles from Chelsea Cobbler. An extravagant purchase! I loved them and wore them with my jumble sale Crêpe dresses. Happy summer days.
Sandra marshall says:
It’s always a good idea to examine your prejudices. I call that colour “ boys bedroom blue” and associate with shiny polyester going out clothes. I’ve always loathed it, despite having blue eyes and similarly grey hair, but this looks slightly softer and more complex than some cobalt items. I can now see that would work well for me.
Diane says:
I don’t normally send in comments but here goes! I bought the lovely Toast dress earlier in the summer to take on holiday. Sadly never wore it as weather too hot. I have decided to keep it for my sons wedding next summer as I love it so much! Definately not into ‘Mother of the Groom’ outfits. Eyeing up some lovely silver shoes from Penelope Chilvers! You look great in the dress!
Thanks, Diane. That sounds like a super-cool outfit for the special occasion.
Amanda Sebestyen says:
Totally agree about waists being too short! This has been the bane of my long-bodied life. Then I found that American (and especially US vintage) jackets had the waists long enough. Another problem I used to have was the waists of trousers and jeans always gaping if I could get the hip/body part wide enough and long enough. Thanks to the young African-descended women who have joined our population, there are now higher-waisted and more curvy jeans. Again, US brands like Lands End do make ‘long torso ‘ swimsuits; now that I’m plumper my favourite swimsuit is a ruched one by Joe Brown — so it is possible for UK brands to make longer-bodied items. Sahara is better than Long Tall Sally for this body proportion imo. I’d also like to agree about the glorious blues. Now that my hair is stubbornly pepper-and-salt, the blues have come to the fore . Some jewel-like emerald and crimson ‘Winter’ colours looked great when my hair was dark against pale skin. Now I usually need slightly less strong shades like teal and jade . But the purples and blues are the ones which can still be really bright without washing out my face.
Fiona says:
Those blues really suit your hair and colouring and make you glow!
Lovely easy wear outfits. Sadly I’m only 5ft 3 and theses Cos dresses swamp me as so long, , but all lovely looks tgst will work for autum with addition of a long sleeve T-shirt.Cindy from Canada says:
I wear colors that make me feel and look amazing, REGARDLESS of the season.
PS. My petite friend J can always buy lovely clothes from Jigsaw, and I note that several of the items mentioned here come from that store, but I’m afraid they are usually too short for me (particularly the tops). A make which used to be good for my longer body was Warehouse, perhaps because of the Sandy Shaw influence! But I have not seen anything I wanted there in recent years and apparently Jeff Banks left a long time ago. BTW I’m glad to have started subscribing to this blog and getting all your good ideas!
Caroline says:
I was laughing when I read this. Here I am, wearing exactly the same color (cobalt) blue dress today, also linen. I bought it last year when I saw it from afar in a shop in my hometown Stockholm. It was the exact same blue shade as the long ‘mens shirt’ in the same fabric that I had bought in Toulouse about 25 years ago when I lived & worked in the south of France. I loved it and had worn the shirt so many times, until it fell apart. I always wanted to find something just like it. This shade and especially in linen fabric, represents a Mediterranean summer for me!
Catherine Shortis says:
My new blue Toast dress arrived today. Thrilled with it. It’s a sleeveless version which will be perfect for our September trip to Sorrento. I have a scarf in cobalt blue which I often wear with an orange/white flowered dress.
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I am wearing two shades of blue today (navy and turquoise), alongside blue Birkies and a denim jacket – do I need therapy to cure my blue addiction – nah! I find blue a warming colour to wear and so easy to mix with much brighter items. Love the dress on you but would never be something I could wear, due to the height of the drawstring / waist. I do wish that you could buy dresses with ‘waist drop’ measurements that differ, as far too many waisted dresses sit too high on me. Men have different length jackets, women rarely have top half length measurement differentials, which I think often results in many items sitting unsold, as they fail to flatter.