The Most Wanted · Colour
The Jewel Tone
After a season of pastels, colour returns with depth — emerald, amethyst, citrine and ruby, rich enough to make everything else look ordinary.
After a season of pastels, colour returns with depth — emerald, amethyst, citrine and ruby, rich enough to make everything else look ordinary.
There is a reason the old paintings dressed their queens in emerald and their cardinals in ruby. For centuries, the deepest, richest colours were the rarest and the most costly to produce — reserved for royalty, nobility, and the ceremonial. To wear a true jewel tone was to wear wealth itself.
That association has never quite left us. After several seasons ruled by pastels — the blush, the butter, the powder blue — the pendulum has swung back to depth. Net-a-Porter calls it the case for investing in colour; the runways at Tom Ford, Saint Laurent and Khaite made it in saturated satin. The jewel tone is the colour story of the season ahead: emerald green, amethyst purple, citrine gold and ruby red, worn with the confidence of a woman who chose the colour because she knows exactly what she is doing.
Below, the jewel tone in every form — the gown for the occasion, the maxi for the warm evening, the midi for daylight, the mini at its most confident, and the separates to build your own colour story. The chicest way to wear it, as ever: head to toe, and let the colour do the talking.
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The jewel tone reaches its full power in the floor-length gown — the piece that turns rich colour into pure occasion. Galvan's emerald satin, Tom Ford's embellished amethyst, and The Attico's feather-trimmed drama make the case for dressing in colour after dark; Tove and Solace London keep it fluid and liquid-smooth.
Long, fluid and effortless — the maxi dress is the jewel tone at its most wearable, taking rich colour from a warm evening straight through to a considered day. Taller Marmo and FFORME bring the one-shoulder drama; TOVE's open-back and Alaïa's draped jersey prove colour needs no embellishment at all.
The midi is the jewel tone's most versatile length — long enough for the office or the dinner, short enough to feel modern. DÔEN's lace-trimmed silk-satin, Oscar de la Renta's off-shoulder and Roksanda's colour-blocked Elina are the pieces that carry rich colour through daylight with ease.
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For colour at its most playful and confident — the mini dress in full saturation. Khaite's Judith in coral and Darby in mustard, Isabel Marant's brick and brown, Valentino's crystal-embellished polka-dot and Saint Laurent's embroidered green: the pieces that command a room from the very first glance.
And for the woman who prefers to build her own colour story — the separates. DÔEN's silk-satin top, Valentino's polka-dot trousers, FFORME's crepe-satin skirt and Khaite's organza slip are the pieces to mix, layer and make entirely your own. The most versatile way into the jewel tone.
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Let the pastels rest for a season — and dress instead in the colours once reserved for queens.— ESVRA