It’s Blue Monday... embrace it!
With this season’s refreshingly bold take on the colour
FASHIOn is weird sometimes, isn’t it? I’ll give you an example. Two weeks ago I got a manicure and, for the first time ever, the nail colour I went for was a very bright turquoisey shade of blue.
Out of more than 50 colours to choose from, this was the one that suddenly grabbed me. And I chuckled to myself when I realised my nail colour is a shade called ‘cerulean’.
Every fan of the film The devil Wears prada will know it. ‘not turquoise, not lapis,’ says the icy editor Miranda priestly in a devastating put- down delivered to her cocky pA, Andy.
The famous lecture from the film is all about how we might think we’re
making fashion choices of our own, but everything we buy and put on our backs has already been decided for us, months before, by fashion designers and stylists.
My nails are my first sign that the cerulean prophecy is happening. I thought I’d chosen the colour, but it turns out I was subliminally influenced by a trend that’s been bubbling for a while.
For spring 2022, Balenciaga, Nina ricci and Stella McCartney went all out for the hue, and when Kim Kardashian wore an incredible neon-blue Balenciaga gown to the 2022 Oscars, well… a blue movement was born.
Now it’s turning up everywhere on the high Street. So how to pull it off?
The brave option is the ‘saturation trend’ — wearing one colour all over. Anyone swathed in this attentiongrabbing hue will definitely garner admiring glances for their boldness.
But there’s no need to go nuts if that’s just not you. A touch of cerulean via a bag, a shoe or nails will give your denims, crisp whites and even neutral taupes a very current twist. Or you could always calm it by wearing it as a print— see how we’ve styled this versatile Whistles skirt (£99, far left) and M&S dress (far right, £69), for example.
Personally I’ll be opting for the full head- to- toe route, or even pairing cerulean with equally gregarious shades like a bright burnt-orange.
Talk about a knock-out way to rebrand today, ‘Blue Monday’ — so-called because it’s supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Don’t be blue, be cerulean.