Springtime in Paris

FASHION: Where better than the city of light to shed winter's black and embrace colour blocking? Words: DEIRDRE MCQUILLAN.

‘WHY ARE WE all still dressed in black?” a woman asked me recently as we regarded each other’s dark winter wear in the spring sunshine. With so much emphasis on colour this season, it was hard not to feel it was time to give black wardrobes a bit of a rest.

Lightening up means choosing and combining different colours, a skill that doesn’t always come easy to those with Irish skin tones. It’s easier to fall back on the safer shades, such as navy, beige or white, or the Irish all-time favourite, cerise. Why stay in the black when we’re in the red?

These outfits shot by Lili Forberg in Paris may have a different appeal on dull wet Irish streets, but we have café crèmes here too, and the look is upbeat and sunny. A pretty cream and blue shirt with blue trousers is one straightforward easy exit from the black suit. Pink leopard print trousers might demand more bravado, but a skirt banded with colour and worn with a contrast colour blouse works the alternative.

Bright colour has always defined certain periods of fashion, particularly the brilliant costumes of Leon Bakst for the Ballets Russes, which revolutionised French fashion in the 1920s. In the following decade Elsa Schiaparelli created a sensation with her shade of magenta called Shocking Pink. The 1960s was a period of psychedelic mad prints that spilled over into 1980s fashion.

In recent times, Prada, Gucci and Celine have been instrumental in setting high-street trends for chromatic bands and stripes, with Gucci’s influence showing in the outfit above, with its mix of beige, orange and purple, hard shades in soft, fluid textures. Even fashion’s arch minimalist Jil Sander has experimented with popstar brights with her combination of yellow striped with green and purple for a cool summer dress. If all else fails, let fluoro accessories do the work.

STYLING: Danielle Fitzgerald MAKE-UP: Kate O’Reilly HAIR: Maurice Flynn MODEL: Sharon Love at Assets