SS26: Notes on Colour

We build palettes the way you build a wardrobe: around neutrals that do the work and accents that do the talking. For SS26 the neutrals are bleached ivory, raw oat and a soft clay grey — colours with warmth in them, because pure white and cold grey flatter almost nobody in summer light.

The accents came from a walk, honestly. Early last June, through Victoria Park at the hour when the light goes gold: sun-faded brick, dusty russet, the deep green of plane trees, a streak of cornflower where someone’s window box had gone over. We photographed almost nothing and remembered all of it.

Why russet, again

Russet is as close as N&N has to a signature, and this season it warms up a shade — less brick, more terracotta left out in the sun. It is a rare accent colour that behaves like a neutral: it sits as happily against navy and denim as it does against ivory and oat, and it flatters an enormous range of skin tones because it carries both red and brown.

You will find it in the Clara linen dress, on the collar tips of the Compton polo, and as topstitching in places you will only notice the third time you look. We like colour best when it rewards attention rather than demanding it.

How the palette mixes

The test for every SS26 colour was simple: pull any two pieces from the rail blind, and they should work together. Oat with plane-tree green, ivory with russet, clay grey with cornflower — there is no wrong pair, which is the point. A small wardrobe only works if everything in it is on speaking terms.

If you want a place to start: one russet piece, two ivory or oat pieces, and whatever green your climate allows. Wear the quiet ones together and let the russet arrive last, like a good guest.