Curated: Colors To Pair w/ Yellow

Between La La Land and the live Beauty and The Beast, 2017 has felt like the year of the yellow dress - especially with Nikki wearing it for the Oscars! Periodically, movies create fashion longings because something you don't usually gravitate to looks amazing on-screen. If you fell in love with a yellow dress (I've focused on dresses here to keep things simple, but it all holds true for yellow tops and/or bottoms as well :)) due to either of the above and are now a bit lost because it's a shade you don't often wear and even if (or now that) you had/have one, you wouldn't/don't know what to do with it, fear not! Your friendly neighborhood Lover Of Yellow (disclosure: does not come with superhero cape or goggles) is here to help! First important point: I strongly feel that clean yellows are the easiest to wear. And no, I don't mean you need extra Clorox. Shades of yellow can be straightforward and "pure" or they can be mixed with other tones. The color of a buttercup for example, is fairly clean, while dried ginger is "muddy" in that it has more brown to it. (If you were making a ginger shade with paint, you could get it by adding the right shade of brown to buttercup, plus some white.  Or, you could also add purple...but that's a whole other essay ;)).  Yellows intended to suggest "vintage" tones tend to be in the browned-yellow family (imagine mustard-y 70's shades).Yellows can also be warm (ok, obvi) or cool - a lemon (on the green side of the yellow spectrum - think of moving backwards through a rainbow) is a much cooler yellow than mango, which is on the orange side. Dandelion is nearly smack in the middle. Any of these colors are pretty accessible, as long as they are of the "clean" variety. If brightness makes you feel awkward, go for a pastel (which has a lot of white in it), rather than a drab yellow.
 Now that the whole clean/muddy thing is behind us, what shades can you put with yellow? Black, right? Black goes with anything. True. You can always reach for ye old go-to standby. It rarely, if ever, fails. A dash of black with yellow looks amazing. If I do too much  though, I feel like I get into bumblebee territory. So, other options? The simplest is blue. Blue *always* goes with yellow. Light or dark, pastel or bright, cool or warm, blue and yellow are a match made in heaven. Purple, yellow's color wheel opposite, is similar, with blue-purples (lilac, grape) being safest. If you want to do color and be daring, try a clean (there's that adjective again ;)) pink - carnation or candy shades, rather than blush or antique rose. That's not to say the latter two can't work; they just depend on a firm color sense to mix two appropriate shades (I happen to love coral with mango yellow and wear the combo periodically in the summer). If all this color has you dizzy, there is always silver.  It's my favorite neutral to pair with yellow. It harmonizes with cool yellows, contrasts distinctively with warm tones and avoids any suggestion of bees.
Certain pairings of yellow gain impact based on hue. Of course, white goes with anything, but it's especially stunning with lemon-y hues, due to the crisp feel. Red is one notable deviation from the cool-to-cool, warm-to-warm rule. It gives a classic, primary-colored pop to lemon. (Note: it can also go with warm yellow - think jewel tones and autumn leaves). In fact, most autumnal hues work nicely with warm yellows - nude/beige, caramel, chocolate, pumpkin and melon blend beautifully, as their warm tones echoes those in the yellow. (Note: lemon can be paired with brown also, but choose cooler tones, like taupe. Also note: the closer to the center of the yellow spectrum you get, the less the warm-cool distinction matters, i.e. dandelion will coordinate with any brown tone).
 Cliff Notes version of this: put cool tones with cool (greener) yellows, warm tones with warm (orange-er) yellows and blue or silver with any yellow.
 Handy Thought: Instead of being the main shade, yellow can be used as an accent for an  outfit done in any of the listed colors.
XO!