How to wear pink
I like pink. I also like that I’m now allowed to say this out loud, and to wear pink clothes without getting side-eye. It used to be that wearing pink was like slipping into baby-talk. It had a whiff of a refusal to grow up about it, not as bad as keeping teddy bears in your bed, but not a million miles off, either. But pink is cool now. Blush is the colour of urban hotel lobbies rather than nurseries, and pink clothes are everywhere. All the time. We have moved past the point of pink being hot for a particular season. Like blue jeans, pink is a modern staple, for men as well as women.
But, still, it will never be edgy. It is a people-pleasing kind of colour, rather than a challenging one. Pink tends to suit people. Pink is nice. Which makes it ideal for right now. We have all been challenged plenty over the past year and a bit. Life has been edgy and weird for ages. Do you know what feels fun and new and unexpected and fresh now? Having a nice time. Smiling. I’m so over having to be resilient. I feel as if I’ve been in brace position for as long as I can remember. So, yes, pink is soft and easy-going and rose-tinted, and probably, if we’re being honest, will never be quite as chic as a really excellent French navy, but this summer, that’s absolutely fine by me.
Related: How to wear sunshine yellow | Jess Cartner-Morley
A pink knit like this one makes you look like a soft touch. After months of the-apocalypse-is-nigh duvet coats accessorised with stout walking boots, it feels like a novelty to do sweet rather than stern. I have sugared my cup especially liberally with this outfit, what with the pick’n’mix bag white-and-pink combination, and the butter-wouldn’t-melt collar. Pink doesn’t have to be this sweet. I love a crisp cotton shirt in pink, worn with the sleeves rolled up and your favourite jeans. Or a pink coat worn over an outfit of understated neutrals. Or pink in an unexpected colour combination: it is gorgeous with dark purple, or deep red, or glossy green. (If you don’t believe me, walk through the park and look at a few flowerbeds.) You can be brave in the way you wear pink. And, after the year we’ve had, it’s nothing to be scared of.
• Jess wears jumper, £75, jigsaw-online.com. Shirt, £199, uk.sandro-paris.com. Skirt, £145, reiss.com. Shoes, her own. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson, assisted by Peter Bevan. Hair and makeup: Sophie Higginson using Chanel Les Beiges Summer Light and Hydra Beauty Camellia Glow Concentrate.
