smittenbystyle: TREND ALERT: COLOUR BLOCKING

If you look back over the past few weeks - excluding the awards shows - you will see a preponderance of fantastic, vibrant, exciting cocktail dresses in plain, block colours.

Choose colours that work for your skin tone. Be careful of the stiffer fabrics if you need to sit down for any length of time, as it will crease badly and give you very broad hips. This is not a good look. The same applies if you are pregnant as you will get under-the-bump-lines like Natalie Portman here.

Fit is key, naturally. The tighter the dress, the better the fit needs to be, so if in any doubt aim for a body skimming silhouette rather than skin-tight, as this will land up making you look more expensive.

Aki Narula did a brilliant job in Kambakht ishq with Kareena & colour blocking. I loved her styling for a change.

Its not restricted to western silhouettes alone. Indian silhouettes and designs especially on sarees, dhotis, lehengas look lovely.

I loved Reese Witherspoon at the Oscars wearing an Armani Prive. A lot of designers including one of my favourite Prabal Gurung whose Fall 2011 line is all about colour blocking. So go ahead and try it this season and save it for the next. Masaba is another Indian designer who comes to my mind when I think of colour blocking.

You know when I thought of trying it that thought of whether or not its just a runway thing and we can translate it to reality did cross my mind and that’s why I dug all these street style pictures for you. To be honest the street style did inspire me the more than the ramp. I tried it and it looked great.

Some rules that might help you:
1. Three is the magic number. More colours together could make you look like a Rubic cube.
2. Don’t be afraid to combine colours you usually wouldn’t wear together like red and pink for example.
3. Opt for the bold bright colours, this trend works best with the most vivid shades.
4. Keep the rest simple. Never attempt to introduce prints or patterns.
5. If you don’t want to be OTT keep one colour a safe basic like a black, camel, beige or white.

I have also attached images of an editorial done by Elle UK on colour blocking which caught my fancy and got me smitten.