Bright Spring: A Comprehensive Guide | the concept wardrobe (2024)

Bright Spring is one of the three Spring seasons and sits between Bright Winter and True Spring on the seasonal flow chart.

Unlike Bright Winter, this season is warm. However, both are sister seasons, meaning they are both a blend of Winter and Spring, with Bright Winter leaning more towards the Winter palette and Bright Spring leaning more towards the Spring palette.

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The Bright Spring colour palette is reminiscent of exotic summer holidays. From tropical waters to remote islands, these are the most saturated colours out of the twelve seasons.

These colours are vibrant, wild and vivid – the colours of tropical landscapes, plants and fruit. In the western part of the northern hemisphere, Bright Spring colours are present in the first spring flowers, announcing the end of the dark days of winter.

The primary aspect of the Bright Spring colour palette is its vibrancy. The colours are bright and highly saturated. These are the most intense of the Spring colours. But they do retain the relative lightness of the Spring family. And so the colours are warm, fresh and full of new life, like the first budding signs of spring.

The palette features a broad range of hues with a heavy focus on pinks and jewel-like tones, such as turquoises and lime greens.

Winter also cools the colours somewhat. For example, Bright Winter’s fuchsias have been warmed up and introduced to the palette, but True Spring’s golden browns have been dropped.

As sister palettes, Bright Winter and True Spring both share Bright Spring’s aspects of bright and warm, respectively. Depending on where you fall on the Bright Spring spectrum, you can borrow some colours from your sister palettes since they are close enough to the Bright Spring colour palette.

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Besides, black on its own is not flattering on a Bright Spring since you need vibrant colours to lift your appearance. It’s better to mix it with some of the other warmer, more saturated colours on the palette.

There are also darker greyish browns and warm blues which you can also use as dark neutrals.

A soft white, a more yellowish off-white, and gentle greens act as light neutrals. These are slightly warmer than the cool, harsh whites of Winter.

Since the main colour aspects of Bright Spring are brightness and warmth, your worst colours are muted and cool.

Desaturated, toned-down colours, such as dusty blues and muddy browns, will dampen your natural brightness and make you look muddy.

Very cool colours, such as icy blues and greys, will clash with your naturally warmer colouring.

Technically, you can combine any of the colours on the Bright Spring palette with each other. But certain combinations will look much better than others. Those are the combinations that repeat the contrast level that is naturally present in your appearance.

Bright Spring’s natural appearance is highly contrasting because of its brightness. Therefore, the best colour combinations for your outfits are similarly contrasting.

The obvious way to create contrast is by pairing a dark colour with a light colour, such as dark blue and light blue. This is called value contrast.

However, this may not be enough contrast for a Bright Spring. Instead of value contrast, aim for hue contrast. Don’t be afraid to combine unlike colours - particularly those sitting opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as pink and green. The more unusual the combination, the more striking.

The other way you can create a high contrast is by combining a neutral with a bright accent colour. Either pair a dark neutral with a lighter, brighter accent colour or a light neutral and a different darker accent colour. Make sure to select different hues to create additional hue contrast.

In general, always aim for at least one bright colour in your outfit. Avoid neutrals-only combinations, monochromatic looks and low contrast combinations. These will diminish your naturally vibrant colouring.

The best patterns are those that only contain Bright Spring colours – like in the first example below.

If a pattern contains some but not much colour from a disharmonious palette – like in the second example, you can also wear it.

The last example contains too much of a disharmonious colour (a Soft Summer grey, which is muted and cool). Avoid this pattern.

Since your natural colouring is highly contrasted, opt for patterns with higher contrast between the elements rather than ones which blend too much.

In the example below, both patterns contain only Bright Spring colours and are wearable. However, the second pattern displays a higher contrast between the elements and is consequently more flattering.

Great patterns for Bright Spring are dotty, busy, creative, and geometric patterns. Hand-drawn elements are also good. Since this sub-season borders on Winter, natural floral patterns are best avoided. If you want to wear floral patterns, opt for stylised flowers.

Elements should be bigger and not too dense.

Avoid small elements, very loose and very dense arrangements – like in the first example.

Although Bright Spring is warm, gold is not the only metal that works for this season. Since your skin’s undertones are neutral-warm, rose gold, white gold, and even silver and platinum may work for you.

Make sure that metals have a shiny or polished finish. Matte finishes will clash with your naturally bright colouring.