If the fashion shows and digital launches of 2021 have shown us anything so far, it’s that 2021 is going to be the year of color.

Gone are the days of neutral monochromes and all-white fits, street style adorned with accessories wired of chrome and sleek, colorless metal. For this year, fashion houses worldwide—including Dior, Botter, Paul Smith, Kith, Fendi, Prabal Gurung, K-Way and Loewe—have released collections foreshadowing a delightfully rich color palette, deep tones interspersed between muted neutral hues.

While color is spanning the horizon for 2021, it doesn’t necessarily coincide with saturation. Earthy jewel tones are paired with darker neutrals—black, charcoal and sleek gray—for urban contemporary looks, while paler, desaturated pastels are worn with cream, ivory and beige for a warm, put-together look worthy of exploration and adventure. 

The art of dressing up is given a renewed sense of nuance and complexity with color added into the mix, a welcome departure from previous seasons’ highlights of monochrome uniforms. While playing with color, texture is the right-hand man which cannot be forgotten, the tool by which hues get their styling format. 

Loewe uses colorful knits and crochets for warm sweaters, the focal point of an outfit paired with statement trousers of a neutral tone; Kith, on the other hand, brings bright color into the world of elevated athleisure, constructing entire looks radiating around one color scheme, a gradient nestled in to add dimension. 

Paul Smith and Dior prove that color does not by any means necessitate casual; all-black is now all-boring, as proved by their ceremonial collections punctuated by bright spurts of canary yellow, baby blue and burnt orange, making high-saturated hues seamlessly high-fashion without even the barest hint of kitsch. 

This fashion season has shown us that spring, summer, autumn and winter of 2021 have something in common: a refined sense of elevation, made possible by the intricate and attentive use of color.