If there's one thing my decade working in fashion has taught me, it's that colour trends fluctuate quicker than other trends. What feels fresh one week can feel overdone a few weeks later. This season is no exception, with shades rising and falling in popularity at a pace that can make even the most seasoned of fashion editor's take note.
My personal take on this is that no colour is 'out' or 'uncool', but it's always helpful to note the shifts and see them as ways of injecting something into your wardrobe that will make it feel fresh and new.
A shift in season is always a catalyst for new hues to emerge, inspiring us to step out of our comfort zone and try a shade adjacent to ones that now feel like a core part of our wardrobe. As the days brighten, our love of olive greens can evolve and move towards something brighter, the softness of butter yellow is replaced with a zestier shade, or we turn to crisper neutrals.
So if you're looking to refresh your summer wardrobe, paying attention to these shifts is key and will enable you to build a palette that feels new without doing a complete wardrobe overhaul. Read on to discover the five colour trends we're pausing, and the fresh shades we're wearing instead.
5 Colour Trends That are Considered Dated in 2026
Pausing: Navy
Wearing Instead: Cobalt Blue
Style Notes: What seems to have started with the cobalt trouser trend has evolved, with everything from dresses, shoes, and swimwear appearing in a bold blue hue. Identical in tone to the blue domes of Greece, it feels almost obvious as a summer shade, paring strikingly with white.
Shop Cobalt Blue:
The perfect holiday dress.
A fresh take on the mesh flat.
Bring the trend poolside.
100% cotton.
Featuring the essential high-neck.
Pausing: Pale Pink
Wearing Instead: Lilac
Style Notes: This time of year always has us reaching for pastels, but a fresh way to upgrade a summer wardrobe is to reach for overlooked shades. For many seasons, pastel pinks, yellows and blues have dominated. But lilac is having a resurgence thanks to the Versace and Issey Miyake S/S26 runways. It pairs well with neutrals such as black, white and light grey, and can be colour-blocked easily with bright greens, darker shades of purple and denim.
Shop Lilac:
Wedding guest dressing sorted.
Very 90s coded.
Just add capti pants.
French-inspired.
Coloured trousers are a huge trend this season.
Pausing: Olive Green
Wearing Instead: Apple Green
Style Notes: Olive green has always sat comfortably between khaki and brighter greens, and has been a safe space for neutral lovers who want or need a bit of colour, particularly in the occasionwear sphere. Chartreuse was another major colour trend on the S/S26 runways, and apple green is very similar, yet slightly easier to wear with its softer undertone. To have some real fun this summer, look to bright green sequins, earrings, beaded necklaces, or use the shade to inject some personality into tailoring.
Shop Apple Green:
The season of the mini dress is here!
These look good enough to eat.
this shade pairs beautifully with chocolate brown.
A great day-to-night top.
Inject some colour into your work wardrobe.
Pausing: Cream
Wearing Instead: White
Style Notes: Cream will forever be a versatile wardrobe staple, but there's something about an all-white outfit in summer that hits different. It feels fresh, crisp, and statement making in a way cream just doesn't. Team with textural details such as lace, embroidery, pleating and ruching and you have yourself an easy head-turning look.
Shop White:
A very cool way to wear Broderie Anglaise
Such an elegant neckline.
A fashion editor favourite.
White flip-flops feel so much smarter than black.
Don't sleep on halterneck tops. They make a great basic.
Pausing: Butter Yellow
Wear Instead: Sunshine Yellow
Style Notes: The logic behind this shift feels quite self explanatory: the sunnier the season, the sunnier the yellows in our wardrobe. But that hasn't been the case for a while as butter yellow became the only yellow anyone was open to wearing, meaning shades like this got lost. But sunshine yellows have so much to offer and work for such a wider variety of skin tones. They have a vibrancy that pastel yellow lacks, and they sit in the primary colour space, meaning they work effortlessly with reds, greens, and blues, and lift neutrals, particularly chocolate browns and blacks.
Shop Sunshine Yellow:
Perfect for a destination wedding.
A worthy investment.
Linen doesn't have to be boring.
The lace hem trend is here to stay.
The new bag shape to know.