Everything in this photo — the background walls, my hair, my outfit — is all about “the fade.” Ombre (fashion-speak for colour gradation) is no new hair trend to talk about (I recently cut off five inches of my bleached out ends) but we are not here to talk about my hair. I only mention it because looking at this photo, I now see ombre everywhere. That wasn’t planned during the shoot — we just liked the colours together.

While talking about ombre hair might be a bit passé, putting together an ombre outfit is not. For those of you who are too afraid to DIY dip dye your wardrobe (like me), I recommend trying to put together a look by shade pairing. Not sure how to do that? A good tip for beginners is to head to your local hardware store, pick out a colour you like, grab some swatches to see which shades work together, and take it from there.

This whole outfit (which reminds me of Lady Gaga’s seafoam-green hair back when) came together from wanting to wear my pieces from Koopdekour, a great new online shop based in Toronto. Even though I wasn’t entirely sure if the two worked together or not, there was just something about the pleated mint mini skirt and turquoise chiffon blouse that I loved together. Intrigued by playing with different colour tones in one outfit, I reached for the $10 sweater I’d found on a rack on Spadina Avenue on New Years Eve. I may have cropped it myself, but it came complete with the holes.

So is the outfit colour fade the new colour blocking? I think so, yes.

What I Wore: pleated mint skirt and turquoise chiffon top from Koopdekour, shoes by Aldo Rise, cropped sweater from a rack in Chinatown, sunglasses from Buffalo Exchange.

(post as seen on PostCity.com, photos by Jillian Botting)