In my opinion, you can never have too much colour in your wardrobe. Then again, I am clearly quite bias. I get a kick out of putting together an outfit with absolutely no black in it, whether I set out to do it or not.

While natural for me, many people are scared of incorporating so much colour into their wardrobe. Black, denim and neutrals are a go to, and colour only sometimes makes a cameo appearance. It isn’t that they are opposed to the idea of colour, it is just unfamiliar territory.

If this sounds like you, and adding some more colour into your wardrobe is desirable, below are a few tips that may just help.

Just about any colour will pair well with any other colour

Forget anything you may have heard to the contrary. It just isn’t true. Why can’t you wear yellow and green together? Who said you can’t wear hot pink and sky blue in the same outfit? You can make just about any colours work together, so long as the colours work on you.

A lot of the time, we only think about pairing complementing colours (pink and purple), but clashing colours (green and orange) can be just as fantastic together. Being open to clashing colours opens up so many more potential colour combos. It can be a bit polarising and scary at first, but the more you give it a chance, the more it will grow on you.

Some of my favourite colour combinations at the moment are yellow and purple, pink and red, and orange, yellow and red.

Pair prints with a block colour

The easiest way to do this is to find a nice, subtle print that you like, and instead of throwing a black top, coat or jeans on with it, pull a colour from the print.

For example, carry a yellow bag with a black dress covered in red and yellow florals. Or ramp up the colour like I did, and throw on a block coloured coat over a colourful outfit.

Instead of reaching for black because it is easy, match your accessories and other items of clothing to the tones in that you can find in the printed item. You can even try doing this with a tonal brown, khaki and tan outfit for a start.

Make sure you know what colours work with your skin tone.

I know I can’t wear pastel colours without looking washed out and ill. It is the golden, olive-y tones in my skin. I have come to terms with never being able to wear millenial pink, and that is fine.

For anyone with a golden/greenish (olive) undertone to their skin, warm colours are your best friend – reds, oranges, and golden yellows. Even in the cool colour spectrum, things need to be kept on the warmer side of things. Think deeper turquoises, reddish-purples and deep greens.

If your skin tone is cooler (has a blueish undertone), emeralds, bright blues, and lilac might be more your flavour. Because your skin has a blueish undertone, any warm colours you want to try will have to be blue based too. Think ruby, or bright rose colours.

If you can’t work out whether you have a warm or cool skin tone, it is possible that you might be neutral skin toned. That means you just have to stick to colours like peaches, pinks, light blues, and cornsilk yellow. Bright colours will overwhelm, so stick to more subdued, pastel hues.