Inverted triangle body shape with warm, high-contrast colouring (Bright Spring)

The one thing to buy

Wide-leg trousers in beige. The cut comes from the inverted triangle rules, which put a wide-leg trouser +12 ahead of a neutral garment; the colour comes from the Bright Spring palette, where beige sits ΔE 2.3 from #D9CBB0. Volume below the waist answers the shoulders and evens the silhouette out.

The colour matters less here than it usually would. A wide-leg trouser is worn away from the face, so the palette is a preference rather than a constraint, and the cut is doing nearly all the work. Beige is still the closest to the Bright Spring palette of the colours a shop will actually offer.

What to buy, and in what colour

Softness on top, a marked waist, and a clean leg line. That sentence is the shape half of the answer; the colour beside each garment is the other half. They are not applied evenly: 1 of the 2 garments the rules want for an inverted triangle is worn near the face, where a Bright Spring palette miss shows on the person, and the rest sit below the waist where it shows only on the garment.

• Wide-leg trousers (+12), below the waist: in beige, ΔE 2.3 from #D9CBB0. Volume below the waist answers the shoulders and evens the silhouette out.
• Unstructured blazers (+12), near the face: in beige, ΔE 2.3 from #D9CBB0. A softer, unstructured shoulder lets a strong upper body read relaxed instead of imposing.
• Structured blazers (-15): the cut is the problem on an inverted triangle, and no Bright Spring colour rescues it. Your shoulder line already leads. More structure there tips the whole silhouette top-heavy.
• Skinny jeans (-14): the cut is the problem on an inverted triangle, and no Bright Spring colour rescues it. A skinny leg under broad shoulders exaggerates the triangle into a caricature.
• Chunky knits (-11): the cut is the problem on an inverted triangle, and no Bright Spring colour rescues it. Heavy fabric up top piles mass onto the half that already has it.

The Bright Spring colours worth building on

Warm and vivid. High contrast and saturated colour: the brighter the better. 4 of the twenty-four colours an ordinary shop names land inside the palette, and Mauve is the furthest out at ΔE 19.5. For an inverted triangle these are the colours to find the 1 near-face piece above in; beige is the neutral to build the rest of the wardrobe from.

• Beige (#D9C6A8): ΔE 2.3 from #D9CBB0.
• Cream (#F2E8D5): ΔE 2.9 from #F2EDE0.
• Coral (#F4735A): ΔE 3.2 from #FF6B4A.
• Fuchsia (#D6218C): ΔE 5.5 from #E5399E.

Where the two disagree

They can, and the order matters when they do. Shape is geometry: a cut that adds width at the widest point does it whatever colour it is. Colour is a claim about a face at a distance, and it only binds on the pieces worn near one.

On this pairing it arises 1 time. An unstructured blazer is worn near the face, so the palette binds there in a way it does not across the rest of what an inverted triangle should be buying. Hold out for it: Bright Spring gives you 4 colours that clear the bar, which is enough to find the cut you want in one of them.