Sage green is everywhere, literally. From Pinterest moodboard inspos to the fashion influencer’s aesthetic Instagram feed, the hue is being regarded as the colour of the season, and here’s how you can include it in your wardrobe
Embracing natural colours for the warmer seasons is not new. When everything starts blooming and brightening around us, we want the seasonal change to reflect in our homes and wardrobes as well. But this year, in particular, that desire to bring bright colours indoors has deepened, and the colour that’s being chosen is sage green. As a true middle-of-the-road shade, it’s neither too dark nor too bright, and is not quite a statement tone, yet it shakes up all notions of what a neutral shade should be.
No, it’s not the colour of the season only because the shade is an Instagram sensation, but it has been making its debut in the collections of luxury fashion houses such as Zegna, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, and Paul Smith through suits, knits, and everything else in between. Fast fashion brands such as H&M and Zara host this colour for their basics range, which includes ribbed shirts, full-sleeved shirts, tanks, and loose T-shirts. The colour is spotted on sneakers and bags as well.
“We so often take inspiration from Bombay, that as a brand, we’re naturally drawn to colours that have sepia tint or hints of grey, so sage is totally up our alley. Sage is a colour that blends beautifully with neutrals. Whether it’s for traditional wear or contemporary, sage will look great with your creme — shades of oatmeal, biscuit. It’s also a beautiful colour for day functions and traditional looks. You can pair a sage kurta shirt with a bundi and ivory slim pants. This will allow you to have a look that will be perfect for a day function that spills into the evening as well,” thinks designer Kunal Rawal.
To understand how a brand picks up a trending colour for their collections, Amit Kumar, Head Of Design of homegrown clothing brand Andamen, says, “We pick our colour palette for the season based on forecast, reports, and market choices. We go through forecast and trend reports to figure out colours of the season, as well as other prominent colours. This brings about freshness and excitement in our design and colour approach. We also study market sentiments and customer’s choice history to add a few colours, so that we arrive at a balanced colour palette from the customer as well as trends point of view.
“Colour selection is very important in the entire design process. Brand ideology, market sentiments, and customer preferences also play a vital role in deciding colours for any season,” he explains.
As menswear starts to embrace greens, celebrity stylist Akshay Tyagi is here to tell you how you should approach the sage green shade. “Sage green is a tricky shade to perfect. Since it’s a softer palette, it works well with other softer off-tones such as rust, burgundy, mustard, grey, and at the same time, neutrals such as white and khakis go really well. The main rule is that it should be balanced, and the styling is not done in a shocking or jarring manner,” he explains.
And what kind of pieces can help bring the colour into your wardrobe? Tyagi recommends key items such as your everyday simple cotton shirt, cargo-style jacket, a basic sage green T-shirt, or even sandals, or shoes. Or a sage suit, which you can break and wear in different ways. You can wear the blazer with a T-shirt and denim, versus the trousers with nice, comfy polos, and another look would be a cargo style jacket or a Cuban collared shirt with denim shorts.
What has made sage as a colour, trend? “It comes from the fact that there’s a sense of return to nature in the post and pre-pandemic debate. A lot of times, incorporating this colour makes you feel a lot more at ease, and calm,” Tyagi opines.
