Shifting from autumn fashion’s neutral gear: The red shade revving up the runways

What colour is trending for autumn? Please don’t say brown.

Seeing red all over again: Calvin Klein autumn/winter 2025 at New York Fashion Week.Credit: Courtesy of Calvin Klein Collection

Bro- … OK, I stopped myself. Brown, or more specifically “mocha mousse”, according to Pantone’s colour forecasters sitting in their rainbow tower, is the colour of 2025. While I love rich chocolates, light tans and flirty fawns, many prefer to leave brown to Bryan, Charlie and James.

But if you’re looking for an attention-grabbing alternative to this contentious neutral territory, rich tomato red – a seed planted in the northern-hemisphere summer of 2023 – is now ripe for wearing as our antipodean autumn approaches.

Tomato reds offer more warmth than wintry cherry reds, carrying with them intimations of languid summer days even as these start to fade from memory. If you’re brimming with confidence – and ready for the attention – you can dress, top to toe, in traffic-light red. Pairing red with clashing pinks and contrasting blues will also stop traffic. Feeling more circumspect? Let neutrals – we’re talking black leather jackets, oatmeal coats, crisp white jeans and gold accessories – soften the impact.
One of the very best colours to team with red is camel.

I know it’s a brown that nestles against beige on paint charts, but camel pants teamed with a red tank top, or a camel coat over a red dress, is so unutterably chic that designer Victoria Beckham returns to this combination time and time again. So why not turn over a new leaf and let red help you love brown?

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