Ask Earl With Laurel Pantin: How to Style Primary Colors for Spring

Reported by Vogue.

Spring's most polarizing mandate is also its most liberating: primary colors are everywhere, and the pressure to wear them is real. After years of collective beige, the runways delivered an unmistakable message — Loewe, Celine, and Dries Van Noten all sent out saturated, unapologetic brights. According to Vogue, stylist and Earl Earl newsletter founder Laurel Pantin has been fielding color panic questions nonstop. Her answer is less a rule book and more a rewiring of how we think about what "goes."

The first instinct when trying color is to anchor it in black or white — safe, familiar, predictably chic. Pantin argues this is exactly wrong. Color wants company, not contrast. Her example: a yellow-green Zankov sweater worn with a deep navy Kallmeyer suit rather than a black one. The navy is still a color, which means it softens the acid tone instead of making it look like an accident. A cobalt Esha Soni bag ties the whole thing together by picking up on the blue in the suit. The takeaway isn't "add a pop" — it's build a palette.

For the Color-Cautious and the Completely Committed

If full saturation feels like a stretch, beige is not the enemy — it's a tool. Pantin layers cobalt and lavender against a neutral blazer and denim base, letting the brights read as intentional rather than overwhelming. The colors stay vivid; the beige just keeps everything from tipping into chaos. For those ready to go further, her favorite move is monochromatic dressing in two different textures: a deep red satin bias-cut pant from Comme Si with a poplin shirt in the same tone. Same color, different surfaces — it looks considered, personal, and requires almost zero effort.

Then there's the approach for the genuinely fearless: bold on bold. Neon green with bright orange and pink isn't an accident — it's a decision, and decisions read as style. Pantin's logic is almost counterintuitive: the more intentional the clash, the less jarring it feels. A wild sweatshirt next to jeans looks like a mistake. That same sweatshirt next to another statement shade looks like a point of view. The only rule worth keeping is to commit fully — half-measures are what make color feel costumey instead of cool.

Color isn't a trend to survive this spring; it's a skill, and the shortcut is simply to stop treating brights like they need to be rescued by neutrals.

Read the original at Vogue.