ADVERTISEMENTThe appeal of butter yellow — luminous, optimistic, sunny — is undeniable. Some fashion industry leading lights are dubbing it “the new neutral”, applauding its versatility and compatibility with a whole host of staples like blue denim and black. And like butter, it slips into one’s repertoire with ease.
At legendary London department store Selfridges, which boasts its own iconic chrome yellow brand and packaging, the new variant is across the store.
“We’ve seen butter yellow spread across the runway for SS25, with brands Alaia, Toteme and 16Arlington all presenting soft, pale yellow hues across various silhouettes and accessories,” says Laurie Field, Selfridges Buying Manager.
“We of course have been long-term advocates of the colour yellow, but the sunny shade is sometimes overlooked. Try Lemaire’s fortune croissant bag, Khaite’s zesty, cashmere jumper, and Posse’s airy linen set.”
The shade is trending at all levels from couture to high street. At Uniqlo, where British born Clare Waight Keller is the new(ish) creative director, you can find it in soft ribbed jersey polo tops, bra tops and pocketable UV protection zip jackets.
Having done her time at designer brands and houses Givenchy, Chloe and Gucci, Waight Keller is bringing her prowess to one of the most powerful movers in high street retail.
“It is a whole new territory for me and leads me deep into technological and material advances, as well as overseeing the colour, silhouettes and styles,” she explains.
Premium butter
Butter yellow has even seeped into the rarefied echelons of haute couture. Australian born couturier, Tamara Ralph, made it a focus of her January collection shown in Paris. Yellow is a natural fit for the sunny antipodean designer, who’s known for her dreamy, flamboyant gowns favoured by stars including Bella Hadid and Priyanka Chopra.
“In my opinion, the right colour can completely transform a look and its overall feeling,” says Ralph, who fashioned a gorgeous, airy off-the-shoulder taffeta gown and a crystal siren gown embellished with ostrich feather pom poms in the hue.
“Butter yellow — or as I refer to it, baby yellow — brings with it an element of joy and cheerfulness, but in such a way that is still elegant and innately feminine: it is more quietly luxurious than a bright hued yellow.”
Butter yellow is also being championed by fine jewellery designers like Cora Sheibani, who specialises in highly artful one-off pieces.
“I am currently using lots of citrines, which my stone cutter calls Palmeira citrine,” she says. “It has a beautiful deep colour that pairs so well with other stones and looks great on most people.
“I have also just designed a fabulous piece with a huge round Sphalerite, which looks like the sun and is a stone I have never worked with before but am very excited about.”
Not just yellow
But where does a fad for a colour really gain momentum? Recall a famous scene in The Devil Wears Prada in which Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) lectures Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway) about the rise of cerulean blue, and high fashion’s authority to declare what colours unwitting consumers will soon be wearing.
“It’s not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it is cerulean,” says Priestly, explaining how cerulean trickled down from the runway to wind up colouring Sachs’ bulky cable knit sweater.
“That blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of ‘stuff’.”
But butter yellow isn’t so much trickling down as crashing over the industry in an exuberant wave.
The exact tone would have been decided upon over three years ago as dye manufacturers, trend forecasters and fabric makers decide on the colour palette of the 2025 season. Those materials will have been shown at trade fairs, including Premiere Vision in Paris, where designers chose the palette and order the fabrics that help guide the look and feel of a collection.
If butter yellow or BarbieCore pink (2024) or cerulean blue is trending, there’s a commercial imperative to work with that direction. Fashion only changes with a consensus shift.
Early adopters help. Take Timothée Chalamet in his custom-made butter yellow suit at the Oscars, which was designed by Givenchy’s new creative director, Sarah Burton. He looked fresh and playful set against the traditionalists in black tie.
His appearance heralded a new chapter at Givenchy and kickstarted a mass fashion trend; since then, Rihanna, Sabrina Carpenter and Hailey Bieber have all donned butter yellow super boosting the vibe.
Tempted? An easy buy is Chanel Le Vernis nail polish in Ovni.
Leaving beige behind
“I think that, generally, more designers and brands are embracing the use of colour,” says Ralph. “And colour in unexpected hues. With yellow specifically, you often see tones of mustard, lemon and even veering into more of a cream, but butter yellow offers a fresh, new take.
“The colour in and of itself stands out and is best paired with a well-tailored suit or separates or — on the opposite end of the spectrum — well-draped, billowy gowns with little or otherwise subtle embellishment that allow it to truly shine.”
This colour turnover is one way for the fashion industry to signal “freshness”, and it’s arguably the versatility of the shade that gives it its true power.
“Butter yellow is a gentle way to introduce colour to your wardrobe, the new neutral,” says Field at Selfridges. “It’s easy to wear and flattering for all skin tones.”
Once you tune in, you’ll be spotting the hue everywhere. Consider it a form of everyday gold.
