Fall 2026 runways were full of colour pairings that used to get sent back to the fitting room, with burgundy and pale pink at Chanel and tangerine with robin's-egg blue at Prada. On the street during New York Fashion Week, the pairing that kept turning up was royal purple with cherry red. The easiest way in is through accessories, so start with Alaïa's purple Le Coeur bag or Gianvito Rossi's purple suede slingbacks, then answer them with Toteme's red patent pumps or Dolce & Gabbana's red Grandma top-handle.

The formula is two blocks of colour and nothing fussy in between. Valentino's purple wool sweater has a lace trim at the edges, which keeps it from reading as a school uniform, and Comme des Garçons Girl's red pleated gabardine midi skirt gives it the proportions of a 1950s day dress. Black Jude knee boots ground the whole thing, and Gabriela Hearst's brown leather Marija tote makes the case that a third colour can simply be a neutral.

This is the quieter version, where the red sits underneath. Sanderlak's red corduroy shirt goes on first, Allude's lilac cashmere cardigan goes over it, and Chloé's light-wash straight jeans pull the pairing back toward everyday. Bottega Veneta's burgundy Charlotte ballet flats pick up the red at the other end of the outfit, so it reads as planned rather than accidental.

Willy Chavarria's purple wool midi dress does most of the work here, so the red arrives in small, deliberate doses. Manolo Blahnik's red velvet Callydramu sandals and Proenza Schouler's red Hex clutch are the accents, and Wales Bonner's brown checked belted coat goes over the top for the walk to dinner. It is a colour-blocked outfit that still looks like evening wear, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.

Flip the proportions and let red take the top half. Arma's red leather Hannan bomber is the loudest piece in this story, Loewe's purple corduroy straight trousers hold their own underneath, and a black short-sleeve Loulou de Saison ribbed cashmere sweater sits between them as a buffer. Black Aquazzura suede ankle boots keep the finish plain, which is the point when the jacket is doing this much.

We think purple and red is one of the more wearable colour trends of the season, mostly because both shades already live in a lot of closets as accents. If you take one thing away, let it be that the pairing works best when one colour leads and the other answers, rather than splitting the outfit down the middle. We would skip buying a purple and a red statement piece at the same time. Pick the one you would wear with jeans anyway, then borrow the second colour from a shoe, a bag or a sweater you already own. Black, brown and denim all work as buffers. Where the pairing tends to go wrong is when every single piece is saturated, which starts to look like a team uniform rather than an outfit.