Butter Yellow Is Summer's Key Colour: These Are The Best Pieces

It’s official: butter yellow is the colour of the season.

Plenty of colours are given the above title without much supporting evidence, but butter yellow has been coming for our wardrobes since last year, and has now reached a point where it’s impossible to ignore. It began last September with Chloé’s sunny bohemian spring/summer 2025 show in Paris, a collection that will shape holiday wardrobes for years to come. Models floated past in waftey buttery toned dresses that looked like heaven to wear. A blazer the shade of daffodils was layered over a floaty sheer camisole, an upbeat modern blend of tailoring and sensuality. Toteme, Alaïa and Versace also welcomed it as a spring/summer hit via a mix of fluid dresses, mini skirts and suiting. 

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Chloé spring/summer 2025

In March, it was given red carpet presence after Timothée Chalamet wore a head-to-toe butter yellow suit by Sarah Burton for Givenchy, possibly referencing a similarly toned look Bob Dylan wore in 2014. Chalamet isn’t the only celebrity to have helped solidify its status: Kate Moss was recently seen wearing a butter yellow shirt with a 90s-inspired black column skirt, and Katie Holmes attended Zimmermann’s autumn/winter 2025 show in a matching cargo trouser and jacket combination both in the sunny shade. When New York writer and influencer Harling Ross Anton launched her capsule collection for nightwear brand If Only If, buttermilk yellow was the tone of choice. It’s a trend that the high street has quickly leapt on, Zara, H&M and COS have all introduced it as a key colour. In fact, COS’ buttery trench has fast become one of spring’s most talked-about coats. 

 

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There’s something about butter yellow that has good energy. Without sounding like the sort of person who sells crystals at the weekend, it is a colour that feels like freshness and light. It isn’t acid bright nor as sugary as a pastel, but a softer, grounded and more relaxed form of sunshine. It’s uplifting, but not manic. It’s also very versatile – it works with neutrals like navy, grey and white, as well as pastel blues and pinks. This soothing colour is also very good with denim; a butter yellow shirt with a pair of jeans is a spring-ready outfit combination to rely on this season. It’s, of course, perfect holiday wear, a visual indication of quiet, slow days in dappled sunshine.

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Harling Ross Anton x If Only If

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Posse spring/summer 2025

Unlike its highly saturated, citrus sister, the great asset of this particular shade is that it really does look good on everyone. As much as I would like it to be, high-summer yellow is not a friend of mine, but I have a much better relationship with its buttery counterpart. If you’re worried about incorporating it into your wardrobe, think of it as a replacement to your white T-shirt and use it as a basic, or go small with accessories instead (Lemaire’s aptly named croissant bag would be my go-to).

All of this is to say, butter yellow is more than a trend. It may be having a zeitgeist moment, but this is a shade with legs. It’s a way of introducing the quiet optimism of spring all year round – who wouldn’t want a piece of that?