Butter Yellow Is Not a Trend
No one actually participates in all these one-off color trends, right? Whenever a random tone is plucked from obscurity and feted with a billion listicles declaring it the color of the season, it's surely adopted by maybe a handful of influencers at most before the hapless hue is tossed aside into the wardrobe of history.
"Butter Yellow," however, is no trend.
Not that you'd know it from its hyperbolic reception, mind you.
Having inspired quite literally millions of TikTok views and dozens of digital responses, butter yellow sure seems like just any ol' overhyped color (though you can't say that we didn't call it).
And I get it, truly, because butter yellow has all the makings of a short-lived shade.
Like Millennial Pink and Brat Green, it comes with a cute name and represents a color both familiar and a little askew, just different enough to not be Regular Ol' Yellow.
And butter yellow arrives in time for spring because of course it does, buttercup. Flowers blossom and bright shades bloom. 'tis the season. There's even a Jacquemus Timberland shoe (and store, with a butter yellow couch!) to match.
I know, I know. This is the trendiest trend that's ever trended.
However, butter yellow is forever.
Unlike those other faddish colors, butter yellow is healthily represented at nearly any retailer of quality. Some of these good clothes self-describe their shade as "butter," even — remember that these clothes were designed, like, two years ago. That these stores and brands align at all with a trend is proof that this is no mere trend.
Butter yellow is just that good.
On-body, it's almost universally flattering and impressively versatile, gelling with richer hues and granting neutrals a modest pop of buttery flavor.
A confident dresser pairs this swatch of pale yellow with, well, basically anything. You've seen it worn by A$AP Rocky, I've seen it worn in the lookbooks of Japanese brands so niche that they've likely never been discussed outside of Japan. A typically trendy color could never.
You can further tell that butter yellow is actually a shade with legs because the truly suave can style it as a "suit" with matching tops and bottoms, à la Yoko Sakamoto and Casey Casey. it ain't a look for just anyone but it also ain't for just any color.
There's a reason that butter yellow appears in collections by makers of "good clothes" like AURALEE, Noah, Lemaire, Kapital, and Rier, you know. Again, these are not the brands, and their retailers are not the retailers, that cater to short-lived flings.
If they're adopting a "statement" shade, it probably isn't actually that much of a statement.
