How I’m (not?) wearing the bright red trend

Red has never been a color that I’m comfortable wearing, but it is a color that I like on nearly everyone in some shade, in some way, and I’m certainly drawn to bright red. I almost always own a bright red sweater that I force myself to wear for a week each winter before tucking it away again, and I spent a week knitting a jumbo red scarf a few years ago. I want to be comfortable wearing bright red, so I keep challenging myself, and I like all colors, so I keep buying red, but it mostly side eyes me from my closet.

My current favorite combination is bright red set against camel or caramel brown, but even this beautiful combination feels strangely uncomfortable for me to wear. Meanwhile, I never think twice about wearing aqua or orchid or light yellow or coral. There is something specific to red that feels un-me to wear, whether in cherry red or poppy red or even neutral-red shades like burgundy (though they are more comfortable). Red feels like I’m making some loud statement in a way that an equally bright coral just doesn’t.

In playing around with bright red, the way that I’m most likely to wear it and feel comfortable, is in a shoe, as far away from my face as possible. Maybe this will be my literal foot in the door to wearing bright red comfortably. I’m sure I would adjust if I wore it regularly, but the desire to do that has never been strong enough to shift the comfort for me.

The availability of bright red in shops has peaked and is declining to make way for the next trends. Did you buy anything? Did you already own bright red? Do you like to wear it?

Here are some of my attempts to style bright red:

The first outfit is my favorite to look at, and surprisingly uses the most bright red (sweater, jumbo scarf I knit, tights, shoes), but then tones it down with full length taupe.

The second feels like it could almost be comfortable, and is more of a challenge to me than just a shoe.

In the third, I thought the pairing of bright red and burgundy might be an exciting tension, and I got back and forth liking and disliking it, so perhaps that is a good tension?

The fourth is my favorite as an intersection of what is comfortable to wear but also interesting to see, and it utilizes a second trend with a lace skirt that I cut the lining out of. I like the long line of cream that sort of transitions to bright red because of the lace.

The fifth is how I am most comfortable wearing bright red- just as a shoe in an otherwise neutral outfit.