Stone, the new neutral

Every few years a color appears that seems to go with everything. For a long time it was navy, then heather gray, then a certain kind of beige. This year, in the studio and in the post we get from customers, it has been stone.

Stone is a warm gray with a little sand in it. It is lighter than khaki, softer than beige and less cold than a true gray. On the Field Overshirt it looks almost like the color of a limestone wall in overcast light, which is where we took the photographs.

Why it works with almost everything

A good neutral needs to do two things. It needs to sit next to stronger colors without fighting them, and it needs to look deliberate on its own. Stone does both because it is warm. Cool grays can make skin look tired and dark colors look flat. A warm gray picks up the warmth in wood, leather and skin, and lets navy, olive and black look richer beside it.

It is forgiving in different light, too. Under an office strip light it reads as a clean gray; in the evening, under a warm lamp, it turns almost sand.

It also hides the things that make pale colors hard to live with. A white shirt shows every mark. A stone one shows fewer, and the ones it does show tend to wash out. The one exception is the cuffs, which pick up a mark sooner than the rest; a dab of cold water and a drop of detergent deals with most of them.

Three ways to wear it this fall

• Over navy. A stone overshirt worn open over a navy crewneck is the easiest outfit we know. Add dark jeans and white sneakers and you are done.
• Tone on tone. Stone over oat or sand, with a merino scarf in a slightly darker shade, looks calm and considered. Break it with brown shoes or a tan bag so the outfit does not disappear.
• With black. Stone and black make a sharper, more urban pair. Wear the overshirt buttoned as a shirt, with black trousers, and keep everything else simple.

A color that lasts

We are wary of calling anything the color of the season. The point of a neutral is that it is not tied to a season at all, and stone is no different. It will look as right with a winter coat as it does over a T-shirt in September, and it will still look right in five years.

“Customers tell us stone was the shirt they bought second and now reach for first.”

Ola, co-founder

Like the olive, it softens and deepens slightly with every wash, so a stone shirt that has been worn for a year looks warmer than a new one. That is the only change we expect to see.

If you already own the olive and are wondering whether to add stone, our advice is to look at what you wear most. If your wardrobe leans dark, stone will lighten it. If it is already full of pale colors, the Everyday Crewneck in forest may do more for you.

Whichever color of overshirt you choose, it is made in the same workshop in Łódź from the same cloth, and it comes with the same spare button and two years of free repairs.