Why Are Celebs So Obsessed With This Shade of Green?

Fashion's color trend rotation usually runs like clockwork — pastels for spring and deeper, moody hues for fall — but every so often a new color surprises us. Such is the case with a curious shade of green that began making the rounds at the start of this year. Somewhere between kelly green and vibrant chartreuse, the color in question was spotted in Victoria Beckham's Spring 2023 collection, on a demure cap-sleeve dress worn on the runway by Bella Hadid.

Beckham herself has worn the dress, as has Kendall Jenner and, most recently, Queen Letizia of Spain. Despite the varied range of celebs rushing to don the green sheath dress, a single garment's cult status does not a color trend make.

Throughout the summer, this unusual green has continued to be worn in different variations by celebrities and street-style stars alike. Bridgerton's Simone Ashley wore it to the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic, while Ashley Graham tried it out in sheer.

Meanwhile, Emily Ratajkowski, Tayshia Adams, and Jasmine Tookes wore slightly less saturated versions of the green.

In full saturation or slightly more muted, we couldn't help but wonder if this shade — a fresh take on chartreuse? A hybrid between lime and pear? Perhaps a vibrant sage? —is the unsung color of summer 2023. To get to the bottom of things, InStyle tapped fashion experts for their take on this perplexing color. From its high-fashion (and boozy?) history to how to style the color at home, here's everything we've learned about the shade of green that celebs can't stop wearing.

What Even Is This Shade of Green?

According to experts, it's a natural evolution of a brighter green trend. "There's something to be said for the Bottega Green phenomenon," Noelle Sciacca, Senior Lead of Women's Fashion at The RealReal says, of the brighter shade that previously trended. "That definitely teed up the world to be ready to embrace green in a different way."

For a refresher: Designer Daniel Lee sent a vibrantly green look down the Bottega Veneta runway to start the label's 2021 Spring Ready-to-Wear show. "The first look was head-to-toe Kelly Green — an adorable skirt suit, green shoes, green bag, green glasses," Sciacca recalls. The color took off, becoming a major trend that was no longer relegated to St. Patrick's Day T-shirts.

"Lee and Bottega made [vibrant] green elevated, made it luxurious and covetable," she adds. When it comes to the latest shade of luxe green, Sciacca still credits Bottega in some capacity, but adds, "It's weirder, it's slightly stranger."

Fashion editor Bella Gerard also sees this summer's hottest, strangest green as an heir to luxury green's throne. "True Kelly greens and grassy tones were everywhere last year, so it's natural for us to be gravitating toward a fresh hue that gives us that same serotonin," Gerard tells InStyle. "Bolder than a Kelly green, but not so acidic as a neon or lime green, this vibrant shade is fitting for a summery look that stands out." As for what to call it, Gerard thinks "chartreuse fits the bill."

2023 Is The Year of "Vintage Chartreuse"

Celebrity stylist Samantha Brown agrees with Gerard, and came with shade-identifying receipts. "Chartreuse was very popular in the 1930s," Brown tells InStyle. Back then, it was inspired by a French liqueur of the same name that dates back all the way back to the 1600s. According to French distillers, the liqueur's unique green occurs naturally, thanks to 130 different plants and herbs.

Chartreuse, the liqueur, is a grassier green than the shade that surged in popularity again in the '60s. Over time, chartreuse shifted into the ultra-vibrant, yellowish green we now associate with the name. Does the color's evolution from grassy to near neon make the green du jour "vintage Chartreuse?" Sciacca thinks the moniker makes sense. "I saw someone refer to [this green] as vintage avocado," she says, "it's definitely hard to identify specifically, but when I looked up the liqueur, I thought, 'that is it. That's definitely the color.'"

Like Brown, Sciacca cites the '60s as the last time this shade of green really popped. "Twiggy became the face of fashion in 1966," she shares. "In 1967, she was on the cover of Vogue multiple times wearing that color. Then Jackie Kennedy was wearing it. Marilyn Monroe was wearing it. Mary Quant, Emilio Pucci, Pierre Cardin, Perez — all of these iconic '60s brands, they leaned into that color."

While fashion's love of chartreuse cooled over the following decades, its link to mod fashion has remained front of mind, experiencing a brief revival in 2013 when a checked chartreuse print appeared in Louis Vuitton's Spring/Summer 2013 collection. "I was in fashion at that time, and I remember that was the look that had to be in every editorial shoot for the spring looks," Scaicca recalls. "It was a cover look for so many magazines."

How to Style Vintage Chartreuse

In 2023, the focus is all on the bold hue. "I personally love the color most when worn head to toe — like this Good American plissé blouse and skirt combo that I often pair with my coordinating Brandon Blackwood Kendrick Trunk or a pop of gold," shared Gerard, "but it also plays nice when colorblocked with shades like royal blue or teal."

If monochromatic dressing or bold colorblocking isn't your style, you can tone chartreuse down with more muted shades. "It pops against black accessories, but looks very luxurious when paired with neutrals like cream, khaki, or charcoal," shares Brown.

Alternatively, you keep things in the color family without delivering a true monochromatic 'fit by blending greens or, for more contrast, citrus shades. "Wearing chartreuse with different, darker shades of green balances it out," says Scaccia. "If you're going to mix it with another color, go more towards the pastel muted route so that it acts as a neutral to support the green and is not clashing and conflicting with that.

As for color combinations to avoid, Scaccia advises steering clear of reds, which could read as Christmas-y, while Gerard would "personally stay away from purples and pinks to avoid anything too saccharine."

At the end of the day, you can always embrace chartreuse, vintage or otherwise, the way Cardi B. recently did: with confidence, sparkle, and the reckless abandon of someone who knows they're slaying in summer's most exciting and unusual color.