Forget burgundy, chartreuse is autumn’s go-to hue - Boden’s trousers are the easy way to wear it, now 15% off

There are a lot of colours fighting to be the ‘it-shade’ of the season. Burgundy (also known as oxblood, merlot and maroon) continues to reign supreme, and brown is still hanging around, even having a rebrand as ‘bitter chocolate’ in some quarters.

This year, though, autumn is welcoming a new shade with open arms. As the sun continues to shine, albeit mellower and sulkier, consider a colour that feels perfect for these unusual temperatures: chartreuse.

What is chartreuse?

Some history first: Chartreuse is named after the herbal green liqueur made by Carthusian monks near Grenoble. Essentially, it’s an uplifting mix of yellow and green.

But while yellowish-green sounds like a parched lawn under a hosepipe ban, chartreuse is far more vibrant: more sunshine than its boozy cousin absinthe and less dull or utilitarian than moss or khaki. It’s richer, making it more expensive looking than lime, and any piece in the shade will take you right up to party season.

How to wear chartreuse?

It might seem scary to wear at first, but chartreuse is surprisingly easy to pull off. While it helps to have a more olive complexion to carry off the yellowish-green hue, wearing chartreuse on the lower half of the body means most people can pull it off, so trousers are a great place to start.

Boden's Belgravia trousers are 15% off right now and work brilliantly with a crisp white shirt, while Reformation's cropped drawstring style is another great choice and looks far more glamorous than the words 'drawstring trousers' have any right to. Unsurprisingly, the combination of colour and comfort means both pairs have been low in stock, but you can still snap them up.

However, if a pair of shiny cropped trousers in the colour screams 1960s Beverly Hills housewife to you, then & Other Stories has a slouchy, boxy knit in a yellow-green shade that tilts more in favour of the latter. It's a perfectly relaxed way into the colour, and ditto for Toast's cosy knitted T-shirt.

In short, aim for yellow-green this season. It's the anti-hibernation shade, and that's got to be a good thing.