A friend said this to me in July, with a baby on her hip and, as always, a black tee on: “I am constantly leaking or covered in spit-up, so I just wear black.” I understand the logic, and I did it for most of one summer, and I looked exhausted in every photograph, because black in summer light tells the truth about four hours of sleep. Colour was the thing I thought I could not have while breastfeeding, and it turned out to be the thing that gave me my face back.

The trick nobody tells you is that colour has a place on the body. The shade near your face is for you: it should make you look rested. The shades below the chest are for the day: they should hide what a baby does to clothes. Once I started dressing in two zones, pale and kind above, dark and forgiving below, I stopped reaching for black and started looking like myself again, with a baby on me, in July.

These are the eight summer colours I would build a nursing wardrobe around, each with where it goes and why, and the two I would keep away from the chest while you are feeding. Most of them are probably in your drawer already; this is about where to put them.

1. Ivory, near the face

Not stark white; a warm ivory, the colour of a good linen shirt. It bounces light up onto a tired face and it is the pale thing every outfit in a capsule needs. Tee, tank, shirt, cardigan, all in ivory, all above the waist.

Ivory shows a wet patch less than white and more than you would like. The answer is the dark tank under it and a pad; the answer is not avoiding it. Nine postpartum outfit ideas from three white pieces if you want the proof.

2. Navy, below the waist

The dark that is not black. Navy shorts, navy trousers, a navy skirt, the navy dress for the evening. It hides a leak, a spill and a toddler’s handprint, and against ivory it looks like a decision rather than a uniform. In summer light navy is softer on the face than black by a long way.

Navy near the face only as a stripe. The stripe is allowed everywhere.

3. Dusty rose, as the lift

The one colour that does for a tired face what blusher does, from the outside. Not hot pink and not baby pink: a rose with grey in it. The wrap top, the sleeveless top for a hot day, the scarf. One piece of it in an outfit, never two, near the face.

If rose makes you nervous, start with it as a scarf and see what it does in the mirror. Nine postpartum outfits from three chic colours shows it working.

From the capsules

The Year Round Capsule

Two hundred nursing-friendly outfits from fifty-six pieces, fifty for every season, laid out and then worn. $29 once, yours to keep.

See the capsule →

4. Sage, for the cooler days

A soft grey-green that behaves like a neutral and reads like a colour. Sage with ivory and taupe is the calmest outfit a summer can hold, and it hides more than you would expect. A linen shirt, a wrap dress, a light cardigan.

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Sage near the face suits most colourings; the ones it does not suit tend to know. If you are not sure, the Colour Season Quiz is two minutes and free.

5. Taupe, the warm neutral

The colour of linen trousers and good sandals. Taupe below the waist is softer than navy and warmer than grey, and it goes with every colour on this list. It is the bottom for the day you want to look gentle rather than sharp.

Taupe hides sand, dust and spilled coffee. It does not hide milk as well as navy, so keep it below the chest.

6. Espresso, for the evening

A deep warm brown is the summer evening’s black: a sleeveless wrap top, a midi skirt, the crossbody bag. It is as forgiving as black about leaks and far kinder to a face at dusk, and against ivory it looks expensive on any budget.

Espresso and dusty rose together is the dinner outfit. Nine postpartum date-night outfits in three romantic colours if you have a dinner coming.

7. Dusty blue, the one that looks like holiday

A chambray shirt, a soft blue wrap dress. Dusty blue is the colour that makes a tired mama look like she has been somewhere, and it sits happily next to navy without arguing. Near the face it cools a flushed, hot day down.

This is the colour I would add to a navy and ivory capsule first, before any other. It is the whole Travel Capsule palette’s one colour.

8. The stripe, which counts as a colour

An ivory and navy stripe is the piece that makes a plain summer outfit look chosen. It belongs to both the pale and the dark zone, it hides a mark better than either on its own, and one stripe in a capsule does the work of three plain tops. Tee, scarf, a dress if you are brave.

Narrow stripes near the face, wider ones lower down. Ten eye-catching nursing outfits in prints and patterns for when the stripe is not enough.

The two to keep away from the chest

Pale grey, because a wet patch on pale grey is a map. And bright white in a thin fabric, because the pad shows through and so does everything else. Both are fine below the waist in a weight you cannot see through; neither is for the top half of a feeding day.

Black is not banned. It is simply not kind near a face in summer light. Keep it for the evening, and below the waist, where it earns its place. Every colour here is one of the six in the Year Round Capsule, where fifty summer outfits show them worn, laid out, and opening.

The summer I wore black was the summer I most needed someone to tell me that colour was still allowed. Not as a brave statement, as a kindness: ivory near a tired face, navy where the day happens, one soft colour to lift it. It is a small rule and it changed how I looked in every photograph from that summer on, which matters more than I would have admitted at the time.

If you want these eight colours worn together, in outfits already laid out, the Year Round Capsule has the summer section ready, with three pictures of you in them on the house. If you want to know which of the eight are yours before you buy a single thing, First Look reads your colouring from one photo, free. And if you would rather someone picked the colour for the day from your own drawers, that is Anah inside the Atelier.

Pale above, dark below, one colour to lift. Then put the black away until dinner. The focus is on you, mama.