For Australian summer, where the weather can be pretty hot, it's essential to choose light, breathable fabrics and styles that keep you cool and comfortable. Here are some ideas for the best summer dresses and outfits for Australian women:

Summer Outfits 2024: What Colours are In Style This Season

This summer season is coloured with saturated pink, green, and orange. Other colours for summer 2024 include white, yellow, light blue, and pale purple. 

Fuchsia Pink

This trend of highly saturated colours started with the Valentino fall 2024 collection during Paris Fashion Week. Valentino's creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, had worked with Pantone to create a new pink shade, which has become known as Valentino Pink PP.

In Paris, practically the entire Valentino collection was in this striking colour. Models, men and women, walked the runway in pantsuits, oversized tailored coats, knitted pieces, mini dresses, sequined loungewear, and other outfits, all in fuchsia pink. Even shoes and stockings were in Pink PP.

This same pink has carried its popularity through to the summer of 2024. The one colour that will tell everyone you know that you know your fashion is a garment in fuchsia pink.

Bubblegum Pink

This vibrant classical shade of pink is well-loved. It is a unique colour because it goes well with warm and cool skin tones, and for that matter, it goes well with a range of colours, including reds, oranges, and yellows as well as blues, greens, and purples.

Slip into a flowing pink dress, or buy separates, so you can mix and match your outfits for the summer.

Green, Green, Green

The other colour that made a big splash at the same time as Pink PP is lime green. The runways literally bloomed with lime green outfits, but that particular shade has been giving way to a more inclusive range of shades in green, including teal, highlighter green, neon green, avocado green, and Kerry green. 

Green is a beloved colour, symbolizing new beginnings, vibrancy, nature, trees, grasslands, money, wealth, and luck. 

Celebrities that have been loving the colour include Megan Fox, Kylie Jenner, and Gigi Hadid. 

You can also find green dresses, pants, shorts, and tops by other Local Threads partner brands, including Cazinc The Label, Why Mary, Belle & Bloom, Growing Fond, and Cali Rae. 

This Blake midi dress by Lakeyo combines all the top trends for this summer: the midi length, floral fabric and green. Lakeyo has read this colour trend perfectly, presenting a wide range of green garments for shoppers to choose from.

Orange

Where pink is a safe colour for all skin tones, the same cannot be said about orange. In fact, many people never consider orange as a colour to wear, thinking it doesn't go with most skin tones.

However, there are many shades of orange. All you need to do is figure out what shade of orange goes with your skin tone. 

If you have a warm skin tone and are classified as having an autumn colouring, you can wear yellow-based colours, as they complement the natural undertone. In this case, burnt orange is one of the best colours for you to wear. 

Pro tip: If you feel that orange doesn't suit you, but you're dying to wear it anyway, consider getting yourself a skirt or pair of pants in orange, so the colour isn't against your face. 

Yellow

Yellow is another colour that is not always easy to pull off, but the same principle applies to yellow. All you need to do is figure out what shade of yellow you can wear. Popcorn, daffodil, and buttery yellow are the main shades this summer.

Add a warm and happy look to your wardrobe with summer clothes in sunny yellow. A maxi dress or maxi dress in soft yellow paired with strappy sandals is a great look for summer. 

And, as you must have noticed, pantsuits are very in this summer. There's nothing that announces your presence at work like a bright yellow pantsuit.  

If that is too much yellow for your liking, opt for yellow accessories like shoes, a handbag, or a sheer pale yellow scarf. You could also opt for a cotton knit jersey for cool evenings and air-conditioned indoor environments.

Pro Tip: Yellow looks fantastic paired with natural fibres like grass and hemp, so pair your yellow outfits with handbags and sandals made from these materials.

Bright yellow Justice pantsuit by Cazinc The Label via Local Threads

Pale Purple

From lilac and mauve to lavender and periwinkle, many brands have produced products in all shades of pale purple. Very Peri has been chosen as the Pantone Color of the Year for 2024.

Department stores and boutiques are filled with flowing periwinkle dresses, lilac jeans, and lavender handbags and shoes. 

If you are wondering what to wear with this hue, the answer is other pastel hues. A soft pink or baby blue can work. Both are also popular summer 2024 colours. Of course, the colour also looks great with blue jeans. Add lilac sandals for a complete look.

Light Blue

In the same vein as soft purple, light blue is one of the colours that has emerged for spring and summer 2024. Being a cool colour, light blue is the perfect colour for summer. We are talking about the lightest of blues with names like spun sugar, glacier lake, and cascade. 

In Spring Summer collections 2024 presented a Paris Fashion Week, designers Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Collina Strada, and Acne Studios showed a variety of outfits in this stunning hue. 

Pro tip: Consider following the example of world-renown fashion designers by not mixing light blue with other colours. 

White

A perennial favourite for summer, white is, once again, a trendy colour for the summer 2024 season. Choose outfits in cotton, linen, or bamboo for the ultimate in staying cool during the hot season in Australia. 

Pro Tip: Crochet dresses are still big this season. Get yourself a crochet dress in white, and you will be both cool and in fashion.