Autumn color palette

Here's what puts a colour in the autumn group, how to tell if you're one, and a palette with hex codes to start from.

What makes a palette "autumn"

The seasonal system rates colours on three scales: hue (warm, leaning yellow, or cool, leaning blue), value (light or dark) and chroma (clear or greyed).

Autumn is warm + dark, and the system treats that combination as muted. Think of colours with a golden undertone, at the medium-to-deep end, and with some earthiness in them. It's the mirror of summer (cool + light, also muted) and the darker relative of spring (warm + light, bright).

That's why a bright orange traffic cone isn't autumn, but burnt orange is. Same hue family, but deeper and softer.

How to tell if you're an autumn

Look at your skin, hair and eyes together, in daylight, without make-up:

• Warm undertones: skin with a golden, peachy or olive-golden cast.
• Warm, rich hair: red, auburn, copper, golden brown or warm dark brown.
• Warm eyes: hazel, amber, warm brown, olive or green with gold flecks.

Many systems split autumn into three:

• Soft autumn: mutedness first. The softest, most greyed autumn colours; it borders on summer.
• True (warm) autumn: warmth first. The most golden, spicy palette.
• Deep (dark) autumn: depth first. Dark, rich colours; it borders on winter.

A simple check: hold a rust or camel scarf and then an icy pink one under your chin. If rust makes your skin glow and the pink makes it look grey or tired, autumn is likely. A full analysis compares many more drapes, so use this as a hint.

An autumn palette with hex codes

These seven colours come from the colour names CSS defines. We chose the ones that match autumn's three qualities when measured in OKLCH: warm hue, medium-to-low lightness and moderate chroma.

| Colour | Hex | |---|---| | Peru | #cd853f | | Dark goldenrod | #b8860b | | Sienna | #a0522d | | Saddle brown | #8b4513 | | Olive | #808000 | | Olive drab | #6b8e23 | | Dark olive green | #556b2f |

The tool on this page opens with them. Click a swatch to see its full scale. The light end gives you creams and soft camels for shirts; the dark end gives you espresso and deep olive for coats and trousers.

Building an autumn wardrobe

• Neutrals: camel, warm beige, cream (not stark white), chocolate brown, olive. They replace black and grey in most autumn wardrobes.
• Main colours: rust, terracotta, mustard, moss, teal with a warm cast.
• Accents: tomato red, pumpkin, burnt orange.
• Metals: gold, bronze and copper.

If you love black, wear it away from your face, such as trousers or boots, and keep a warm colour near your face.

Autumn palettes beyond clothes

The same set works for a warm, earthy brand, a cosy room or a harvest-themed invitation. In the tool, switch the harmony to see matching colours at the same depth, and check the contrast labels before you use any of them for text: the lighter autumn colours, like peru, need dark text on top.

A note on the system

Seasonal analysis is a styling framework that spread through books such as Carole Jackson's Color Me Beautiful (1980). Different schools draw the season lines differently, and there's no standard training for analysts. Treat your season as a helpful shortlist, not a rule.