On social media, you may have encountered videos on colour analysis and people going to professionals to find out whether they are spring, summer, autumn or winter.
While using colour analysis to enhance our style is a trend that has taken off in recent years, the concept is nothing new. In this four-part series, Tatler dives into colour analysis to help you understand the seasons, what you need to know about “your season”, and how their colour palettes can impact your appearance.
To do this, we speak to Vivian Seo, founder of personal colour consultation service Find Your Colour Hong Kong, who breaks down the basics for us, and explains how understanding the concepts of colour analysis can help you enhance your style. We move onto autumn this time.
Read more: Colour analysis by season: Summer, characterised by bright yet cool colours
The fundamentals
Much of today’s colour analysis has its roots in a traditional colour theory from the 19th century, which explains colour mixing, contrast and harmony. In the 1980s, fashion designer and stylist Suzanne Caygill took this theory as a starting point and developed her seasonal colour theory for dressing, which is the basis for today’s colour identification system.
The categories of the modern colour system are divided into spring, summer, autumn and winter, with sub-categories within each season: light, soft, clear, deep and true.
“To put it simply, your season can determine the mood or vibe of your style,” says Seo, adding that it impacts not only your outfits but also your hairstyle and make-up.
But how do you identify your season? Broadly speaking, those with warm undertones in their skin are spring and autumn types, and those with cooler undertones are summer and winter types. The “season” can also be determined by other factors such as the contrast between your skin tone, hair colour and eye colour.
While this may sound complex, a super-easy way to understand what colours work for you is to hold different coloured fabrics next to your face to see how they affect your appearance. For example, bold shades might add warmth to one person’s complexion while completely washing out someone else’s, making them look tired. Alternatively, pastels might bring out one person’s features, and on another person’s it might look jarring against theirs.
This tells you which colours are the most flattering for your complexion. It’s not about what not to wear, but rather about choosing colours for the best effect, so as not to be overpowered by them.
Decoding the terms
“One of the most important things to learn is how to categorise colours,” says Seo, highlighting three key terms: hue, brightness and saturation.
“Hue refers to the colour,” she explains. “If a colour has yellow or orange undertones, it’s warmer, but if it has blue or grey undertones, it’s cooler.”
Meanwhile, brightness refers to how light or dark a colour is and saturation refers to its intensity: “Is it the original colour, or is it a muted or softer [version] of it?”
“The easiest way to understand a colour’s mutedness is to consider how it looks when mixed with grey,” she says.
These colour categories can then be combined to help identify your season, “for example, light and warm colours to denote the spring season or soft and cool colours to denote the summer season,” says Seo.
Autumn and its subtypes
Autumn is subdivided into light, soft, deep and true types, and like spring, is a warm season, so people in this season look best in warm colours.
“However, these colours are much richer and deeper than spring,” Seo says. “When visualising the colours, think of autumn like a sunset. There’s a lot of texture, a lot of elements—such as depth, volume, layers and patterns—that make [this season] appear rich [like that of autumn leaves]. ”
Seo explains that this richness can be reflected through styling clothes, hair and make-up. “We want things to be a little more glamorous.”
The final element, according to Seo, is the most distinctive characteristic of autumn types—light to deep—all share the ability to pull off patterns. The differences lie in the level of contrast: light and soft types suit patterns in similar tones, whereas true and deep types can handle high-contrast patterns. This even applies to wearing multiple patterns at once, à la vibrant bohemian styles.
Common misconceptions
While patterns are an autumn type’s strength, Seo says to avoid very high-contrast patterns in colours such as black and white—those are best reserved for winter types. That being said, Seo recommends autumn types should avoid simple styling, like that of summer types, instead opting for a “more is more” approach—especially when it comes to make-up and accessories.
“Use blush, add a bit of glitter and shimmer on the eyes, layer your necklaces and wear a pair of earrings, throw on a scarf and put some accessories on your bag—for autumn type, none of this will be too much.”
“With hairstyles, you can play around with a haircut with texture and layers. You want lots of volume, and even some curls, instead of a slicked-back look,” Seo says.
Another misconception is generalising those with olive undertones in their skin as automatically being an autumn type.
“Olive does mean having a more yellow tone to the skin [therefore appearing warmer], but what it indicates is that you have more ashiness mixed into your complexion and will suit soft season types,” Seo says. This means that the muted colour palettes of soft seasons are likely to better blend in with olive undertones.
Asian inspirations
Aishwarya Rai with her daughter at the Ambani wedding in July 2024 (Photo: Instagram / @aishwaryaraibachchan_arb)
“When people think about autumn, true types immediately come to mind,” Seo says. "Warm colours like warm orangey brown, yellowish shades, tomato red—all the very earthy colours.“
Aishwarya Rai is a true autumn who glows in those bold hues, and often gravitates towards wearing plenty of jewellery and shiny embellishments. At the Ambani wedding this July, she shared a look wearing a stunning red ensemble with plenty of gold trim and embroidery woven throughout the fabric. The headpiece, stacks of choker necklaces and enormous ring added to the glamour of her look, as did her warm brunette hair and red lip.
Stephanie Hsu at the 2023 SAG Awards (Photo: Instagram / @stephaniehsuofficial)
Deep types similarly are the initial image of the autumn season, with similar shades to the true category but darker in tone. When it comes to the workplace, Seo says to “make use of colours such as deep brown, reddish brown, warm navy and deep charcoal instead of just black” for that professional edge.
It can also work well in formal settings, as seen on Stephanie Hsu who wore this magenta and rust patterned Carolina Herrera gown to the 2023 SAG Awards with bling from her earlobes to her toes. Seo adds that deep types are the sort to pull off glamorous make-up, such as a smokey eye, which Hsu does too.
Lee Hyo-ri in October 2023 (Photo: Instagram / @lee_hyolee)
“When it comes to soft and light types, that might look a little bit different than what people expect,” Seo says, adding “but they share the same qualities to have more elements being layers, patterns and textures.”
The soft autumn colour palette needs to mix a little bit of grey throughout so the shades appear toned down in saturation, and Seo notes that Lee Hyo-ri captures this well with her oatmeal knit jumper, layered haircut and glittery champagne eye make-up, which she sported back in October.
Blackpink’s Rosé in July 2024 (Photo: Instagram / @rosesarerosie)
Light autumn is similar to soft autumn, but even paler with brighter shades and less contrast. Seo says, “I think of people who look great with bleached, ashy hair colours.”
“Rosé [of Blackpink] doesn’t need much contrast as her natural features shine best when she’s wearing colours similar to each other,” she adds. Her ashy blonde hair and pale beige Saint Laurent suit created a monotone, natural look which is complemented with her chunky gold hoops.
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