Wear Your Season All Year: A New Way to Shop With Your Colors

Once you know your color season, you wear it all year. Instead of reaching for pastels every spring and rust and mustard every fall, you dress in your own palette in every month, and simply shift which of your colors you lean on as the weather changes.

It's one of the biggest "aha" moments for clients, and it changes the way they shop.

The old way: dressing for the calendar

Most of us grew up following the calendar. Stores fill with soft pastels in spring, brights in summer, earthy oranges and browns in fall, and deep jewel tones in winter. So we buy what's on the racks, whether or not it suits us.

The trouble is that your coloring doesn't change with the calendar. A Soft Summer can look tired in October's burnt orange, and a Dark Autumn can look washed out in April's baby pastels. Seasonal color analysis uses the word "season" to describe your natural coloring, not the time of year.

The new way: your palette, every season

Your palette already holds colors for every time of year: lighter, airier shades for warm months and deeper, richer ones for cold months. You never have to leave your season to feel seasonal.

Think of it as creating your own seasons within your palette:

• Spring: the lightest, freshest colors in your palette
• Summer: your clearest, most refreshing shades, with your lightest neutrals
• Fall: your richer, earthier tones and warmer neutrals
• Winter: your deepest colors and darkest neutrals

A few examples from our client guides

Every Complete Season Guide includes a "palette through the year" section, so you can see exactly how your colors shift. Here are a few examples:

Soft Summer

• Spring: soft butter yellow, mint, airy blues and blush pinks, grounded by oyster in place of crisp white.
• Summer: sage and soft beige with a cool smoky blue, plus berry tones for brighter days.
• Fall: rose brown, sage and eucalyptus layered with plum and wine.
• Winter: go deep without going black. Navy, deep ocean, amethyst and charcoal.

Dark Autumn

• Spring: goldenrod, terracotta, avocado and cobalt, balanced by mushroom and rich brown.
• Summer: pale gold and bright gold with scarlet, deep jade and copper, anchored by deep olive.
• Fall: your peak season. Merlot, rust, golden yellow and hunter green, warmed with camel.
• Winter: jet black, deep navy, deep spruce and black cherry, lit up with cerise and bone.

Light Spring

• Spring: buttercup, pale lime and aqua with light violet and soft coral, grounded by camel.
• Summer: bright white with turquoise, true teal, golden yellow and watermelon.
• Fall: marigold, true coral and tomato red with light olive, deep teal and amethyst.
• Winter: antique white with deep magenta, deep emerald and navy.

Notice how each one feels right for the time of year, while every single color still belongs to that person's palette.

How this changes the way you shop

• You stop chasing trends that don't suit you. When a store fills with a color outside your palette, you know to walk past it, or to wear it away from your face.
• You buy fewer, better pieces. Everything in your palette works together, so new pieces mix with what you already own.
• Your closet works all year. Your neutrals carry from season to season, and you swap in lighter or deeper accents as the weather changes.
• Shopping gets faster. Hold up your swatch fan, check for harmony, and you know in seconds. See how to use your color swatch fan.

We walk you through it in your session

During your analysis, we don't stop at naming your season. We show you how to build your own seasons within your palette, with real outfit examples for warm and cold months, and how to shop with your swatches.

Your Complete Season Guide then gives you your palette through the year in writing, along with combinations, neutrals and outfit inspiration, so you can come back to it every time the weather changes.

Find your colors for every season

Book an in-studio color analysis in St. Louis Park, or start a virtual analysis from anywhere. Want to see a full palette first? Browse our season guides, like the Soft Summer, Dark Autumn and Light Spring palettes.

Color analysis is a professional opinion, and individual results vary.