I've never done a real color analysis because I guess I've never needed one to recognize what looked good in the mirror. I look best in heavily saturated colors and deep, jewel tones. I look appalling in pale blue, most pastels, and yellow. Pale blue makes me look so bad that others ask me if I'm feeling okay. Yellow gold looks better on me than do white metals.

I really don't see or feel a real difference between dark navy, dark brown or black. They're all dark neutrals and since black coordinates with more for my taste, that's what I choose. One might be slightly more flattering than another, but they're all high-contrast colors against my skin, so the difference isn't great enough to matter.

I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called, but I read an analysis based on personality type. It wasn't the typical personality tests that determine if you are introverted, feeling, judgemental, etc., but a simpler one with fewer categories. I looked at it and it IMMEDIATELY made sense to me. Me dressing in high-contrast, "louder" clothes is simply "truth in advertising." That's who I am. The system didn't pigeon-hole people by color, but more by style, so the clothing felt natural instead of feeling like what you were "supposed" to wear. If anyone has heard of this, please remind me what it is called. I'd like to look further into it, but even with internet searches, I cannot seem to find it.

I was officially “diagnosed” as a light spring. This was life changing for me. I would likely not have reached this conclusion by myself, as I was so used to how I looked in the dark colours I preferred for work (tired, shadowed, mousy hair) and thought that was just me.
Unconsciously, however, I knew different, as was clear when you looked at makeup, and clothes that ‘didn’t matter’ such as gear and pyjamas.
However, while this knowledge is great, it’s only one part of the picture. It’s hard to find items in the style I like, in my colours, and it’s just not realistic to live in cream (tomato based sauces!). So either I live with a v small wardrobe, or I compromise on colour.
I think lights and true warms are most likely to benefit from knowing where their colouring sits. Softs and darks have a fair amount of flex in what colours work, and colours for brights and true cools are very available, so it’s easy to find things in styles you like.

I have not had my colours done. I do not like how the process sees colours in isolation. Colours affect each other, which is a very important variable. That said, the exercise can be a very useful starting point! Much like dressing for your body type. 

I wear the colours that I love, look good, and make me happy - and run with it! They have been the same colours my whole life. 

Decades later, I realized I was a "Warm Spring" when I picked up a book about the subject. And my word, it's dead right....although no thank you to the purples, cobalts, jade greens, browns, tans and teals. 

I have gone to a colour analyst three times. The first time was in the early 80s when the book Colour Me Beautiful came out. At that time, there were four seasons. I went with two friends. I was diagnosed as a Spring because I had blonde hair, warm skin and green eyes with gold flecks. I wouldn't say I liked that palette. I had always worn earthy warm colours, and I was not about to start wearing colours that looked like popsicles—my term for them.
I won't go into the drama. I have already done that.
I wore mostly olive green, brown, rust, etc. and continued with life.
About five years ago, I got the idea that I wanted to see a colour analyst again. Now there were 12 seasons or 16 seasons.
I went to a 12 Blueprints analyst, and she spent four hours doing my analyst. Four hours!!!!!! And it cost too much money. She diagnosed me as a True Summer. I knew during the whole thing that she didn't know what she was doing.
Then about a week later, I went to someone else, and she diagnosed me as a Warm Autumn. I spent all these years looking for someone to tell me what I already knew. So I continued wearing the same colours, but now I was wearing Warm Autumn colours.
I am not planning to go to another colour analyst.

I have always been drawn to Autumn colours. They seem to work for me in so many ways.

I tend to gravitate toward jewel tones and cooler colors. I have a lot of blues, greens, and purples in my wardrobe.

Thank you all for sharing your opinions on the color season analysis.

I have never been professionally diagnosed (would if the right opportunity came up), but have always assumed I am a winter. I wear black, true white and cobalt blue well. And some purples and burgundies. Which winter and other subtleties I can't say - I tend to go by other people's reaction to me in colors, particularly my husband who has not interest in fashion but does notice color.

I’m an Autumn something but I wear the colours that I like, including a lot of black. There are a few colours that I like that I try to avoid near my face just because if I see a photo of myself in it it makes me feel a bit crap (eg light blue, light grey). I think it’s good to know what colours suit you best just so you can collect a few really face flattering options for those inevitable days when you feel sick or down or otherwise washed out. They are a great pick me up! But on other days I feel free to wear whatever colour I enjoy wearing, whether or not it’s my “best colour”.

I love the Soft Autumn palette with its warm colors.

I am pretty sure that I am a Dark Autumn--Autumn going into Winter. Back when there were only four seasons, I couldn't positively identify one that seemed right--I was oscillating between Autumn and Winter. Dark Autumn was my answer when I found the twelve-season system. I've never had my colors done professionally.

I go through phases regarding wearing colors outside the palette. Sometimes I really like to stick to the palette and try to find clothes only in my most flattering colors, but other times I throw perfection out the door and get whatever color attracts me. I have found that if I look long and hard enough, I can usually find acceptable versions of some of my no-go colors. And there's always makeup to help me not look like the living dead when I'm wearing things that are unflattering!

I've never done a color analysis. My color choices are intuitive, based on colors that are attractive to me and flatter my coloring. Blues are a slam dunk for me, as are most grays and browns. Earth tones are also flattering and some of my favorites. For decades, black was an evergreen in my closet. I always wore black jeans, not blue, and had a closet full of black tops and toppers.

Some of my preferences have changed over the years, as my skin tone, pale to begin with, has lightened even more, and my blonde hair began to silver.

Several years ago, I stopped wearing black near my face (except for toppers, but I always wore a scarf to add color) because I noticed it drained the little color I did have in my face. I always avoided whites with any kind of yellow in them, which were horrible against my skin, and instead wore optic white. Now I prefer a slightly grayed white, which looks much better against my skin. My earth tones still look good as do most grays and browns, and a lot of blues. I prefer mid-tone blues and smoky blues to navy, which I rarely wear. A happy relatively recent discovery is a grayed lilac hue, which is also flattering against my skin, and works well in all seasons.

There are some colors I will wear, flattery be damned, because I love them. These are an array of yellow-green shades. I think of them as mouth-puckering colors, and they make me happy as a pig in mud to wear. Thankfully, mustard, in its many variations, is a reasonably flattering color on me. Good thing; I wear a lot of it. I don't consider mustard one of the mouth-puckering yellow-greens though. It's too sedate for that!

I've never had my colours analysed, I tend to rebel against these rules based dressing systems (colours, kibbe, dressing for your body shape). Rationally I can see that to adopt these rule based approaches will likely improve my appearance and be more conventionally flattering. However, it would take the fun out of wardrobe building and dressing for me.

Fun trumps a systematic approach for me.

Did someone say color season analysis! :-). My colors have been done multiple times, starting when I was a teenager, and my mother and her friend used the four season technique and decided I was a Spring. Next I had a professional color season analysis in medical school, and was told I was a “Contrasting lustrous summer” (the palette is consistent with my light summer palette, with a few added colors). So confusing, one warm season and one cool season. My mom hated the summer colors, and I valued her judgment so I tossed the palette in a drawer and forgot about it. I tried to wear spring colors but many of them didn’t work well for me. I had my colors professionally done again in my 30’s and was told that I was an Autumn! LOL! So far I had been classified as all seasons except Winter! Although, in my opinion, too many of the Spring and Autumn colors just did not work. Too bright or too warm. I tried once more, and was finally designated a light summer. The difference with the last analysis, which I believe is accurate, is that she was able to explain why so many had been confused. I have light olive, neutral skin, but because my eyes are grey, cool tones work slightly better for me than warm tones. The olive in my skin might have been mistaken for warmth by some people. Also, my eyes can look green, grey or turquoise depending on what I wear. I look okay in some warm and some cool tones, and I can wear both gold and silver, but I truly look better in the cooler shades of light summer. I can borrow from light spring, soft summer, and cool winter although I look terrible in black and do not like to wear white either. I definitely use my light summer palette. Every color in the palette works and the colors “spark joy”. Last year I had another color analysis done for makeup, and it includes a wider range of both warm and cool colors, incorporating all the colors that work well for me, but I find most overlap with light summer, light spring, soft summer and very few cool winter.

Stays fit, I think sometimes that changeable eye color can throw perceptions off! My eyes can look blue, blue-green, green, or sometimes grey, depending on what I wear.

I think there was also a tendency to rely too heavily on dark vs light hair color to determine season. And I agree with Nuancedream that the old systems were really lacking in terms of evaluating colors for anyone who was not Caucasian.

Hence my casual attitude towards the “season” approach. My attitude is: try on the color, if you like it on you, wear it; if you don’t, don’t! LOL For instance, I like yellow...on other people. Put it on me and I look unwell, so I don’t wear it. And I’m not even attracted to beige so it’s fine that I don’t look good in it. I am lucky I guess that my favorite colors to wear happen to work with my coloring, but maybe it’s that I learned to enjoy them in the first place BECAUSE I instinctively knew they looked good on me, even when I was very young.

I have been put into every season. I can’t even decide between strictly warm or cool so just follow my intuition. I just do not fit in any season. I think there is some version of each color that will work. Basically warn colors seem to be best. I like white and have found that ivory is not good but bone or a pale grey is the best. I like black but the best ones are sheer or faded. An intense black like velvet is not good near my face. Cool colors like blues or greens seem best if light like ice blue or mint or apple green or a deep clear navy or olive. Rust is preferable to burgundy, peach to pink.
Go with your gut and be aware that your colors will change in time as your skin and hair do.

This is something I sometimes love to sink in, but then never take too seriously as I find the science behind it really cannot keep up with my mood and changes in my complexion and hair color. I am a fadding to no contrast ashy mid blonde now, with grey eyes but can have a great tan in summer and do highlights, dye my hair lighter or ombre, etc. It's all great to find out the reasons why I love some things on me and not others- but then, we all know say from interior/exterior design that every color on the world can be made to look great and cohesive if really wanted. It all depends on your intention and possibilities. I think I was/am a soft summer-and the analysis is mostly true- but I also couldn't live without BLACK. And bright white no matter how harsh they may sound:-) and some other non advised shades, too!:-)

I'm a clear spring or tawny spring, depending on the system. I've found that David Zyla has been the most useful for colors, but I still wear black and white, which supposedly aren't ideal for springs. I love black , and as long as I brighten it up with pearls or by having some skin showing, I'm good. I've also found that wearing a peachy-pink makeup palette, means I can wear black and white more easily. My palette is black, winter white, a little bit of British tan, cream and bright white, dark blues, sea greens and turquoises, peachy and rosy pinks, light corals, metallic golds and pale silvers.

A very useful thing I read somewhere about Springs is that the colors should look clear and bright as if bright sunlight is hitting them. So if I'm stepping outside of my palette, I try to pick blacks, whites and colors that look sun-saturated.

I had a sales clerk accost me in a store, decades ago, and tell me I ought to wear other colors. I was wearing a navy suit and white blouse. In retrospect it was pretty funny. She showed me colors she thought I should wear. I started wearing them. My hair is grey now, but it was chestnut with red and gold highlights. My eyes are light hazel, and look army green. She showed me olive and other Autumn colors. I had a soft off white suit that I wore with a celadon blouse. I felt like a million bucks in that outfit. I think soft colors were the key. I never got officially analyzed, but I bought the book. I didn’t shop with color swatches, but did have a pretty good idea of what colors worked, and tried to stick with them.

An important point for me is an understanding of a color value and clear v muted colors. As my hair color changed from mid warm brown to cool light brown due to going natural and gray, value of my colors now has to be medium with low saturation. I don’t venture out of my color palette often and when I do, I make most mistakes. Example - in early 2020 I bought a beautiful silk top in warm, red wine color in attempt to build my “event capsule”. The cut is flattering, minimal alterations required, warm but not too warm color. But something is off and unfortunately, I didn’t return it on time, thinking that it just needs to be cut shorter and it will work. Now I understand that the color is too dark and too saturated for me.
Hopefully, I now understand better why certain colors work for me and will be able to avoid such mistakes.

This is a great thread Irina, thank you. I did write a bit on Synne’s All About Sweatpants WIW about my colour season. I’ve just had some fun today going down the 2 links in your thread, the Concept Wardrobe link and Synne’s Cardigan Empire link ( isn’t that a fun name?!). I have never been professionally diagnosed in a colour scheme but have felt happy since 1984 that the Colour Me Beautiful Spring season was mine- all the colours I liked best and got complimented on. Of course they have all expanded and so checking those links I think I may be a Clear Spring or a Bright Spring in some newer categories. The colours in Angie’s Warm Spring palette she has shown look pretty good to/on me as well. The greying of my hair and fading of my blue eyes may have cooled me down a little. So silver now looks better than it used to, and so does grey and black.
I do enjoy trying to categorise myself but at the same time have almost felt like what Style Fan said- if I should pay for a colour analysis then what if they gave me a different palette, I still like my bright colours anyway! Or would I spend that money and then find I am some sort of Spring anyway? I would enjoy looking at the Kibbe Facebook page I’m sure but I choose not to have FB so I can’t. And I wouldn’t want to get rid of any “wrong” colours that I like in any case.
I did pay for a stylist once, in 2010, and it did help. But she didn’t mention colour really. Plus for the past 4 years I have had the help of Angie and all you other Fabbers!
If I could bring myself to edit my wardrobe down further first, that might be the time to pay for an analysis. I have researched locally and there is a colour stylist really close by, in my suburb.

Echo, if you find that system again, please post about it.

Janet, I’m reminded of a story (probably the only one I remember) from CMB in the 80s about a little girl whose mother was frustrated that the kid wanted to wear black. Mom thought that was too sophisticated for a kid, but little one insisted. Analyzing her colors showed that she was a winter & black was dead right for her. She was instinctively drawn to what worked for her.

I think I’m much the same way, don’t think doing my colors bitd changed much about what I like. Harvest gold & avocado green have never appealed to me, in the kitchen or on me. Otoh, over the years, I realize that I’ve gradually weeded out the few orange and yellow things I had and added more black, even though the book said I shouldn’t wear it. I made those changes based on what appealed to me, but thinking about it, I realize they might well line up with changing recommendations as I age.

Kate, high five! I’ve made different changes for the same reasons you describe.

Irina, I should clarify that I use an image, not my palette folio when I shop. There’s a certain happiness I feel with the colors in my palette….I have a natural affinity for them so I pick them over others. My image is a Mediterranean beach scene with sand, sky, ocean, shells, coral, grassy reeds and flowering plants lining the edges, etc. If the color of an item fits in my imaginary scene, it will work in my wardrobe and is often in my palette. I wanted to mention the use of an image since no one else seems to do this (or if they do, they have not mentioned it.)

Another way I sometimes think about colors that flatter, is to assess which of my features is most prominent. For me I think the order of prominence is light value, mid chroma, cool hues are slightly better than warm and low contrast. Angie had called me “Miss mid tones”. It’s a helpful moniker when shopping because I think of mid tones as light value and mid chroma.

@Janet, I have seen the way your eyes can change color depending on what you wear! Your eyes are stunningly beautiful! You have an amazing ability to pick colors and patterns that complement your features.

Funny about black and how polarizing it can be. I remember having patterned clothes as a kid in black with other colors, but I don’t think they really made much clothing in black for little girls in the 1970s. Fast forward to the early 90s — my youngest niece loved to wear black even as a small child and black clothes were actually available. She looked fantastic in it even as a toddler (dark hair, dark eyes, clear light skin), and she still does to this day in her 30s.

Ok, I'm leaning into this sidebar (sorry Irina!) but this just reminded me, when I was a kid, we were at the church bazaar and I really wanted this hair comb with a big, black flower on it, and my Mom would not let me get it because black was "too mature" for me. I ended up with a green one which I recall as a lovely colour that I never wore Fascinating how these rules evolve over time!

Staysfit, how interesting that you use an image! I have to think about it.

All the black comments are interesting, because my mother told me repeatedly that red & black don't suit me at all, so I took this to heart when dressing.

Consequently, I shunned both colours for years - only to learn that apparently both colours can work for me (I can borrow from Deep Winter because it's close to my season). Guess it's all in the eye of the beholder

I have taken a moderate approach regarding this. I am a cool summer and like and wear most of those colors, I would say that about 2/3 of my wardrobe is in them. However, I also wear a good amount of black, and borrow a lot from the sister season, true winter (and wear a bit stronger make-up). I will also wear some completely "wrong" colors away from my face, for example rust. I have a pair of rust pants that I wear with lots of blues, and also have tan/cognac leather accessories for the same purpose.