Deep Autumn Color Palette

The Deep Autumn color palette

30 colours in four groups and 5 neutrals, each written out with its hex code — tap any code to copy it, or take a whole group at once. The same palette is available as a Deep Autumn palette card (PNG) sized for a phone screen, to take shopping.

Deep Autumn core and accent colors

The eight core colours are the backbone of a Deep Autumn wardrobe: walnut and burnt umber, deep olive, pine and bronze green, oxblood, dark gold and deep teal. All of them are warm and all of them have weight. That is the point of the season — the colouring usually combines dark hair with a golden or olive cast to the skin, and a colour needs as much depth as the face does to sit beside it rather than float in front of it.

Accents are the richest, most saturated end of autumn: tomato red, pumpkin, sienna, copper, marigold and mustard, with peacock teal, warm jade and warm burgundy for colour that is not orange. Deep Autumn can carry more saturation than the other two Autumns because depth absorbs it — a tomato red that looks loud on a Soft Autumn looks natural here. The one direction accents do not go is cool: fuchsia, cobalt and icy colours sit on the Deep Winter side of the line.

The lightest and deepest Deep Autumn shades

The lightest Deep Autumn shades are camel, warm sand, soft gold, warm apricot, sage khaki and terracotta rose — light for this season, but not pastel. Every one of them still carries warmth and some weight, which is why they work for shirts and summer clothes where baby pink or powder blue would disappear. The deepest shades — damson, mahogany, dark plum, black olive, dark rust, deep petrol — are the Deep Autumn version of black, and they are the colours that make evening wear look expensive on this season.

Deep Autumn neutrals

• Warm bone#E7D8BE
• Khaki#8F8466
• Tobacco#8A6A48
• Warm charcoal#48423C
• Dark chocolate#2C2119

Five neutrals carry the wardrobe. Warm bone replaces optic white, dark chocolate and warm charcoal replace black, and khaki and tobacco fill the middle. Yes, a Deep Autumn can wear black — the shoes, the belt, a black coat over a camel knit — but next to the face dark chocolate almost always looks warmer and more alive.

What makes a Deep Autumn: warm or cool, light or deep, soft or bright

Deep Autumn is warm colouring carried at depth: dark hair against skin with a golden or olive cast, and eyes usually dark brown or deep hazel. Depth is the defining axis, warmth the family. Pale colours do not so much clash as evaporate — they sit next to the face without registering.

Deep Autumn and Dark Autumn are the same season. The two names come from two families of the twelve-season system: one names the subtypes by how the colouring looks (dark), the other by the axis that defines it (depth). This page answers to both.

The test on this page turns three measurements into numbers between minus one and plus one. Warm–cool is mainly the hue angle of your skin in CIE Lab, with your hair counting for about a third. Light–deep is skin lightness and hair lightness together, and hair carries slightly more of it — which is why dark hair makes up so much of a Deep Autumn reading. Soft–bright is the saturation of your irises and the lightness gap between hair and skin, half each.

It calls you Deep Autumn when three conditions hold. Warm–cool reads on the warm side. Light–deep reads on the deep side. And light–deep is at least as far from zero as soft–bright, with at least one of them past 0.3 — meaning depth is the strongest thing about your colouring.

That rule explains a question people ask constantly: why does not everyone with dark hair come out as Deep? Because skin lightness is almost half of the same axis. Very fair skin with very dark hair averages out toward the middle of light–deep, while the big gap between hair and skin pushes soft–bright up — so that combination usually reads as a Bright season rather than a Deep one. Deep Autumn is most often medium to deep skin with dark, warm-cast hair.

The borders follow from the same rule. A warm–cool value near zero sits on the line with Deep Winter, which is decided by the same axis. A light–deep value that only just clears 0.3 sits near True Autumn, and one that barely beats soft–bright sits near Soft Autumn if the softness is negative.

Deep Autumn skin, eyes and hair

These are examples, not a checklist, and the word deep in the name describes the season, not skin. There is no single Deep Autumn skin tone: the season runs from fair to deep, and what makes it is the relationship between a golden or olive cast, dark hair, and usually dark or warm eyes. The same skin can belong to a Deep Autumn, a Soft Autumn or a Deep Winter depending on the hair and eyes that come with it.

Am I a Deep Autumn? A drape test you can do at home

Depth first, temperature second.

1. 1

   Stand facing a window in daylight, with no coloured walls behind you and no makeup. Tie your hair back or cover it with a white towel — on a Deep Autumn the hair is doing a lot of the work, and you want to see the skin's reaction on its own.

2. 2

   Test depth first. Hold a pastel under your chin — baby pink or powder blue — then a deep warm colour such as walnut or deep olive. On a Deep Autumn the pastel barely registers next to the face and the deep colour makes the features look defined.

3. 3

   Then test temperature, which is the whole difference between Deep Autumn and Deep Winter. Hold true black, then dark chocolate. If chocolate looks warm and alive and black looks slightly harsh, you are Deep Autumn. If black looks natural and chocolate looks muddy, check Deep Winter.

4. 4

   Finish with white: optic white against warm bone. Warm bone should win clearly on a Deep Autumn. If optic white wins, the cool family is the one to look at.

• Dark chocolate brown and deep olive should look better on you than any pastel, without effort.
• Then decide temperature: if deep warm colours work and deep cool ones look slightly severe, you are the autumn side rather than the winter one.
• Cream and warm bone should beat optic white; if optic white wins, you are Deep Winter.

Deep Autumn vs Deep Winter, True Autumn and Soft Autumn

Deep Autumn vs Deep Winter is decided by temperature and nothing else — on this test both are called when depth is the strongest axis, and the sign of warm–cool picks the family. That makes the two look alike in every way except the one that matters most for clothes. Deep Winter wears true black and optic white naturally and looks best in burgundy, midnight and emerald; Deep Autumn looks best in dark chocolate, warm bone, oxblood and pine. The quickest test is two pairs held under the chin in daylight: black against dark chocolate, then optic white against warm bone. Hair carries about a third of the warm–cool reading, so a Deep Autumn with dark hair that has lost its warm cast — or been dyed a cool black — often reads as Deep Winter. The Deep Winter color palette looks at the same line from the cool side.

Deep Autumn vs True Autumn is a question of depth. True Autumn is what the test calls a warm face when neither depth nor clarity is strong and depth is slightly on the dark side — the rich middle of autumn, where rust and mustard live. Deep Autumn has more weight: it carries near-black browns, mahogany and dark rust that look heavy on a True Autumn, and mid-range colours like amber can look slightly weak on it. If walnut beats caramel under your chin, you are on the deep side; the True Autumn color palette is the other side.

Deep Autumn vs Soft Autumn shares the warmth and differs in both weight and clarity. Soft Autumn is called when muting is the strongest signal — hair close to the skin in lightness, eyes without much saturation — and it looks best in greyed, medium colours like sage and clay. On a Deep Autumn those look washed out, and tomato red or deep teal look right. A Soft Autumn with dark-dyed hair is the classic case that reads as Deep; the Soft Autumn color palette covers that season.

Deep Autumn colors to avoid, and what to wear instead

The three colours that fight a Deep Autumn hardest are below. Three, not thirty — a palette is a prediction about which tones lift the face, not a list of banned colours, so every one of them has a version that does the same job.

• Pastel pink#E8C4D8
• Powder blue#BFD7EA
• Greige#CFC7C1

Deep Autumn outfits and clothing

Six combinations built only from the palette, shown in the proportions you would wear them — the largest block is the main garment, the smallest is the accessory.

• Walnut and olive

  • Walnut#5C3A21
  • Deep olive#3E5641
  • Warm bone#E7D8BE

  A walnut leather jacket, deep olive trousers, a warm bone tee. The weekend default.

• Oxblood workday

  • Warm charcoal#48423C
  • Oxblood#7B2D26
  • Camel#B98E5C

  A warm charcoal suit, an oxblood knit, camel shoes or bag.

• Teal and copper

  • Deep teal#1F5C5A
  • Tobacco#8A6A48
  • Copper#B06D3B

  A deep teal dress, a tobacco coat, copper jewellery.

• Harvest

  • Pumpkin#C4661F
  • Dark chocolate#2C2119
  • Marigold#D29C2B

  A pumpkin knit, dark chocolate trousers, a marigold scarf.

• Burgundy evening

  • Warm burgundy#6E2338
  • Dark chocolate#2C2119
  • Dark gold#8B6F1F

  A warm burgundy dress, a dark chocolate wrap, dark gold jewellery.

• Summer linen

  • Warm bone#E7D8BE
  • Sage khaki#A8A27A
  • Tomato red#B53A27

  Warm bone linen trousers, a sage khaki shirt, a tomato red bag or lip.

Deep Autumn carries medium-to-high contrast prints as long as they stay warm: rich paisley, tartan in pine and oxblood, animal prints in tobacco and dark chocolate, botanical prints on a deep ground. Pastel florals and icy geometric prints fail for the same reason pastels do — too little weight. Texture helps: leather, suede, velvet, heavy wool, corduroy and raw silk all make deep warm colour look richer. Summer is the season this palette is hardest to dress in, and the answer is not to switch to pastels: keep the warm bone and sand base light, and put the colour in a marigold, pumpkin or tomato red piece.

Deep Autumn capsule wardrobe

• Dark chocolate wool coat
• Deep olive trousers
• Warm bone shirt
• Oxblood knit
• Walnut leather jacket
• Warm charcoal blazer
• Camel sweater
• Dark indigo denim
• Deep teal dress or shirt
• Tobacco suede boots
• Antiqued gold or bronze jewellery
• Mahogany leather bag

Deep Autumn color palette for men

A Deep Autumn man has one of the easiest palettes to build a wardrobe on, because it is made of the colours menswear already comes in — it only has to choose the warm versions. Suits in dark chocolate, deep olive and warm charcoal replace black and navy; a dark brown or walnut suit looks deliberate on this season in a way it rarely does on a cool one. Shirts in warm bone, camel and sage khaki rather than optic white. Ties and pocket squares carry oxblood, deep teal, burnt umber and mustard. Leather goods in dark brown or mahogany, not black. Beard and hair are part of the colouring here: a dark beard adds depth, which is why many Deep Autumn men look sharper in dark brown or olive than in a pale shirt with nothing around it.

Deep Autumn makeup

Depth and warmth together; this season can carry a strong lip easily.

Shade is decided by your season; where the colour goes is decided by your eye shape.

Deep Autumn nail colors

• Oxblood#7B2D26
• Espresso#2C2119
• Deep olive#3E5641
• Bronze#8C6D46
• Burnt orange#C4661F
• Warm burgundy#6E2338

The best hair colors for a Deep Autumn

Dark chocolate, deep auburn, black-brown with a warm cast. Lightening this season is the expensive mistake — the depth is a large part of what the palette is built on.

Adding warmth rather than lightness is the safe direction: glossy chocolate, a deep auburn gloss, subtle copper or caramel balayage around the face. Pieces that stay within a couple of shades of the base keep the depth the palette is built on.

Going grey as a Deep Autumn raises the lightness of the hair and lowers the contrast, so on this test the reading often moves up the light–deep axis toward True Autumn. Grey is also cool, which pulls warm–cool down. Warm-toned grey blending, or letting silver grow in while keeping warm colours near the face, tends to look better than fighting grey with a flat very dark dye.

Hair colors that fight a Deep Autumn

Lightening is the expensive mistake for this season: ash blonde, platinum and heavy highlights remove the depth the palette depends on and leave dark brows and eyes looking disconnected from the hair. Blue-black and cool ash browns keep the depth but move the temperature toward Deep Winter, and the skin can look sallow against them.

Deep Autumn jewelry: gold or silver?

Antiqued and yellow gold, bronze. Silver is possible in an oxidised finish but never as the main note.

Yellow gold, antiqued gold, bronze and copper are the natural metals, and Deep Autumn can carry them in bolder pieces than the lighter Autumns can. Hammered and antiqued finishes suit the richness of the season.

Can a Deep Autumn wear silver? An oxidised or blackened silver works as an accent, and mixed metals led by gold are easy. Bright polished silver as the main metal reads cold. Stones follow the palette: garnet, tiger's eye, amber, citrine, smoky quartz, carnelian and emerald in its deeper, warmer greens.

Glasses frames work the same way: dark tortoiseshell, espresso, olive or deep burgundy acetate rather than black or clear. Colour is decided here; the frame shape is decided by your face shape.

Deep Autumn celebrities, and why this page does not list them

Deep Autumn celebrity lists disagree with each other more than almost any other, largely because the Deep Autumn–Deep Winter line is decided by temperature alone and temperature is the first thing studio lighting and colour grading change. The same actress is typed Deep Autumn on one site and Deep Winter on another; the photos are being typed, not the person. Hair colour chosen by a stylist moves the result too — a warm brown one year, a cool black the next.

This page does not list names for that reason. The measurement worth having is your own, from a photo taken facing a window, and that is what the test at the top of this page reads.

Can your Deep Autumn color season change?

Your measured result can change even when your colouring has not. Summer sun deepens the skin, which moves the reading further along the deep side, so a tanned Deep Autumn stays Deep. Winter pallor does the opposite; if the depth then only just beats the softness, a result can come out as Soft Autumn or True Autumn.

Hair dye moves the result most, because hair carries more of the light–deep axis than skin does. Lightening pushes the reading toward True Autumn or out of the Deep seasons altogether; a cool black dye keeps the depth but moves warm–cool toward Deep Winter. The system is usually taught as describing natural colouring, but the colours that flatter you follow the hair you actually have.

Greying works the same way, more slowly: hair lightens and cools, contrast drops, and some Deep Autumns find the True or Soft Autumn palette easier over time.

Why selfie tests give Deep Autumns different results

Deep Autumn and Deep Winter are separated by temperature alone on this test, so the colour of the light in your photo matters. Blue shade and cold daylight pull the skin hue away from yellow and can turn a Deep Autumn result into Deep Winter; a warm bulb exaggerates warmth. The test looks for the whites of your eyes and uses them as a neutral reference to correct for the light — if they are not visible, the result says it was not corrected.

Dark hair creates a second problem. The test checks the hair it samples against the background of the photo, and if the two are too close — dark hair against a dark wall or a dim room — it drops the hair and says so in the list of things it could not read. Without hair, the light–deep reading comes from skin alone and the soft–bright reading from the eyes alone, which usually makes a Deep reading less deep. Photograph against a light, plain wall. The full explanation is on the color analysis page.

References

1. 1.Fink, B., Grammer, K., & Matts, P. J. (2006). Visible skin color distribution plays a role in the perception of age, attractiveness, and health in female faces. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27(6), 433–442. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2006.08.007.
2. 2.Chardon, A., Cretois, I., & Hourseau, C. (1991). Skin colour typology and suntanning pathways. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 13(4), 191–208. PMID 19291061.