Key Takeaways
The Autumn color palette, at a glance
- The Autumn palette is warm, rich and earthy, built on analogous colors from the warm side of the color wheel: rust, bronze, brown, olive to hunter green, mustard, umber and deep emerald.
- Autumns shine in mixed metals like bronze, copper, brass and antique gold, and in texture and movement.
- Black-and-white dressing and cool tones like blue, violet, pink and burgundy work against an Autumn.
- Autumn is also an energy: firelight, the harvest, the natural leader. The right colors let that warmth show.
If you’ve searched for a “true autumn color palette,” you’ve probably found a chart of warm, earthy swatches with a name borrowed from a twelve-season system. Those charts get something right: Autumn’s colors are warm, rich and grounded.
What they usually leave out is the woman wearing them.
I’ve worked with Autumns for more than 40 years, and in my work Autumn is more than a temperature. It’s firelight: an energy of fruition, the harvest, the completion of everything that was planted. In this guide I’ll walk you through the Autumn color palette the way I teach it in my book, Dress Your Essence: the colors, the neutrals, the metals, what to avoid, and the essence those colors are meant to reveal.
A note on the word “true”: I don’t divide Autumn into sub-types like True, Soft or Deep. I teach the four seasons, and then I read each client’s exact palette from her own coloring. Everything below applies to Autumns as a whole.
The Autumn Color Palette
The Autumn palette is analogous, built from colors that sit next to each other on the warm side of the color wheel. It’s full of warm, rustic, resonant color.
Core Autumn colors:
- Rich rust, bronze and brown
- Greens from olive to hunter green, including camouflage
- Mustard yellow
- Warm orange and umber
- Deep emerald
- Animal prints
- Denim, always dark rather than light blue or stonewashed
Imagine a forest in late October, or a Southwestern desert with its striated earth tones. That’s the world an Autumn belongs in.
Autumn Neutrals, Lighter Colors and Metals
Neutrals. An Autumn’s neutrals come from her own hair, eyes and skin. Here’s a real example from my book: an Autumn client with brown hair, café-au-lait skin and warm green eyes has espresso brown, dark olive (the darkest color in her eyes), chestnut brown (from her hair) and caramel (slightly deeper than her skin) as her neutrals.
Lighter colors. Autumns don’t usually do well in pastels. Instead, look to lighter earth tones: wheat, oyster, sand, corn silk and terracotta.
Metals. Autumns favor mixed metals, from bronze to copper to brass to antique gold. You’re looking for depth that matches the resonance of your essence.
Your reds and power colors. An Autumn’s Romantic Red runs warm: brick, cinnamon or rust. Her Power Color often sits in the green range, emerald or Persian turquoise. Her Support Color may be a golden brown that reflects the undertones of her skin and eyes.
What Autumns Should Avoid
- Black-and-white dressing. It’s the classic “power” look, but on an Autumn it creates distance.
- Cool tones like blue, violet, pink and burgundy.
- Muted pastels and bland basics. Autumn needs richness.
- Plain, smooth, overly frilly or delicate pieces.
My client Anne, an Autumn, spent eight and a half years at the same job without a raise or a promotion. She alternated between severe black and white and the soft, Summery colors she’d been told were “more approachable.” Both hid her natural warmth. Once she learned her colors and how to use them, she earned five promotions and five raises in eighteen months.
The Autumn Style: Texture and Movement
Color is only half of an Autumn’s look. Autumns need complexity and movement. Think of falling leaves swirling in the wind, or the constant motion of a crackling campfire.
For women: complex designs, animal prints, safari, camouflage, suede, tweed, leather, statement jewelry and accessories, and substantial fabrics with texture that moves.
For men: rustic tweeds, suede, leather, corduroy, fisherman’s sweaters and elaborate ties.
Autumn style can run from outdoorsy to full-on glamour, but it’s never plain.
I once asked an Autumn client, a gifted jewelry designer, to come to the first day of a retreat without any jewelry or accessories. She was wearing her colors, but the room immediately noticed that her energy felt subdued. When she added three pieces of jewelry in her metals, everything changed. We could finally see her dynamism, and her natural coloring.
The Autumn Essence: Firelight
Autumn’s colors make sense once you know Autumn’s energy. In seasonal color analysis as I teach it, every season is an energy as well as a palette.
Autumns are warm, earthy, independent, abundant and complex. You love grandeur and being in charge. You ask, “What’s the bottom line?” You value freedom, big tasks and big tests, and you never do anything halfway.
Autumn’s gift: leadership, getting the job done, producing tangible results and straightforward communication.
Autumn’s challenge: to lead with warmth rather than dominance, and to bring out the best in others instead of doing it all yourself. Or, for some Autumns, the opposite: to embrace your natural leadership instead of playing small to keep others comfortable.
A common trap: Autumns are often attracted to Summer’s softness and muted, romantic colors. But that isn’t your natural state, and dressing in Summer’s palette hides the very warmth people respond to in you.
Lynn Greenbaum, an Autumn and a New York stand-up comedian, modeled this in my book. Pale colors washed out her fiery essence. Rich earth tones brought out her powerful glow.
Are You Really an Autumn?
Many women who search for an Autumn palette aren’t sure it’s theirs. Here are some signs it might be:
- Your skin has a ruddy, red-orange or copper undertone
- Your eyes hold warm lights: bronze, brass, copper, olive or amber
- People describe you as warm, strong and direct, and you naturally take charge
- Black and white make you look severe; pastels make you disappear
If that sounds like you, the next step is my Seasonal Essence quiz, which looks at your energy as well as your coloring.
What to Do Next
- Pull the earth tones from your closet and hold them up to your face in natural light.
- Try your outfit with three pieces of jewelry in bronze, copper or antique gold, and notice the difference.
- Swap one black-and-white outfit for rust, olive or deep emerald for an important day.
- Take the Seasonal Essence quiz to confirm your season.
Your first step today: find the warmest, richest piece you own and wear it.
Autumn Is Firelight
The Autumn palette is warm, rich and alive because Autumns are. When you dress in your colors, with texture, movement and your own mixed metals, you stop dimming your fire and start letting it warm the room.
Frequently Asked Questions
What colors are in the Autumn color palette? The Autumn palette includes warm, rich, earthy colors: rust, bronze, brown, olive to hunter green, mustard, warm orange, umber and deep emerald, plus animal prints and dark denim. Lighter Autumn colors include wheat, oyster, sand and terracotta.
What colors should an Autumn avoid? Autumns should avoid black-and-white dressing, cool tones like blue, violet, pink and burgundy, muted pastels and plain, overly delicate pieces.
What metals look best on an Autumn? Mixed metals with depth: bronze, copper, brass and antique gold.
What is a “true autumn”? “True Autumn” is a sub-type from twelve-season systems. In my work, I teach the four seasons and then read each client’s exact palette from her own coloring, rather than assigning a sub-type.
Confirm Your Season
Your colors are not a fashion choice. They are who you are.
Take my free Seasonal Essence quiz to find out whether you’re an Autumn, and receive color and style recommendations for your season.
