Winter is the cool, high-contrast season of colour analysis: pure, intense colours, like red on snow. This guide covers how to recognise a winter, the palette that suits it, the neutrals to build a wardrobe on, the colours that dull it — and how to use all this with the clothes you already own.
Three criteria define it: a cool undertone, high contrast between skin, hair and eyes, and pure, bright colouring rather than powdery.
Winters come in every skin tone: very fair porcelain skin with dark hair, or olive to deep skin with a cool or cool-olive undertone. Hair is often dark brown or black (or silver salt-and-pepper), eyes dark and intense or, on the contrary, icy blue, with very clear whites.
The most telling test: black and pure white near the face give it structure instead of overwhelming it. Beiges and powdery tones make it look dull.
The key colours are true red, black, emerald, royal blue, fuchsia and pure white. These are the six Fring associates with winter.
Around them: bluish cherry red, violet, midnight blue, icy blue, icy pink, pine green, magenta, silver grey. What they share: a cool, clear colour with blue in it, either very intense or icy, never in between.
To judge a colour, ask two questions: is it rather cool (a raspberry red rather than a tomato red)? Is it pure and clear rather than greyed or earthy? Two yeses make it a winter colour.
Winter is the only season that black and pure white truly suit. Alongside them: charcoal, deep navy, silver grey and icy tones (bluish white, cool pearl grey).
A black or navy coat, a white shirt, charcoal trousers and dark raw denim make a crisp base on which a single bright colour is enough for an outfit. Strong contrasts — black and white, navy and red — are its signature.
What dulls a winter is warm, earthy and powdery colour: beige and camel, orange and mustard, warm browns, dusty, greyed tones (old rose, khaki, taupe), and cream, which looks dingy next to pure white.
As with every season, a difficult colour can be worn away from the face: camel trousers or cognac boots are fine. Near the face, a white or black scarf rescues a beige jumper.
Deep winter: depth dominates. Close to autumn, it is the darkest: black, cool burgundy, pine green, midnight blue, aubergine.
Cool (true) winter: coolness dominates. The archetypal, purest winter: bluish red, royal blue, fuchsia, emerald, pure white.
Bright winter: contrast dominates. Close to spring, it is the most vivid: saturated, electric colours, cool turquoise, hot pink, very contrasting combinations.
Start by sorting what you own into three piles: palette, neutral, outside the palette. Pieces outside the palette stay useful on the lower body or under a palette piece; a beige trench works very well with a black or white scarf near the face.
Then let purchases follow the palette: each new piece combines with most of the others, which is the principle of a capsule wardrobe — and winter, with its black, white and navy neutrals, is probably the season best suited to it.
In Fring, the selfie analysis in your profile estimates your season and undertone and saves six key colours. It recognises four seasons, not twelve: treat it as an estimate to compare with a test using real fabric. Dress me then favours outfits in your colours, and the shopping assistant flags an off-palette colour before you buy.
Create your wardrobe on Fring and run the colour analysis from your profile: it gives your season, your undertone and six key colours, and Dress me takes them into account in its outfits. No credit card, and the photo is not kept.
