Of all the palettes, I believe that the autumn palette is easily distinguishable. If you were to ask a random person who knew nothing about color analysis to identify a season by showing them the colors orange, brown, olive green, etc., I’d venture to say that most people would guess those as autumn colors. This fact makes our palette stand out a little more during the “off seasons”. What I mean by this is that if we’re dressing in all of our classically autumn colors all year long, we can look like we’re trying to dress for autumn even when it isn’t autumn. This is all fine and dandy, nothing wrong with that if that’s the look you prefer! But what if we want to still dress in our soft autumn colors but NOT look like it? Is there a way to be a soft autumn (under the radar) in the summertime? I’ve got a few ideas to share!
1. Get familiar with our sister season, soft summer
Right now, it is July. In the northern hemisphere, we are experiencing summer in all of its glory (or all of its humidity, more like it). The flowers are in full bloom, the sky is bright, and life is full of outdoor activities. I see a lot of people dressing in brighter, vibrant colors. There’s just something about abundant sunshine and spending time outdoors that lends itself to wearing colors reflective of the season’s natural energy. This is a great time to take advantage of the fact that we have soft summer as our sister season.
What’s a sister season? I like to think of it this way. Our palette is full of soft colors that are neutral to neutral-warm. The soft summer palette is full of colors that are neutral to neutral-cool. We can easily borrow from their palette as long as we don’t go for colors that are leaning too cool…just as they can borrow from our palette as long as they don’t go for colors that are leaning too warm.
See the palettes below side-by-side. I put an “X” through the colors that I’d steer clear of in the soft summer palette. (I always want to put the disclaimer out there that I am not a professional color analyst, so take my recommendations with that knowledge). I always suggest we stick to neutrals within our own palette, so that’s why I marked out the entire first row. For the blues, pinks, and purples, I marked out anything too light or what looked too cool. And I left all the greens because I still haven’t met a green on the neutral-cool, neutral, or neutral-warm spectrum that I didn’t like on me. The colors that are left are all fair game!
Notice the lack of “earthiness” in the colors from the soft summer palette. This slightly cooler feel to the colors helps us quickly lose that autumn feel.
2. Avoid the warmest colors in the soft autumn palette
In the first photo below, I am in full soft autumn colors. My pants are quite warm in tone, and I swapped them out with an off-white pair instead. Even with my olive green top, the second look is much less autumn looking. But then I ditched the olive green top for a teal shirt, and all traces of autumn are lost (this shirt does not photograph well – it is a softer teal in real life).
3. Choose less earthy patterns
Look at the two patterns below. The one on the left is an abstract pattern and has less of an autumn feel to it than the one on the right. The colors between the two patterns are fairly similar, but the earthy nature of the pattern on the right fits right in with the autumn aesthetic. So if you’re going to wear a pattern on your clothing, opt for one that is less earthy in composition.
3. Choose neutral footwear
I usually opt for brown shoes year-round. It’s an easy color that matches with EVERYTHING. But even brown can have undertones leaning one direction or another, so look for tones that are more neutral. In the photo below, I am holding two sandals. The sandal on the left is a neutral brown, and the sandal on the right is a warmer cognac color.
4. Wear summer makeup
You can influence your look by changing up your makeup. Go with a fun summer color for your next pedicure. But if you really want to impact your look, choose a “less autumn” lip color. Look for a color that is more pink and less red or orange. The difference between the two looks below is subtle, but I added a pink gloss over the top of my original lipstick just to give it a more summery vibe.
Making a few tweaks to how we use our palette throughout the year can make it feel fresher and more relevant to whatever season we’re currently in. There are plenty of colors in our palette that don’t scream autumn but are still beautifully flattering for us. Yes, we CAN be living out best soft autumn lives all year long!
