When dressing for the soft autumn palette, brown accents are a staple. But not just any browns will do. They must be the RIGHT browns. How can we know if our browns are a good fit? In short, our browns need to be not too dark or too light and not too warm or too cool. Clear everything up? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Let’s dive deeper!
A good place to start is by looking at the soft autumn rainbow. I created one as best I could with some things I found in my closet. I’m missing a yellow, and my red isn’t perfect…but close enough for now.
First up, we have a light camel brown loafer. This color matches nicely with all the colors – including both the warmer AND cooler tones. This color of brown is a great lighter-toned neutral accent.
Next, I tried a darker brown with a cool undertone. These boots have an almost purple cast to them especially next to warm colors. This brown is too cool to match with all of the colors in our rainbow. It would pass with some of the cooler colors, but is it a versatile accent? Nope!
The perfect neutral, dark brown! These boots match with every color in our rainbow. This is about as dark as we’d probably want to go for an accent, and I’d say this color is a staple.
A little bit lighter and much more yellow-toned, these boots are a great match as well. They’re definitely warmer than the previous neutral boots, but they’re not too warm. This cognac color is gorgeous with the soft autumn palette.
These shoes are beautiful. I love them dearly but find them too dark and red to match much in our palette. They’re definitely staying in my closet, but I’m not reaching for them daily like some of the other browns we’ve looked at.
Here’s a peek at all of the browns together with our rainbow. I found this to be a fun and eye-opening exploration into how the undertones can affect the wearability of these colors with the soft autumn palette!
