How to tell if a color suits you
A color suits you when it makes you look like the best version of yourself: skin that looks even and healthy, eyes that look clear, and a face that people notice before they notice the clothes. A color does not suit you when it makes you look tired, sallow, flushed or faded, even if it is a beautiful color on the hanger.
Three properties decide this, and every color has all three:
- Temperature (hue): does it lean warm and golden, or cool and blue? Warm undertones usually do best in warm colors, cool undertones in cool ones.
- Value (lightness): how light or dark is it? Light coloring can be swamped by very dark shades; deep coloring can look washed out in pale ones.
- Chroma (clarity): is it clear and saturated, or soft and greyed? Bright coloring can make muted shades look dull; soft coloring can be overpowered by neon.
The colors that suit you best match your coloring on all three. That is exactly what a seasonal palette is: a set of colors chosen to match one combination of temperature, value and chroma. It is also why a color can be "close" to suiting you, and why a small change in one property can fix it.
What to look at in the mirror
Stand in daylight, close to a window, with little or no makeup. Hold the garment right under your chin so it fills the space around your neck. Then look at your face, not the color:
- Under the eyes: do shadows soften or deepen?
- Around the nose and chin: does redness calm down or flare up?
- Overall skin: does it look even, or does it pick up a yellow, grey or green cast?
- Eyes: do they look brighter, with clear whites?
- Lips: do they keep their color, or turn pale?
- First impression: do you see yourself first, or the color?
Compare at least two options. The eye judges differences far better than single colors, which is how professional analysts drape. If you have no second option, compare the garment with a plain white or grey tee.
How our color checker works
- Choose a color. Use the color picker, type a hex code, choose a named color, or take a photo of the garment itself. For a garment photo, the tool finds the clothing and extracts its dominant color, ignoring the background.
- Add your photo. Take or upload a front-facing photo in daylight, ideally in a white or light top, or in front of a white wall.
- Processing happens on your device. For this free tool, a model in your browser separates your face, hair and clothes. Nothing is uploaded.
- The camera's color cast is removed. Your white top or wall acts as a white reference, so we can correct the photo before showing the color, in CIELAB, a color space built around human vision.
- See it on you. Your top is recolored to the exact color you picked, keeping the folds and shadows of the fabric. Your face and hair are never altered.
- Get a verdict against your season. If you know your season, or pick one to test, we measure the color distance (Delta E) from your color to the nearest color in that season's palette and tell you whether it is in, borderline or out, with the closest palette color shown next to it.
One honest limit: a photo of a garment is only as accurate as the light it was taken in. Photograph clothes in daylight, laid flat, away from colored surfaces.
Testing a garment before you buy it
Shopping is where this tool earns its keep. A few habits help:
- In a store, hold the item under your chin by a window if there is one. Fitting room lighting is usually warm and flattering, which hides problems.
- Online, product photos are color-graded and often inaccurate. Use the hex from the product photo as a starting point, but check the color in person when it arrives, and keep the tags on until you have.
- Check the fabric, not just the color. The same color looks brighter in silk or satin and softer in wool or linen. Shine adds clarity; texture adds softness.
- Check the color in context. A top sits near your face and matters most. Trousers, skirts and shoes matter much less (more on that below).
- Photograph what you already own. Running your closet through the checker quickly shows which pieces work and which ones you can style away from your face.
Close-enough colors
Most real clothes are not exact palette colors, and that is fine. A color is close enough when it shares your season's temperature, sits in a similar lightness range, and has similar clarity. That is what the borderline verdict means: the color is near your palette, but one property is off.
How to tell which property is off:
- Too dark: the color makes your features look heavy or shadowed. Try a lighter version of the same hue.
- Too light: you look a little blank or washed out. Try a deeper version.
- Too warm or too cool: your skin turns yellow or grey. Look for the same color with a different lean, like a blue-red instead of an orange-red.
- Too bright: the color arrives before you do. Look for a slightly dustier version.
- Too muted: the color looks dull and so do you. Look for a cleaner, clearer version.
Neighboring seasons share many colors, so a borderline result for your season can be a perfect match for its sister. You can flip between all 12 season palettes on your photo with the color draping tool.
Wearing "wrong" colors away from your face
You do not have to give up a color you love. The rule of thumb is distance: the farther a color is from your face, the less it affects how your skin looks.
- Bottoms, shoes and bags can be almost any color.
- Put a good color between the bad one and your face: a scarf, a collared shirt under a sweater, or a necklace in your best metal.
- Change the neckline: a deep V or scoop shows more skin and less fabric near the face.
- Use makeup: a lip color from your palette can rebalance a top that is slightly off. Our season guides list lip and blush shades for each season.
- Use prints: a print that mixes the color with shades from your palette softens its effect.
Black is the most common example. Many people who should avoid it near the face, such as Soft Summer or Light Spring, can still wear black trousers or boots without any problem.
Do you know your season?
The verdict is most useful when you know your season. If you do not yet, there are a few ways in. The color analysis quiz gives a quick estimate without a photo. The undertone test and contrast test measure two of the key axes from your photo. And the free AI color analysis combines those measurements with a guided drape duel to give you your season, so every color you check here gets a verdict that fits you.