Deep, cool skin tones (Deep Winter)

Where this season sits

Deep Winter is fixed by three things and nothing else: it is cool-toned, very deep in value and clear. Undertone decides which half of the wheel is yours, value decides how dark the colours run, and chroma decides how much grey sits in them.

Metals follow the undertone, which is why silver is the one to wear. The four neutrals below are the ones to build on, because a wardrobe is mostly neutrals and only occasionally a colour.

• #000000: very deep, a black (ΔE 3.0).
• #1C1C22: very deep, a black (ΔE 5.5).
• #3E4148: deep, a charcoal (ΔE 3.3).
• #F2F2F0: very light, a white (ΔE 2.0).

Colours that work on Deep Winter

These are the colours from an ordinary shop rail that land inside the Deep Winter palette. The number after each is the distance from the colour to the closest thing in the palette: under 12 reads as the same colour family, and everything here is measured rather than judged.

• White (#FAFAFA): ΔE 2.0 from #F2F2F0, one of the season neutrals.
• Black (#111111): ΔE 3.0 from #000000, one of the season neutrals.
• Navy (#1B2A4A): ΔE 3.1 from #16213E.
• Charcoal (#36393D): ΔE 3.3 from #3E4148, one of the season neutrals.
• Burgundy (#5C1A2B): ΔE 3.8 from #6B0F2B.
• Forest green (#22432E): ΔE 5.0 from #1E4A3E.
• Cobalt blue (#0047AB): ΔE 10.3 from #1E3A5F.

Colours to leave on the rail

These sit far enough from the palette that they read as borrowed from someone else's colouring. Cream, beige, camel and mustard are worse than merely distant: they land on the season's own avoid list, which is the short list of colours that actively work against this colouring.

• Grey (#9A9A9A): ΔE 22.2 from #F2F2F0, one of the season neutrals.
• Olive green (#6B6B3A): ΔE 22.4 from #1E4A3E.
• Beige (#D9C6A8): ΔE 15.2 from #F2F2F0, one of the season neutrals.
• Fuchsia (#D6218C): ΔE 23.3 from #7A1030.
• Rust (#B7410E): ΔE 25.9 from #7A1030.
• Lavender (#B9A5D6): ΔE 26.2 from #F2F2F0, one of the season neutrals.
• Mauve (#9A7B8C): ΔE 28.7 from #5A2440.
• Terracotta (#C36A4E): ΔE 29.6 from #7A1030.
• Camel (#C19A6B): ΔE 27.2 from #F2F2F0, one of the season neutrals.
• Coral (#F4735A): ΔE 34.5 from #F2F2F0, one of the season neutrals.
• Mustard (#D4A017): ΔE 32.1 from #F2F2F0, one of the season neutrals.

The seasons either side

Palettes overlap. True Winter and Deep Autumn are the closest to Deep Winter measured across every colour in both, so if the season label ever feels one notch off, those are where to look first.

This matters more than it sounds. A twelve-season label is a convention imposed on a continuous space, and the honest reading of a borderline result is not a different label but a smaller claim.