Trapezoid body shape with cool, soft skin tones (True Summer)

The one thing to buy

Slim-fit shirts in mauve. The cut comes from the trapezoid rules, which put a slim-fit shirt +7.3 ahead of a neutral garment; the colour comes from the True Summer palette, where mauve sits ΔE 3.9 from #9E7C98. By the usual convention: a balanced build is best served by cuts that follow it rather than reshape it.

The colour matters here more than it usually would. A slim-fit shirt is worn near the face, so it is one of the pieces where a palette miss reads as tiredness rather than as a colour you happen to be wearing. Mauve sits ΔE 3.9 from #9E7C98 in the True Summer palette.

What to buy, and in what colour

A clean shoulder, a marked waist, and a clean leg line. That sentence is the shape half of the answer; the colour beside each garment is the other half. They are not applied evenly: 3 of the 3 garments the rules want for a trapezoid are worn near the face, where a True Summer palette miss shows on the person, and the rest sit below the waist where it shows only on the garment.

• Slim-fit shirts (+7.3), near the face: in mauve, ΔE 3.9 from #9E7C98. A balanced build is best served by cuts that follow it rather than reshape it.
• Structured blazers (+7.3), near the face: in mauve, ΔE 3.9 from #9E7C98. A balanced build is best served by cuts that follow it rather than reshape it.
• Unstructured blazers (+7.3), near the face: in mauve, ΔE 3.9 from #9E7C98. A balanced build is best served by cuts that follow it rather than reshape it.
• Boxy jackets (-5.3): the cut is the problem on a trapezoid, and no True Summer colour rescues it. Boxy volume hides the natural taper that is this frame’s main asset.
• Oversized shirts (-5.3): the cut is the problem on a trapezoid, and no True Summer colour rescues it. Boxy volume hides the natural taper that is this frame’s main asset.

The True Summer colours worth building on

Purely cool and soft. Colours read slightly dusty, never sharp. 4 of the twenty-four colours an ordinary shop names land inside the palette, and Rust is the furthest out at ΔE 32.7. For a trapezoid these are the colours to find the 3 near-face pieces above in; grey is the neutral to build the rest of the wardrobe from.

• Mauve (#9A7B8C): ΔE 3.9 from #9E7C98.
• Grey (#9A9A9A): ΔE 7.3 from #9AA5B1.
• Cream (#F2E8D5): ΔE 7.3 from #D8D5D0.
• Sky blue (#8FC1E3): ΔE 7.6 from #B0C4D4.

Where the two disagree

They can, and the order matters when they do. Shape is geometry: a cut that adds width at the widest point does it whatever colour it is. Colour is a claim about a face at a distance, and it only binds on the pieces worn near one.

On this pairing it arises 3 times. A slim-fit shirt, a structured blazer and an unstructured blazer are worn near the face, so the palette binds there in a way it does not across the rest of what a trapezoid should be buying. Hold out for it: True Summer gives you 4 colours that clear the bar, which is enough to find the cut you want in one of them.