We all have our favourite dresses, skirts and tops. As Rosario Dawson shows so beautifully, when we put them on we know we look great. Our confidence rises and we feel beautiful and radiant. Sure the style and cut suit our figure and personality but it's more than that, the colours compliment and lift our natural colourings and features.

Your natural skin colour, hair and eye colours will typically fit in to a "colour season", either Autumn, Winter, Spring or Summer. Knowing your natural colour season can help you select fashion colours that will look best on you.

Of course what is most important is that you feel comfortable and confident wearing the fashion colours you select however this guide may help you choose fashion colours that help bring out your natural beauty.
 

Choosing Fashion Colours Step 1: Decide your colour season.

Your skin colour, and hair and eye colours influence which colours look best on you. To help identify your natural skin tones look at the inside of your arm in natural daylight. Using a mirror you can also try placing a white piece of paper near your face to contrast your facial skin tone. "Warm" skin has a golden or yellow skin tone, while "cool" skin has red or blue skin tone. Using the following skin tone guides decide which season best describes your skin tone.

Winter Skin Tone

Winter is a cool skin tone. People with winter skin tones have blue or rosy / pink skin tones. Skin tone can be pale and porcelain white, yellowish olive, or dark. "Winters" are usually brunettes with deeply coloured eyes. Many Asians, and African Americans are winters. Natural white blondes may also be winters.

Winter celebrities include: Alicia Keys, Rosario Dawson and Kristin Kreuk.

Summer Skin Tone

Summer is also a cool skin tone and like winter skin tones, "summers" have blue or pink skin tones. Summer skin tones usually occur in natural blondes, and pale skin toned brunettes with pale eyes. 

Summer celebrities include: Gweneth Paltrow, Denise Richards, Eva Habermann and Jeri Ryan

Choosing Fashion Colours Tip; How to choose if your skin tone is winter or summer.

The difference between Summer and Winter is color intensity. Visualise a clear crisp winter's day. The sky is an intense bright blue. Colours are clean and sharp. These are winter colours. Now visualise a humid warm summer's day. The humidity creates a hazy effect making colours look soft and muted. These are summer colours.

           Winter vs. Summer

Autumn Skin Tone

Autumn is a warm skin tone, autumn complexions have golden skin tones like pale peach, golden beige or golden brown. Many redheads and brunettes with golden brown eyes are "autumns". However golden blonde and black hair colouring can also fall into this range.

Autumn celebrities include: Jessica Alba, Natalie Portman and Aishwarya Rai

Spring Skin Tone

Spring is also a warm skin tone, "springs" have extremely light, ivory skin tones. They are usually natural golden blondes, auburn, or strawberry blonde redheads and often have freckles and rosy checks. Springs also have very clear, light blue or green coloured eyes.

Spring celebrities include: Gillian Anderson, Lindsay Lohan and Evangeline Lily

Choosing Fashion Colours Tip; How to choose if your skin tone is autumn or spring.

If you can't decide whether you are an autumn or a spring, springs tend to have pale eyes while autumns tend to have dark eyes.

Choosing Fashion Colours Tip; Still not sure what season you are ?

Here is an additional method using your natural hair and eye colours to confirm your season;

Winter hair is black or ash black brown without highlights, while eyes are blue, brown, hazel, or green.

Summer hair is ash blonde or light ash brown without highlights, while eyes are blue gray or blue green.

Autumn hair is golden brown, red, auburn, or chestnut, while eyes are dark brown, hazel, or green.

Spring hair is golden blonde, golden brown, or red, while eyes are blue, blue gray, blue green, or light turquoise green.

Choosing Fashion Colours Step 2: Understand your seasonal colour palette.

Now that you know your "season" you can look for the colour pallet that will best compliment you natural skin tone and eye and hair colours.

Best colours for Winters;

Winter colours are intense and high contrast and so is the winter colour palette. It contains the primary colours and jewel tones such as ruby red, sapphire blue, and emerald green. Snow white and jet black look fabulous on a winter, especially worn together for high contrast. Winters should wear colours that are sharp, stark and clear. White, black, navy blue, red and shocking pink all go well with winter complexions. For lighter colors, wear icy tones such as cool blues, pinks and yellows rather than pastels. Avoid subdued tones like beige, orange and gold. They will make you look faded and ashen.

Best colours for Summers;

Summers have a low level of contrast between their hair and eye colours and skin tone. For you to look your best, choose soft neutrals and pastels, as well as muted colours with cool undertones. Powder blue, dusty pink, mauve, lavender, plum, and pale yellow are all great colour choices. Lavender, plum, rose-brown and soft blue also suit summers. Avoid intense, vivid hues because they will look harsh. Earth tones, black and orange will also drown out your skin colour. 

Best colours for Autumns;

Autumns can wear both earthy and rich golden, spicy warm colours such as camel, beige, olive, orange, gold, and dark brown. You will also look great in a rich warm grey. Stay away from clear, bright colours and black and white, which will make your look tired and faded. Also steer clear of pastels and blue tones, which will look cold against your complexion and give you a pale appearance. 
 

Best colours for Springs;

Springs can wear warm colors like camel, peach, golden yellow, golden brown and aqua. They also look good in ivory, bright greens, true reds, clear blues and coral. Avoid colours that are too dull and muted or too dark. Avoid black and white, which are also too contrasting.

Choosing Fashion Colours Tip;

These colour palettes will give you an idea of what colours to look for but don't be afraid to experiment to find what looks best on you. Taking a friend with you, who's not afraid to be honest, when shopping for new clothes is often a good idea.

Winter Colour Palette

Summer Colour Palette

Autumn Colour Palette

Spring Colour Palette