Deep Winter color palette (Dark Winter): dark, cool colors

Dark isn’t the same as harsh

This is the question the season keeps raising. You’re told black is your color, you put on a black polo neck, and on some days you look striking and on others you look like you haven’t slept. The word “dark” only describes the garment. “Harsh” describes what happens between the garment and your face: a sharp step with nothing to soften it, or a large area of darkness with no light note to balance it. Both are fixable, and neither means you’ve got the wrong season.

Deep Winter is described as deep first and cool second, with dark hair and eyes carrying the depth. That’s why dark clothing can behave so differently here than on other seasons: on a Deep Winter it extends something already in the face. The palette’s numbers back that up, since 40% of our colors are dark, the highest share of the twelve, and the board runs from a crisp white all the way down to black.

A palette with a hole in the middle

Look at the picture at the top of this page. Nearly all forty colors sit at one end or the other: dark jewels and near-blacks, or ice. Only three sit in the middle range of lightness, and between Bright Emerald and Pale Cool Rose there’s an empty stretch, the widest such gap in any of our twelve palettes. The palette was written by hand from the season’s traditional definition, and the shape only shows up once you plot it.

It also predicts the avoid list. Of the five colors we steer you away from, four land inside that hole: Dusty Olive, Camel, Orange and Mustard. Those are medium, warm, slightly earthy colors, and they’re precisely what this palette has no room for.

A note on two other figures that could mislead you. 45% of the board counts as muted by our cutoff, which sounds soft and isn’t: that group is mostly black, white, navy and the pale icy tints, all low in color for a different reason than a dusty rose. And the average warmth looks barely cool, because our warmth measure scores every red as warm, even a blue-based Ruby. On the share measure, 37.5% of the colors read cool against 20% warm. Everything here describes our palette, so none of it tells you anything directly about a person.

Deep Winter or Dark Winter?

Two names, and in most 12-season systems one season, so a Dark Winter color palette and this one are trying to describe the same thing. Sixteen-season systems can swap the labels around: Agile Styling’s 16-season method calls its version Deep Winter while its 12-season chart says Dark Winter, and warns that palettes in comparable positions aren’t necessarily the same. If you were typed in another system, check its fan against this board before you go shopping.

Is this your season?

The neighbor everyone confuses this with is Deep Autumn, and with good reason. Our two palettes are level in lightness and close in strength. Temperature is the only thing pulling them apart, and it pulls hard: Deep Autumn runs very warm, Deep Winter close to neutral. Hold Black and a dark brown under your chin. If the brown makes you look tired and the black makes you look awake, you lean Winter. The full comparison gives you more pairs to try.

Inside the winter family, Cool Winter has more middle ground and is lighter on average, and Bright Winter is far more vivid. If vivid colors outshine you but dark jewel tones don’t, you’re probably here.

One thing this season must not be mistaken for is a synonym for dark skin. Color Me Beautiful, the 1980 book that spread the seasons, has been criticized for focusing on white readers and putting all people of color into Winter. That’s poor analysis. Deep skin can belong to any season, and a person with fair skin and black hair can be a Deep Winter. Soul of Color’s description gives skin from medium to dark with black or brown-black hair and deep eyes, while saying the main quality is depth relative to the person. See where your own face lands with the season test, which shows your colors beside your photo.

Does black work?

Yes, and it’s on our board. Soul of Color goes further and calls black “made for” this season. Black was also on Carole Jackson’s original Winter list, alongside white, true red, fuchsia and cobalt. Our near-blacks give you options: Black Plum and Cool Espresso read as black from a distance with a slight undertone up close, and Deep Navy is the one to use when black starts to feel like a uniform.

One old observation is useful when mixing them. In the 1820s Michel Eugène Chevreul, the director of dyeing at the Gobelins tapestry works in Paris, investigated complaints about a weak black dye. The dye was fine. The black only looked weak and reddish when surrounded by deep blues and purples. He named the effect simultaneous contrast. So if a black jacket looks oddly brown next to your Sapphire top, your eyes are at work and the jacket may well be fine. Move a white or ice note between the two and the black will recover.

Using contrast on purpose

Since your palette is mostly two extremes, you have to choose how you combine them. A dark and an ice give you a sharp graphic edge. Two darks give you depth with no edge. Contrast ratio, the measure web designers use to check text against its background, puts numbers on this. It isn’t a rule for clothes. It’s a useful scale for a thing people usually only feel.

When an outfit feels harsh, you’re usually at the top of that list with all the dark on one side, such as a black dress under a pale face with no other note. Bring it down a step, with Winter Burgundy or Deep Navy, or add a little mid-strength color at the collar, such as Jewel Rose. When an outfit feels heavy, you’re at the bottom. Add a light. On deep skin, the same logic often runs in reverse: a black neckline may sit close to your own depth, and Frost Blue or Crisp White is what brings the contrast to the face.

Deep Winter outfits

Texture matters more than usual, because so many of these colors are dark. Black in matte wool, in satin and in leather are three different things, and wearing them together gets you depth without adding any color. Jewel tones look strongest in fabrics with some light in them, such as silk, velvet and fine knit. Avoid washed or faded finishes: a garment-dyed Emerald drifts toward the muddy middle this palette keeps out. Prints work when they’re crisp, with hard edges and clear jewel or black-and-ice contrasts.

Deep Winter makeup

The brief version: deep berry, cool red and wine on the lips, cool plum or deep rose on the cheeks, and black, charcoal and deep plum on the eyes. The full Deep Winter makeup page has each shade with its code, and shows where a red stops being cool.

Do pale colors belong at all?

Sources split on this, and it’s worth being exact. Soul of Color says that anything too light, naming pale yellow, cream and light coral, washes this season out. Yet 27.5% of our board is light, so what gives? Look at which pale colors those are. Theirs are warm and ours are cold. Icy Pink, Icy Lavender, Frost Blue and Icy Mint carry very little color, and they act almost like tinted whites. Used in small amounts at the collar, they supply the light that keeps all this darkness from closing in. A full dress in Icy Mint is another matter. Most Deep Winters will prefer ice as an accent, with something dark doing the heavy work.

The colors to skip, and the odd one out

Beyond the four that fall in the hole, the last avoid color is Peach. It’s pale enough to sit near your ice colors, but it’s warm and sweet where those are cold. Try Pale Cool Rose as a swap. Same job, opposite temperature. Keep in mind that colors on this list matter most at the neckline. Camel shoes won’t ruin anything.

Metals and shopping

Polished silver, platinum and white gold are our picks, in a piece with some weight, since delicate jewelry can vanish against this much depth. Shopping, the classic trap is low light: in a store, navy, black, charcoal and dark brown can all look alike, so step toward a window before you decide. Compare any near-black against something you know is black. If it shows brown or green beside it, this palette will show that too.

To begin, buy a true black piece in a fabric you love, then crisp white, then one jewel color from the signature set, such as emerald or ruby, then charcoal and an ice like icy pink. Five pieces will combine in almost every way. The deepest color on our board is Black, and you can copy every hex above. Other names and typings are on the Deep Winter celebrities page, sister palettes on the winter palette page, and every season on the palettes hub. The Full Color Report covers a personal cut of this palette.

Related guides and tools

• PaletteWinter paletteThe three Winter seasons compared, with hex codes for clothes or design.
• GuideDeep Winter celebritiesWho is commonly typed Deep Winter or Dark Winter, sourced, and how they differ from Deep Autumn.
• GuideDeep Winter makeupBlue-based reds, cool blush and dark eyes, with hex codes and a live lipstick test.
• GuideDeep autumn vs deep winterBoth dark, one warm and one cool: the neutrals that decide it, tested live.
• PaletteDeep AutumnDark and warm: rich colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.
• PaletteCool WinterCool and vivid: icy, blue-based colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.