The Bright Winter Palette

Three axes define this season. The undertone is cool, so blue-based colour sits more easily than anything golden. The depth is medium — neither the palest colouring nor the deepest. And the chroma is bright: clarity is the point, clean saturated colour rather than anything greyed or softened. Silver is the metal conventionally paired with it. Some schools call this season Clear Winter.

The palette

Seven names, and they split cleanly in two. The anchors are the extremes: black and pure white, worn at full strength. Around them run the saturated statements — cobalt blue, emerald, fuchsia and true red — with icy pink as the one light note, cold rather than soft. What every name shares is that nothing in it is muddied; even the pink is icy, not powdery.

Conventionally avoided

The avoid list is the mirror of the axes. Dusty pastels are out because they are muted, and mutedness fights a bright-chroma season more than any particular hue does. Muted earth tones and warm browns fail on two counts at once: they are softened, and they are warm — pulling against a cool undertone and a bright chroma in the same breath.

A note on neighbours

Bright Winter shares most of its working wardrobe with the seasons either side of it; the boundaries are real, but they are narrow. That is exactly why the finder shows its full point spread rather than a single name. If your score lands near a border, you should be able to see the border.