How Much Contrast Should Your Outfits Have? A Guide to Contrast in Colour Analysis

Why does a navy and white outfit look completely at home on one person, while the same combination can feel too stark on someone else? Contrast is part of the answer.

We tend to talk about colour analysis in terms of finding the right individual shades: your best red, your best blue, whether you suit black, cream or camel. But the way you combine those colours matters too.

Someone might look wonderful in navy but prefer it paired with soft blue rather than crisp white. Another person may come alive in a very clear black-and-white combination. Both are wearing colours that suit them; the difference is in the amount of contrast between those colours.

Once you understand your own contrast level, it becomes much easier to put your palette together in a way that feels balanced.

What does contrast mean in colour analysis?

Contrast simply describes the degree of difference between colours sitting next to each other.

In an outfit, that might mean the difference between:

• a very dark colour and a very light one
• a muted colour and a much brighter one
• two colours that are quite similar in depth
• two clear colours that stand strongly apart

Black and white is an obvious example of high contrast. Soft blue with blue-grey has much less contrast.

Within colour analysis, there are three slightly different types of contrast worth thinking about:

Your personal contrast is the amount of visual difference between your own natural features.

Your palette contrast is the range of contrast that appears naturally within your seasonal colour palette.

Your outfit contrast is the difference between the colours you choose to wear together.

They are related, but they are not always exactly the same.

These two outfits from hush show that the same dark neutral can create a very different effect depending on what you wear with it.

How do you know your personal contrast level?

Personal contrast is easiest to understand by looking at your features together rather than focusing on one characteristic.

Look at the relationship between your hair, skin and eyes. Do they sit relatively close together in depth and intensity, giving an overall blended impression? Is there a moderate amount of definition? Or is there a much stronger difference between them?

Someone whose features sit closer together visually may have lower natural contrast. Someone whose features show a much clearer difference in depth or definition may have higher contrast. Plenty of people sit somewhere between the two.

Skin tone on its own does not determine contrast.

People with light, medium and deep skin tones can all have low, medium or high personal contrast. What matters is the relationship between the features, rather than whether somebody's skin happens to be light or dark.

The same applies to hair. Dark hair does not automatically make somebody high contrast, just as fair hair does not automatically mean low contrast.

It is the whole picture that matters.

Your colour season and your contrast level are not quite the same thing

Your seasonal palette gives us useful clues about contrast, but it does not give every person within that season an identical contrast level.

Clear Winter is a naturally high-contrast palette. It includes very deep colours alongside crisp whites and very light icy shades, and it can handle clear separation between colours.

Soft Autumn, by comparison, has a much more blended quality. Its colours tend to sit more gently beside one another.

But there is still variation between people.

Two Soft Summers may not want exactly the same amount of contrast in their outfits. Two Deep Winters may both suit strong colour combinations, while one feels more at home at the dramatic end of the scale than the other.

It is therefore more useful to think of each colour season as having a comfortable contrast range rather than one fixed setting.

Some seasonal palettes like Clear Winter and Clear Spring can carry strong contrast while Soft Summer and Soft Autumn naturally favour softer transitions between colours. Images from Nobody's Child.

What does a low-contrast outfit look like?

In a low-contrast outfit, the colours are fairly close in depth, softness or intensity.

That does not mean everything has to be beige, and it does not necessarily mean dressing head to toe in one colour.

You might combine:

• soft navy with blue-grey
• dusty rose with taupe
• cream with camel
• sage with olive
• muted teal with soft brown
• pale blue with soft grey

The colours are still different, but the eye moves between them fairly gently.

This kind of combination often works particularly well for the softer and lighter palettes, where a very sharp division between colours can overpower the overall effect.

Two different ways to wear low contrast: soft cream, blush and taupe create a light, blended look, while burgundy and brown achieve the same gentle contrast at a much deeper level. Images from Kiltane.

What does a medium-contrast outfit look like?

Medium contrast gives the outfit more definition without creating a very dramatic difference between the colours.

There might be a clear change between the top and bottom, or between the main garment and an accessory, but the overall look still feels fairly balanced.

Examples could include:

• navy with mid-blue
• teal with camel
• chocolate with muted coral
• medium denim with cream
• olive with warm ivory
• burgundy with soft pink

A lot of everyday outfits naturally fall into this category, and several of the seasonal palettes sit comfortably somewhere around the middle.

Two medium contrast outfits Two medium-contrast looks: enough separation between the colours to give definition, without the sharp light-dark contrast of a high-contrast outfit. Images from Baukjen.

What does a high-contrast outfit look like?

High-contrast outfits create much clearer separation.

Black and white is the classic example, but high contrast can be colourful too.

Think:

• deep navy with icy pink
• black with fuchsia
• emerald with white
• deep chocolate with very pale cream
• cobalt with a very light icy blue
• vivid turquoise with a strongly contrasting bright colour

A Clear Winter may shine just as much in the graphic contrast of black and white as they do in the jewel and icy tones of their palette.

Clear Spring can also take noticeably stronger colour contrast than many people expect. The difference is that its strongest combinations usually stay warmer and lighter than Winter's.

High contrast does not have to mean black and white. Strongly separated colours can create the same sense of definition. Images from Scamp & Dude.

How much contrast suits each colour season?

There is no single correct contrast level for every person in a season, but the palette itself gives us a useful starting point.

Light Spring: low to medium contrast

Light Spring generally looks best when the outfit keeps some lightness overall. Cream with coral, pale aqua with warm navy, or light camel with a fresh green can give enough definition without creating a very heavy divide.

Very dark colours used in large blocks can quickly dominate a Light Spring outfit.

Warm Spring: medium contrast

Warm Spring can usually take a little more separation while keeping the overall effect warm and lively.

Cream with warm navy, turquoise with camel or coral with a richer warm neutral can work particularly well.

Clear Spring: medium to high contrast

Clear Spring benefits from clearer separation between colours than the other Spring palettes.

Warm navy with coral, turquoise with cream or two bright, clear colours together can all work well.

The contrast can be strong without needing the very dark end of Winter's palette.

Light Summer: low contrast

Light Summer generally suits gentle shifts between colours.

Soft navy with powder blue, cool pink with pale grey or light denim with soft white can create enough definition while keeping the overall impression light.

Cool Summer: low to medium contrast

Cool Summer can usually take more contrast than Light or Soft Summer, but very stark combinations may still feel too hard.

Navy with soft white, charcoal with cool pink or deeper blue with a lighter blue can work well.

Soft Summer: low contrast

Soft Summer tends to look particularly harmonious when the colours flow into one another.

Smoky navy with blue-grey, muted berry with taupe or soft teal with grey can give the outfit shape without introducing a sharp divide.

Soft Autumn: low contrast

Soft Autumn also tends to favour blended combinations.

Olive with camel, soft teal with mushroom, dusty coral with warm taupe or muted brown with cream can all work beautifully.

The colours do not need to be close matches, but they generally share a softened quality, or similar depth.

Warm Autumn: low to medium contrast

Warm Autumn can usually carry a little more richness and separation than Soft Autumn.

Deep teal with camel, warm cream with olive or chocolate with rust can create definition while keeping the overall effect warm.

And if the classic rust-and-mustard version of Autumn does not appeal to you, you can create the same level of contrast using the blues, greens and warm neutrals within the palette.

Deep Autumn: medium to high contrast

Deep Autumn can handle much greater depth than the other Autumn palettes.

Dark chocolate with warm cream, deep teal with camel or burgundy with a lighter warm neutral can create strong contrast without becoming icy or stark.

Deep Winter: high contrast

Deep Winter is well suited to strong light-and-dark combinations.

Deep navy with white, black with a saturated colour or a very dark jewel tone with a lighter icy shade can all work well.

Cool Winter: medium to high contrast

Cool Winter can comfortably handle clear separation between colours, particularly when those colours remain cool.

Navy with crisp white, charcoal with icy pink or deep berry with a pale cool shade are all good examples.

Clear Winter: high contrast

Clear Winter sits at the highest-contrast end of the seasonal palettes.

Black and white can look completely at home here, as can black with a clear jewel tone, cobalt with icy blue or emerald with crisp white.

The palette contains both very deep and very light colours, so strong contrast feels like a natural part of it.

Contrast is not only about light and dark

Dark versus light is the easiest kind of contrast to spot, but it is not the only thing that can make an outfit feel visually strong.

Two colours can be similar in depth and still have a lot of impact if they are both very clear and saturated.

A bright turquoise and vivid coral combination, for example, can feel much more striking than two muted colours of similar depth. The intensity of the colours, how clearly they are separated and how different they feel from one another all contribute to the overall effect.

This is particularly relevant for Clear Spring and Clear Winter, where strong colour contrast can be just as important as dark-versus-light contrast.

What about contrast in patterns?

Patterns have a contrast level too, and this can make a surprisingly big difference to how they look when worn.

Imagine a floral print made from dusty blue, muted pink and soft grey. The colours sit fairly close together and the edges may blend into one another, so the overall effect is low contrast.

Now compare that with a crisp black-and-white stripe or a print containing large blocks of deep navy, white and bright red. The separation between the colours is much stronger.

Pattern definition matters too. A softly painted floral, hazy animal print or mottled pattern usually creates less contrast than a sharply defined stripe, geometric design or very crisp graphic print.

As a general guide:

• Soft Summer and Soft Autumn often suit patterns where the colours blend and the edges are less defined.
• Light Spring and Light Summer usually benefit from prints that keep plenty of lightness and avoid very large areas of dark colour.
• Clear Spring and Clear Winter can carry stronger colour separation and much crisper patterns.
• Deep Autumn and Deep Winter can handle greater depth within a print and stronger light-and-dark variation.

There are plenty of exceptions, of course. A print also has to contain colours that work for you and suit your personal style and taste

Contrast applies to patterns too. Compare the softly blended colours with the much clearer separation in the more graphic print. Images from Aspiga.

What if you love more contrast than your season suggests?

Your preferred style does not disappear when you find out your colour season. Perhaps you are a Soft Autumn who has always loved graphic stripes. Or a Light Summer whose wardrobe has been built around black and white for years.

You do not have to abandon that look. Instead, you can experiment with keeping the structure you like and adjusting the colours. A Light Summer who loves black and white might try navy with soft white. A Soft Autumn could look for chocolate and cream, olive and warm ivory or a softened two-colour print rather than stark black and optic white.

The outfit can still look like you. You are simply changing the degree of separation slightly.

What if you prefer very low-contrast outfits?

The reverse is true too. Being a Winter does not mean you need to dress in dramatic colour combinations every day. 

A Clear Winter may look fantastic in black and white but still prefer navy with cobalt, burgundy with raspberry or a tonal outfit built from several versions of the same cool colour. A Deep Winter can wear a dark tonal outfit rather than constantly introducing a pale contrast colour.

Your palette shows you what your colouring can handle. You still get to decide how much of that potential you actually want to use.

Does your contrast level change with age?

It can. Natural changes in hair colour can alter the amount of visible contrast between your features. Grey or white hair may soften the overall contrast for one person while creating more definition for another.

Dyed hair can affect the way we perceive contrast too, particularly when the colour is significantly lighter or darker than someone's natural colouring.

Hair is only one part of the picture, though, so a change in hair colour does not automatically mean your colour season has changed.

If you have noticed that the colours and combinations you once wore no longer feel quite right, it can be useful to reassess the whole effect rather than focusing on the hair alone.

→ Read more in our article on How Colouring Changes With Age

A simple way to check the contrast of an outfit

You do not need to calculate your contrast level before getting dressed. Put the outfit on and look at the overall effect.

Does the clothing feel very dominant, so that you notice the blocks of colour before you notice your face? The contrast may be stronger than you need.

Does everything blend so much that you feel as though you need a little more definition? Try adding a slightly lighter, darker or clearer colour somewhere in the outfit.

Or does the amount of contrast seem to sit naturally alongside your own colouring?

Taking a quick photograph can help. We often see the overall balance of an outfit more easily in a photo than when we are standing close to a mirror examining individual colours.

And if you love the outfit anyway, that matters too.

Should your outfit match your personal contrast level exactly?

No.

Your contrast level is another useful clue within colour analysis, rather than something you have to reproduce perfectly every time you get dressed.

You may prefer softer outfits for everyday wear and stronger contrast when you are dressing up. You may like a very simple tonal look one day and a much more graphic combination the next.

What is useful is understanding why some combinations feel immediately balanced while others seem surprisingly harsh or flat, even when the individual colours themselves appear to be right.

Once you start noticing contrast, you will probably see it everywhere: in prints, in colour combinations, in accessories and in the difference a light top can make underneath a dark jacket.

Finding the right contrast for you

Your best colours are only one part of the picture. How you put them together can make just as much difference.

Soft palettes often work beautifully with colours that sit closer together. Clear and deep palettes usually have more room for strong separation. Light palettes tend to benefit from keeping the overall outfit relatively light, while Winter palettes can often carry the greatest dark-and-light contrast. Within all of that, there is plenty of room for individual preference.

You do not need to dress at the maximum contrast your season allows, and you do not need to give up a style you love because it sits outside the usual advice for your palette.

Start by noticing the combinations you already feel good in. Compare them with the colours and contrast in your own features. Then experiment.

Sometimes changing one colour is all it takes to make the whole outfit feel more balanced.

You might also like

→ How to Wear Black When It Doesn’t Suit Your Colour Season
Practical ways to keep wearing black while making it work more comfortably with your colouring.

→ The Best Whites for Your Colour Season
From crisp white to cream and ivory, find the versions of white that work best for each palette.

→ Soft, Warm, Deep… What Season Are You?
A guide to the colour qualities that separate the 12 seasons, including depth, temperature and softness or clarity.

→ Why Finding Your Own Colour Season Is So Difficult
Why individual features, lighting and common colour-analysis shortcuts can make your season surprisingly hard to judge.

Hero image by Abdul Raheem Kannath on Unsplash