Colour combinations
What colours go with brown
This is your palette
Brown – a chocolate or coffee brown – is a warm colour, and in our palettes it belongs to the Springs and the Autumns. In each of them the best dark is a brown, not black, and each has its own. The cool palettes carry no brown this deep: their dark is a charcoal or black, and a warm brown sits better lower down than near the face. Below, each warm palette’s brown and what to wear it with.
The palettes that carry it, and what to wear it with
Deep Autumn
Your versionChocolate Taupe
Wear it with
- Antique Ivory
- Dark Bronze-Brown
- Mahogany
- Deep Pumpkin
Light Spring
Your versionCocoa Bark
Wear it with
- Warm Ivory
- Peach Bloom
- Warm Apricot
- Fresh Leaf
True Autumn
Your versionDeep Taupe
Wear it with
- Warm Ivory Cream
- Dark Warm Brown
- Burnt Sienna
- Warm Rust
Soft Autumn
Your versionDark Cocoa
Wear it with
- Warm Oyster White
- Warm Terracotta
- Soft Ochre
- Moss Green
True Spring
Your versionEspresso Bean
Wear it with
- Ivory Silk
- Golden Poppy
- True Marigold
- Grass Green
Bright Spring
Your versionDark Chocolate
Wear it with
- Bright Ivory
- Vivid Coral
- Clear Warm Red
- Bright Golden Yellow
Pieces in these colours
Affiliate link · the price is the same for you
CardiganChocolate TaupeAmazon ↗
TrousersCocoa BarkAmazon ↗
CardiganDeep TaupeAmazon ↗
TrousersDark CocoaAmazon ↗
TrousersEspresso BeanAmazon ↗
TrousersDark ChocolateAmazon ↗The photo shows the colour and the cut, not the product the search finds.
Tips
- If your palette is warm, try brown wherever you would wear black – a coat, trousers, a knit: the same depth, without draining your face.
- Brown and blue are the classic warm-and-cool pair: with a turquoise, a teal or a cornflower from your palette, brown looks fresh rather than heavy.
- For colour next to brown, look at the warm reds and oranges in your palette – a peach, a coral, a terracotta, a rust: they make brown look rich, not dull.
- If your palette is cool, keep a warm brown lower down – boots, a belt, a bag, trousers – and wear your own dark near the face: charcoal or black.
How to find your palette
Colour analysis reads three things in your colouring: warm or cool, light or deep, clear or soft. The quiz asks about your eyes, hair and skin, looked at in a mirror by a window in daylight. It never photographs or scans your face, and the palette it finds is yours to keep.