Neutral Clothing Colors: A Guide to Which Shades Suit You

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Neutral clothing colors are the essentials of every wardrobe.

While you might instantly associate these with shades of black and white, neutrals have more hues. 

Since these neutral colors can fairly go with anything, having several pieces in your wardrobe will allow you to mix and match your styles so you’re prepared for any occasion. 

Still, there are certain considerations to follow; while neutral colors complement other hues, not all neutral shades will look best on every individual’s natural palette, so not every neutral color clothing combination will look great on everyone. 

Apart from exploring different neutral color palette ideas, we have also included important tips to elevate your fashion.

Now let’s learn how to identify the perfect neutrals for you so you stand out among the crowd!

What Are Considered Neutral Colors in Clothing?

Generally, neutral colors aren’t typically found in the color wheel. They’re best described as shades that don’t compete with other colors since they can be paired with anything.

These include shades of black, brown, gray, and white. 

These colors, which don’t have any undertones, are called pure neutrals.

Colors that fall under the “natural” category and mixed with a pure neutral are considered near neutrals. Like pure neutrals, these versatile shades can also be paired with a wide array of colors without clashing.

Here are a few near-neutral shades:

• Navy
• Blush
• Sand
• Sage 
• Burnt orange
• Dark moss
• Taupe
• Khaki 
• Cream

Apart from the above natural shades, there are also metallic colors, which are pure neutrals and near neutrals that have an iridescent shine. 

Gold, silver, copper, and bronze are shimmering metallic hues that can enhance and complement several colors. 

They can also adapt to any hues matched with them since they can be both a main color and an accent color, depending on how they are applied to clothing. 

Note that with metallic colors, you have to consider the sheen and intensity too. For example, near-neutral metallics that are too vivid and have too little shine will make the shade less neutral and may not suit certain individuals.

The Perfect Neutrals Based on Your Undertone

Before throwing several neutral-colored clothes into your shopping cart, you must first understand the intricacy of skin undertones. 

While it’s generally true that neutral clothing colors are generally for everyone, not every neutral shade will look flattering on every individual. 

Certain neutral colors can drastically improve your features, while others may cast dull shadows against you, making your whole fashion ensemble a little less flattering. 

The objective when choosing the perfect neutral clothing colors can be attained when you factor in your skin’s undertones. Doing so lets you choose the missing “puzzle piece” that well matches your complexion.

The best way to determine your undertone is by looking at your wrist.

Neutral Undertone Clothing Colors

You most likely have a neutral undertone if you have a balanced amount of green and blue veins underneath your wrist. These are practically a mix of warm and cool tones; hence, this is the category you’re best suited to. 

That being said, you’re lucky! You can sport warm, cool, and true neutral colors. 

The best clothing colors for neutral skin tones are muted neutrals, like dusty pink and jade. Meanwhile, soft neutral shades like beige, cappuccino, mushroom gray, and taupe will complement your features.

Taupes, off-whites, medium-grays, light peach, lagoon blue, and blacks also look fantastic on you. 

Warm Neutral Clothing Colors

Warm undertones exhibit mostly green veins underneath your wrist. If this is the case, warm neutral clothing colors favor your skin tone excellently. 

Warm tones like honey, brown, ivory, tan, copper, camel, caramel, cream, and the like will improve your skin complexion. 

These are great backdrop colors that allow your warm skin tone to shine without competing or clashing against it. 

These warm neutral colors originate from the same side of the color wheel as warm tones, creating a harmonious palette and consistent mood in the ensemble. 

Cool Neutral Clothing Colors

Do you have blue veins on your wrist? If yes, you’re cool toned. 

People with this undertone exhibit subtle pink or blue hues in their skin.

The best neutral colors to go for would be shades that also have cool tones. The neutrals you can opt for are crisp white, gray, steel blue, and navy. 

Silver and platinum are great metallic neutrals for cool-toned skin too. 

The point of choosing cool neutral colors for cool undertones is to create a flattering effect against the skin to ensure your skin won’t look sickly or washed out. 

Color Seasons of Neutral Color Palettes

After learning your skin’s undertones, your color season is the next big thing to grasp. 

Learning your color season classification is a good starting point in figuring out what colors you need to add to your wardrobe. 

Each season has a corresponding set of color subtypes that best complement your features.

To figure out your season palette, you can evaluate the color of your eyes, hair, and skin and check the color of the veins on your wrist to know your undertones.

After doing so, you can refer your assessment to the four types of seasons. Winter and summer are deemed cool seasons, while autumn and spring are warm seasons. 

Also, for each season, there are three visual elements that communicate various moods, styles, and statements. These give you a more accurate neutral clothing color palette that actually flatters you.

Understanding these elements requires a deep dive into the three dimensions of color: hue, saturation, and value:

• Hue — refers to the warmness and coolness of your overall features.
• Value — refers to the lightness or darkness of your natural colors.
• Chroma — refers to the vividness (saturation or desaturation) of your colors.

These three help differentiate your colors and undertones, which are the keys to creating color harmonies that work to your advantage.

Meanwhile, here are the seasons of neutral color palettes:

Clear Spring 

If your color season is clear spring, your features are the ones shown in the table below:

Hue: Leaning to warm

Value: Slightly light

Chroma: Bright

Based on the above dimensions, the features of clear or bright spring direct us to mostly warm tones with high contrast. 

For this subseason, you must go for warm and bright colors to shine, such as bright orange, bright red, bright yellow, and aqua blue. One way to avoid getting washed out is to avoid muted or dusky colors. 

Here are your neutral colors if your color palette is clear spring season:

• Navy 
• Soft navy
• Cream
• Camel
• Cognac 
• Ash gray
• Charcoal
• Espresso
• Chocolate 
• Soft navy
• Alabaster 
• Soft white 
• Cashmere
• Pewter
• Taupe

Warm Spring 

If your color season is warm spring, you may have the features shown in the table below:

Hue: Warm

Value: Medium light

Chroma: Bright

Warm spring is the true spring color type that shows warm and golden undertones. With this in mind, it’s best to entirely avoid cool colors and maintain your golden hues.

You shouldn’t also go for muted or toned-down shades to avoid washing out the natural brightness of your overall complexion. 

With that said, the ideal neutral colors for you would be the following:

• Nude 
• Navy
• Ivory 
• Tawny 
• Olive
• Stone 
• Cream 
• Camel  
• Brown
• Cognac
• Dark brown
• Greenish gray
• Chocolate brown

Light Spring 

If your color season is light spring, your features may comprise the ones shown in the table below:

Hue: Warm 

Value: Light

Chroma: Leaning to bright

The light spring subseason shows very little contrast between your eyes, skin, and hair. With these in mind, the best colors should be light and bright.

It’s important to take note of the intensity of the neutral hues to avoid overwhelming your light overalls with harsh colors.

Since light spring is warm, the best neutrals for your wardrobe are the ones listed below:

• Tuscan 
• Beaver
• Almond 
• Cashmere 
• Rice white
• Almond brown
• Soft olive
• Ivory
• Coffee cream
• Dark cerulean
• Dark cornflower
• Soft navy
• Stone gray
• Birch gray

Light Summer 

If your color season is light summer, your features may consist of the ones shown in the table below:

Hue: Cool 

Value: Light

Chroma: Medium bright

Light summer is reminiscent of early summer mornings. That said, your colors should be gentle and refreshing on the eyes, combining lightness and coolness. 

One way to properly complement this subseason is to go for colors with light value. You can add tints with medium value, but they shouldn’t be predominant. 

You must substitute your true black with other dark neutrals to avoid drowning out your delicate colors.

Here are the suggested colors for this subseason:

• Pewter 
• Ice gray
• Pearl gray
• Dove gray
• Beige
• Soft navy  
• Soft white 
• Light gray
• White smoke 
• Light, cool brown 
• Light, muted beige

Cool Summer 

Here’s a table showing the features of a cool summer color season:

Hue: Cool

Value: Medium light

Chroma: Leaning to muted

Those with cool summer skin tone have low to medium contrast. You should avoid any warm or intense colors to avoid an off-beat ensemble. 

To ensure your colors are harmonious, be mindful of the intensity of the tints or collect clothing items in these listed colors:

• Gray 
• Navy 
• Sage
• Blush
• Taupe
• Cadet 
• Ice gray  
• Charcoal 
• Platinum 
• Soft navy 
• Soft white 
• Steel gray
• Slate gray
• Rose beige
• Rose brown

Soft Summer 

If your color season is soft summer, you may have the following features:

Hue: Leaning to cool

Value: Medium cool

Chroma: Muted

Two words that best describe soft summer are muted and cool. If you look at your reflection in the mirror, you’ll be able to observe that your overall features have a toned-down or grayed-out shade.

Between your hair and eyes, the contrast level is anywhere between low and medium. For this subseason, silver is a more flattering color for you than gold. 

Meanwhile, muted and gentle neutral clothing colors are ideal to match your low to medium contrast. They have to be saturated, low-contrast, cool colors. 

Some of the neutral colors you can flaunt are the following:

• Sage 
• Sand 
• Cadet 
• Dove
• Denim
• Silver
• Pewter
• Charcoal  
• Midnight
• Soft white  
• Soft navy
• Light gray
• Purple taupe 
• Muted brown
• Grayish dark brown

Soft Autumn

If you belong to the soft autumn subseason, the table below may describe some of your characteristic features.

Hue: Leaning to warm

Value: Leaning to light

Chroma: Muted

If you have the features stated on the table, you fall under soft autumn.

This draws in the warmth of autumn colors and the coolness of summer colors. Hence, the palette will consist of colors that transition from summer to autumn. 

Due to your gentle natural color, you must avoid true black to avoid looking unhealthy or aged. The closest dark shades you can opt for instead are dark brown, dark gray, and dark green.  

Apart from that, you can also invest in these colors:

• Bone
• Ivory 
• Beige
• Blush
• Khaki 
• Cream 
• Cedar
• Mocha 
• Beaver 
• Chestnut
• Hazelnut
• White gold
• Rose gold
• Bronze
• Soft olive
• Espresso 
• Alabaster

Warm Autumn 

If your color season is warm autumn, you may have the following features shown in the table below:

Hue: Warm

Value: Leaning to dark

Chroma: Mildly muted

Autumn is a season of muted, warm colors. It’s like walking inside a rich, earthly, warm forest — that would describe your perfect color palette, which should be completely free of any cool tones.

Instead, focus on tones that enhance your medium-contrast, warm, golden tints. 

Below are the colors that match warm autumns:

• Tan 
• Rust 
• Ecru
• Cream
• Olive 
• Tawny
• Pecan
• Cognac
• Camel
• Saffron 
• Caramel 
• Espresso 
• Terracotta
• Dark olive
• Stone gray 
• Dark brown  
• Saddle brown

Deep Autumn 

If you fall into the deep autumn color category, you’ll likely find your features reflected in the table below.

Hue: Warm

Value: Deep/dark

Chroma: Medium

When we say deep autumn, this includes aspects such as warm tones, dark value, and neutral chroma. 

Since deep autumn is leaning close to winter, its colors are primarily dark, rich, and deep.

The common neutral colors that fit deep autumn are the following:

• Tan 
• Olive 
• Beige 
• Cream 
• Navy
• Pecan
• Bronze
• Brass
• Gold
• Copper
• Pewter
• Cognac  
• Almond 
• Caramel 
• Espresso 
• Burgundy
• Deep forest green
• Milk chocolate

Deep Winter 

If your color season is deep winter, your features may comprise the ones shown in the table below:

Hue: Cool and neutral

Value: Deep and dark

Chroma: Bright

Deep winter shows a stark contrast between the skin, eyes, and hair. 

When you talk about this subseason, think about earthy yet frosty tones. Ensure your palette is neither too earthy nor warm to avoid looking unhealthy or aged.

Exhibiting a deep, cool image, the best neutral clothing colors for this specific subseason are the following:

• White
• Off-white
• Black
• Charcoal
• Granite
• Asphalt
• Navy
• Navy slate
• Prussian blue
• Jet gray
• Alabaster 
• Gunmetal 
• Burgundy
• Carbon gray 
• Deep aubergine
• Darkest cocoa
• Battleship gray

Cool Winter 

Your features may comprise the ones shown in the table below if your color season is cool winter:

Hue: Cool 

Value: Leaning to dark

Chroma: Leaning to bright

Cool winter shows cool or blue undertones on your hair, eyes, skin, and hair. Medium-toned colors will appropriately contrast and complement any of these undertones. 

However, do not be afraid to experiment and try out darker shades. Just ensure you avoid warm-based tints. 

Some of the neutral colors for this subseason are the following:

• Navy 
• White
• Dove
• Black 
• Gray
• Silver
• Pewter
• Platinum
• Charcoal 
• Soft navy
• Soft white
• Optic white

Clear Winter 

If your color season is clear winter, you may have the following features:

Hue: Leaning to cool

Value: Neutral

Chroma: Bright

Those with clear season palettes exhibit a higher contrast between their hair, eyes, and skin tone. While blonde is not part of the hair color list, this may also be considered a clear season type as long as it’s platinum or icy blonde. 

Mostly, neutral clothing colors for clear seasons are the least muted.

Here are some of the colors that fit this subseason well:

• Navy
• Black 
• Ivory
• Stone
• Cadet
• Ebony
• White
• Taupe
• Silver
• Pewter
• Nevada 
• Platinum 
• Charcoal
• Gunmetal
• Pure white
• Soft white
• Midnight blue
• Black-brown

How To Wear Neutral Colors for Clothing

Without a doubt, having learned all the essential information about neutral clothing colors may have gotten you excited about adding some clothes in the shades of your color palette to your wardrobe. 

But before you jump right into the process of making a huge change in your fashion color choices, here are a few things you can try to ease into your neutrals:

Try Out a Monochromatic Neutral Look

Monochrome outfits are ensembles that use variations of only one color and are easy on the eyes. They’re simple yet classy, and they are great for any occasion. 

While most monochrome looks come in white or black, you can also try other colors from your palette. 

You can wear one color from head to toe or add a bit of a subtle accent. 

Pair Neutrals With a Popping Color

Want to upgrade your neutral color fashion game? Go for a predominantly neutral-colored outfit, and add an accent color that pops. 

For example, if you fall under the light summer subseason, you can wear a crisp white top and a pair of white smoke pants. You may then sport a neon yellow handbag paired with neon yellow pumps to make your outfit stand out.

Add Patterns or Textures

While you may have great wardrobe staples in your ideal neutral colors, there may be days when your fashionista self would look for more areas to venture into. 

Another way to elevate your dress sense is to add patterns or textures to your neutral-colored attires. 

For instance, if you’re a deep or soft autumn, you may sport a cream-colored dress, wear a brown handbag, and sport snakeskin boots if you want a pattern. 

As for textures, see if your outfit can be paired with leather, velvet, fleece, or the like. 

Sport White Pants

White pants can go with any top. However, note that there are plenty of variations for white. 

If you’re a cool winter or cool summer, cool pure whites will look better. Meanwhile, light summer and light spring look better in soft white. 

Moreover, if you’re warm spring and warm autumn, cream and ivory are ideal. As for deep autumn and deep winter, bright white is the way to go.

On the other hand, clear spring and clear winter match well with pure white, while soft summer and soft autumn do well with soft off-white. 

Use Blue To Make a Statement

Using blue to make a statement isn’t limited to wearing denim blue pants. You can also try on other clothing items, like tops, hats, and shoes in blue shades from your season palette. 

One of the combinations that often work is brown and blue in certain shades of your season. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the Best Clothing Brand for Neutral Colors?

One of the best clothing brands that sells and manufactures neutral-colored wardrobe staples is Everlane. 

Their jeans, T-shirts, and sweaters come in various neutral tints. 

What Are the Four Basic Neutral Colors?

The four basic neutral colors are black, white, brown, and gray.

However, these colors do not always look the best for everyone, so choose neutral shades that are in tune with your season to complement or enhance your features.

Are Neutral Clothing Colors the Best?

Neutral clothing colors are the best if you want a versatile wardrobe. As long as you have the basic clothing items in different neutral colors, you can create a plethora of outfits already.

What Is a Capsule Wardrobe?

If you’re interested in building a neutral-colored closet, you might have encountered the term capsule wardrobe.

This is a favorite concept among individuals aiming for a minimalist fashion sense. That, or for people who want to create various looks out of a small clothing selection.  

For the most part, a capsule wardrobe refers to a carefully curated clothing collection, so the items are interchangeable. The main goal is to maximize the number of outfits you can wear versus the number of clothing items you have. 

As you go about capsule wardrobe ideas, you’ll discover that most concepts strongly advocate using neutral shades.

Start Building Your Neutral Wardrobe Colors!

Understanding what neutral clothing colors you should wear can be overwhelming, but this palette guide makes it easier!

Always remember that determining your right neutral colors starts by identifying your undertone, hair color, and eye color. 

From there, you can cross-reference your evaluation with the tables provided for each subseason. Continue comparing until you find the subseason that best describes your unique features.

If you want to add more character to your neutral-shaded clothes, reference our list of tips to achieve a head-turning vibe.

We hope you find this guide helpful. Comment below to let us know what neutral clothing colors flatter your features best!

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