True Autumn vs True Spring
True Autumn
the softer one
True Spring
the brighter one
These two are close. Your own photo shows which one is you.
The deciding axis is clarity: True Autumn is the softer one and True Spring is the brighter one.
Side by side
The deciding axis is clarity, everything else about these two is close.
True Autumn
strongly warm, medium in depth and moderately soft
True Spring
strongly warm, moderately light and bright
The test that settles it
Do this in daylight, with no makeup, looking at your skin rather than at the fabric.
True Autumn: Rust #C1440E
True Spring: Coral orange #FF7043
Hold each color under your chin in turn. The right one settles your skin, shadows under the eyes recede and the face looks rested. The wrong one pulls those shadows forward and adds a gray or sallow cast. If you cannot see a difference, you are probably between the two, which is common and covered below.
True Autumn and True Spring palettes
Each row pairs a color with the nearest one left in the other palette.
True Autumn
True Spring
- Rust#C1440E
- Pumpkin#D2691E
- Burnt orange#B7410E
- Sienna#A0522D
- Brick red#8B3A2E
- Mustard#B8860B
- Goldenrod#DAA520
- Antique gold#C9A227
- Olive#808000
- Moss green#6B8E23
- Terracotta#D84315
- Bright tangerine#F4511E
- Warm poppy#E85D4E
- Warm mushroom#A1887F
- Warm pink#EC407A
- Daffodil#FFD54F
- Golden yellow#FFB300
- Amber#F9A825
- Grass green#7CB342
- Leaf green#43A047
Frequently asked
What is the difference between True Autumn and True Spring?
The deciding axis is clarity: True Autumn is the softer one and True Spring is the brighter one. True Autumn is strongly warm, medium in depth and moderately soft; True Spring is strongly warm, moderately light and bright. Everything else about them is close enough that the wrong call still looks acceptable, which is precisely why so many people sit between the two.
True Spring vs True Autumn: which one am I?
Test the deciding axis in isolation. Put rust (#C1440E) beside coral orange (#FF7043) against your bare face in daylight, and look at the skin under your eyes and around your mouth rather than at the fabric. One of them will settle your skin and the other will pull shadows forward.
What if both palettes look fine on me?
Then you are genuinely in between, and you should take the overlap. Wear the colors that appear in both palettes as your core wardrobe, and treat each season's extremes as occasional. Being between two neighboring seasons is common and is not a failure of the system, it is what the boundaries look like from close up.
Which is more common, True Autumn or True Spring?
Neither is rare. Judging by search interest, True Spring is looked up more often, but that reflects how often people are told they might be one, not how many actually are.