Colour Theory: How to Dress for Your Skin Tone

Colour matters at the face. Past the collarbone you can wear almost anything; near your skin, the wrong tone will read as tiredness, and the right one will read as health. That is the whole brief.

Start with undertone, not depth. Hold a piece of pure white next to a piece of warm ivory under daylight. Whichever flatters more is your starting clue: cool undertones lean towards white; warm undertones lean towards ivory.

Then test depth. A very pale skin tone with a warm undertone may still wear oxblood beautifully, while a deeper warm-undertoned skin may glow in mustard or terracotta. Undertone is direction; depth is intensity.

There is no banned colour. A 'wrong' colour can be rescued with a scarf, a collar, or a different makeup register at the face. The neckline is the lever — change what sits closest to your jaw and you change the read of the whole outfit.

Finally, ignore season-name systems unless they genuinely help you. The only test that matters is in a mirror, in daylight, with the colour against your jaw.