Your Color Palette is Not That Deep

🧪 Entry #04: Let's fix that. Here's how to refine and complete your palette.

How’s your color palette coming together? If you’ve started playing with the Swatch Library in your Style File, you’ve probably noticed how helpful it is to simply see your favorite colors side by side.

If your palette still feels a little flat, or maybe a bit chaotic, it’s time to go deeper.

• color type

• body type

• core style

• the wardrobe framework

• wardrobe editing

• fit + measurements

• silhouette + proportion

• color story

• texture

• multidimensional style

• conflict + balance

• full outfits

There are a few ways to edit and expand your color palette, the smart way. Eliminate outliers, choose supporting colors, and select your neutrals.

But before we do that, it helps to understand your Home Season and your Sister Season.

👯‍♀️ What’s Your Sister Season?

Your Sister Season is the most underrated color analysis hack. This concept will help you confirm your Signature Season and expand your color palette in a way that’s harmonious yet freeing.

So, what is your Sister Season?

Your Sister Season is the color season adjacent to your own that shares your dominant color trait. This trait could be light, dark, bright, soft, warm, or cool.

Knowing your Sister Season can help you:

• Spot patterns across colors that consistently flatter you

• Understand why certain colors almost work

• Build a more flexible palette without losing harmony

A few examples:

• Bright Spring → Sister = Bright Winter (shared trait: high chroma)

• Warm Autumn → Sister = Warm Spring (shared trait: warm hue)

• Light Summer → Sister = Light Spring (shared trait: light value)

💡 Note: In 12-Season Color Analysis, Cool/Warm and True are used interchangeably. Cool Winter = True Winter, Warm Spring = True Spring, etc.

Your full seasonal color family includes your:

• Signature Season = your exact type (e.g. Cool Summer)

• Home Season = the full trio of subtypes related to your Signature Season (e.g. Light Summer, Cool Summer, Soft Summer)

• Sister Season = the season adjacent to your Signature Season that shares your dominant trait (e.g. Cool Summer’s sister is Cool Winter)

You don’t have to borrow from your Sister Season or your Home Season, but they can provide a goldmine of new colors to try if your current palette feels limited.

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This entry is fully unlocked so you can see what’s normally behind the paywall. If you like what you see, consider supporting The Style Lab by becoming a paid subscriber.

• 3 steps to edit and thoughtfully expand your color palette

• How to use the Style File to select your best neutrals

• Access to the private thread: ask me anything!

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Exercise 1-4: Completing Your Color Palette

If you’d like to follow along with the exercise within the Style File Notion template:

• Free subscribers can purchase it here for $17

• Paid subscribers can grab it for free in Entry #03

If you feel like your color palette is lacking dimension or versatility, this exercise will add depth instantly.

Whether you know your color type or not, these 5 steps will help you build a pleasing and practical color palette. We’ve already done Steps 1 and 2.

Step 1: Shop Your Closet

Revisit Entry #01 and Entry #02.

Step 2: Identify Your Color Characteristics

Revisit Entry #03.

Step 3: Eliminate Outliers

Outliers are colors that don’t seem to mesh with the rest.

Lay your favorites out (in real-life or your digital Style File). It should be easy to identify the outliers.

If none of your colors clash, then perhaps you have no outliers, and that’s great!

If you do see outliers, consider culling them from your wardrobe, or at least removing them from your digital color palette so that you aren’t tempted to re-purchase them in the future.

Step 4: Choose Supporting Colors

Supporting colors add depth and interest to our color palettes without creating disharmony.

First, look at your color palette so far and choose a few of your favorite hues. Then, to create supporting colors that will be most flattering on you and combine well with your existing color palette, take your favorite colors and modify them based on your natural coloring.

Try adding these modified hues into your color palette to support your favorite colors and bring your palette more in harmony with your color season:

• If you are deep and saturated (Winter), add pure black to your favorite colors to create deeper shades.

• If you are deep and muted (Autumn), add dark gray to your favorite colors to create darker tones.

• If you are light and saturated (Spring), add pure white to your favorite colors to create lighter tints.

• If you are light and muted (Summer), add light gray to your favorite colors to create lighter tones.

• Or, simply select a few colors from your Signature Season, Home Season, or Sister Season to try out!

Step 5: Select Your Neutrals

Choose at least three neutrals based on your undertone, value, and level of contrast.

My suggestion is to choose one light neutral, one mid-tone neutral, and one dark neutral. Depending on the range of values you feel comfortable with, this could be pure white, medium gray, and pure black if you have high contrast (i.e. Winter); or it could be a range of mid-tones (e.g. cream, taupe, and charcoal from the Soft Summer palette) if you have lower contrast.

Use the Swatch Library in your Style File to see which neutrals fall within your Signature Season and Sister Season.

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💬 Discussion Prompt

How did this exercise change your color palette?

• Which colors did you eliminate?

• Did you add any supporting colors?

• What’s your Sister Season?

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Still not sure what your Signature Season is, or whether you’re even in the right Home Season at all? I can help you confirm your color type and eliminate the guesswork with a custom analysis. Or feel free to ask your questions in the comments below!

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Continue to Entry #05 →

With Love,

Alyssa