Seasonal Color Capsule Wardrobes: Summer Weather 2024

Whether you’ve been pouring into every piece of content on seasonal color analysis or you’ve just had an analysis done and found out your season, your journey has really just begun.

We chase the answer to “What season am I?” as if we were searching for the fabled lost treasure of El Dorado. Traversing color theory, and internet myths, and hoping to uncover the final golden combination of hue, value, and chroma. 

Then, we can rest… 

But, really, that’s when the real work begins.  That’s when you have to take your education, your color fans, and start understanding what works in your current wardrobe and what you might want to purchase with your new colors in mind. 

Switching over a closet should be a slow and intentional pivot.  Because understanding how you will use your new style input will take time.

Whether you are a capsule wardrobe believer or not, it is the perfect strategy for testing the waters of your new seasonal placement. 

You’re learning, where do I like to use these neutrals now? How do I use my accent colors? Do I want a wardrobe composed of lots of brights or do I lean more conservative with my color choices? 

By flushing out a capsule wardrobe and taking your daily outfit photos, in one season (a literal season, 3 months) you will walk away having flushed out your color style pillar. 

Which is why I’ve created this guide.

Seasonal Color Capsules for Summer Weather  2024

Now, we first need to understand that every palette has “summer” appropriate colors within the palette. This is why I’ve included some sample colors from each actual palette I own for each season.  We don’t want to box Autumns into wearing khaki or olives only. When they could use soft leaf-green, salmon or soft caramel instead.

The second thing I want to bring up is that these are my capsule ideas, they are not meant to be a shopping guide you then go buy everything in the picture and your style is set.  This is just an example from the palette that I think works well together. 

I often choose 1-2 neutrals to focus on, and then 2-3 colors to integrate.  Because I’m building capsules and not just one-off outfits, I need them to work together.  I also show you how this works by adding outfit ideas using the capsule pieces. 

But, if you look at bright spring and think, well I don’t like those bright oranges and poppy reds, I prefer the greens and purples in my palette. Fantastic! You’ve just found some style data. But you can still benefit from the relationship aspect to see how I balance out certain capsules.

For future capsules, if you’d like me to look for pieces in a specific color for your palette, just let me know in the comments (politely please, I do my best!).  Dark Winters requested some yellow, so they got yellow this summer. 

Overall, these are inspirations and general guidelines, and not mean to be a shopping list.  You will find shopping links if you have an eye on a specific piece, as well as additional pieces in those shopping links that fit the season but didn’t seamlessly integrate into the capsule I had built. Don’t let this post feel like it’s a box you have to squeeze into, but just an idea if you were wondering how might a Dark Autumn have a fun summer wardrobe.  ( sometimes time the linked pieces don’t show the correct color, so be sure to check the store website for all the color options)

What If These Capsules Don’t Fit My Style?

That’s ok. You could save the image to Pinterest if you find it a helpful guide color-wise but not style-wise. Or you could decide to use your color fans and explore your own pieces.

Eventually, you will want to master your color fan, because that will allow you a lot of freedom when you’re shopping. You won’t be guessing, it’ll become clear.

And, if you’re curious how to use your fan, or how different fabrics fit different seasons, essences, and image IDs, you can check out my YouTube series on it here. 

 We may earn a commission from you clicking a link below. And as an amazon associate, we earn on qualifying purchases. Full affiliate policy, here.

Brief Overview of Color Dimensions

Color analysis is based on three color characteristics: hue, value, and chroma. The goal of determining your seasonal color placement is to match the colors that are naturally found in your face and body with the clothing and makeup you find in your palette. It creates a strong color foundation to support your features and make you glow!

It is based on Munsell’s color wheel, and this is a very helpful little diagram to understand how they all relate:

Let’s briefly describe hue, value, and chroma in case anyone is confused or needs a refresher.

And here are some specified examples of each dimension:

Hue: How warm or cool a color is. A color is “warmed up” by adding yellow. And a color is “cooled down” by adding blue. Every palette will have its version of every color.

Value: This is how light or dark a color is. Which is measured by how much white (tints) or black (shades) is being added to the principal color. Every palette will have a collection of neutrals, light and dark colors but this value is setting the general range. A value range for a bright spring for example is warm white to dark coal unlike winter’s range of pure white to pure black.

Chroma: This measures how muted or bright the color is. When we add gray to a color it becomes a tone and softens the color. When the color has no gray it has a high chroma and is a bright and clear color. Summer and Autumn typically have more muted palettes, while winter and spring have brighter chroma palettes.

12 Seasonal Color Palette Capsule Wardrobes: Summer 2024 

Now, while it has gotten easier to find your colors any time of the year, some seasons still may struggle shopping for the season during certain points of the year.  So I recommend for instance if you’re in the autumn family, to keep an eye out for wardrobe basics during actual fall. You’ll likely find tanks, tees, and shoes that fit your season more easily. 

Let’s get into the actual palettes. 

NOTE:  I have not purchased these pieces and verified them to be within the assigned palette.  I am using my best judgment based on the online photos.  Internet images can be inaccurate at times, so make sure you check the return policy before you purchase. 

Also, if you click on a shopping link, sometimes it does not show the color that I have displayed, so just keep that in mind. But if you click through to the store, it should be shown as an option. So if the color looks off compared to the other pieces, double-check the color options before purchasing.

Dark Autumn 

Hue: Neutral/Warm

Value: Low.  Low value means you lean towards darker value colors.  This does not mean you don’t have “light colors” in your palette but that your colors have more gray/black added to them.  Your palette is composed of shades and tones.

Chroma:  Medium-High. Autumns are a muted season but you still have visible pigment in your colors. 

Sister Seasons: Dark Winter and True Autumn. Depending on your contrast level and personal style you may find borrowing colors from one of the sister seasons is easier. 

There’s a richness and warmth to your palette that makes it very magnetic.

Dark Autumn Outfit Ideas

True Autumn

Hue:  Warm 

Value: Medium. Your value range will be near the 4-7 range on the Munsell Wheel.  

Chroma: Muted 

Sister Seasons: Dark Autumn and Soft Autumn. 

All true seasons lean towards medium saturation, so don’t think you can’t wear a range of colors. You have warmth and ease to your palette.

True Autumn Outfit Ideas

Soft Autumn

Hue: Neutral/Warm

Value: Medium

Chroma:  Low. Even the higher saturation colors in your palettes are fairly soft. 

Sister Seasons:  True Autumn and Soft Summer 

Soft Autumn Outfit Ideas

Soft Summer 

Hue: Neutral/Cool

Value: Medium. You span from light stone to charcoal.

Chroma:  Low. This is the shaded side of True Summer, so you will see more shades and tones in this season. This is the darkest of the summer seasons.

Sister Seasons: Soft Autumn and True Summer 

There’s a toned serene quality to this palette.

Soft Summer Outfit Ideas

True Summer

Hue: Cool. You are the least flexible on hue, you are pure cool so that should be your primary characteristic. 

Value: Medium. You have tones in your palettes (colors that have had some amount of gray to soften the color). 

Chroma: Medium 

Sister Seasons: Soft Summer and Light Summer. Notice how both your sister seasons are also cool, you don’t use warm hues. 

Your colors are cool and tranquil. 

True Summer Outfit Ideas

Light Summer

Hue: Neutral/Cool

Value: High. High value is your most important color dimension.  It is also referred to as the “light” part of your Light Summer name.  Your colors are still muted tones though since your are in the summer season.

Chroma: Medium.  Your palette is still composed of tones (gray added) but all together they can appear energetic.  When you compare them to the spring seasons though they will feel less bright. Because your colors have the summer blues influence whereas light spring will have the spring yellow influence. 

Sister Seasons: True Summer and Light Spring 

Light Summer Outfit Ideas

Light Spring  

Hue: Neutral/Warm

Value: High.  You will have a lot of tints (white or yellow added to the colors) and no real muted tones (like your sister season Light Summer).

Chroma: Medium. 

Sister Season: Light Summer and True Spring 

Your colors are gentle and have a floatiness to them. 

Light Spring Outfit Ideas:

True Spring

Hue: Warm.  This is your primary dimension. So you can borrow from your warm sister seasons, but you won’t find cool colors in your palette. You still get all versions of every color but they are warmed up with yellow. 

Value: Medium. This means you have a lot of tints (white added) and colors warmed up with yellow.  Overall your palette doesn’t get too dark. 

Chroma: Medium high.

Sister Seasons: Light Spring and Bright Spring 

There’s a glow and energy about your palette and summer is the perfect time to embrace this!

True Spring Outfit Ideas

Bright Spring

Hue: Neutral/Warm

Value: Medium. You have a fairly wide value range. It may not be as wide as Winter’s black to white but it can appear that way because you get warm white to dark coal.  

Chroma: High.  This is your primary characteristic. It’s the “bright” in bright spring. 

Your colors (and mine!) are clear and energetic. During warm weather months you’ll find a lot of great bright spring options, so now is the perfect time to explore those colors you’ve been considering!

Bright Winter

Hue: Neutral/Cool

Value: Medium

Chroma: High. This is your primary characteristic.  It is the “bright” in your bright winter name. 

Sister Seasons: Bright Spring and True Winter

You have a huge variety in your palette! While I choose some traditional colors, remember that you have your summer weather colors too.  Because of this Bright Winter needs to customize their palette as they may naturally gravitate towards a specific side or style of their palette. 

Bright Winter Outfit Ideas

True Winter

Hue: Cool.  This is your primary characteristic, you need cool colors. 

Value:  Medium

Chroma: Medium High. 

Sister Seasons: Bright Winter and Dark Winter. You are only pulling from cool seasons. 

Even though you are pure cool, every palette with have yellow in it. It will just be a “cooled” yellow, like a lemon yellow that has a touch of blue added to it. Instead of the harvest or golden yellows of the warm seasons. 

Your colors are regal and distinctive.

True Winter Outfit Ideas

Dark Winter 

Hue: Neutral/Cool 

Value: Low  This is your primary dimension. It’s the “dark” in your Dark Winter name. The first word in any of the names is the primary characteristic of the color palette.  Lighter colors in your palette with will be icy (white added, no gray).  

Chroma: Medium High.  

Sister Seasons: True Winter and Dark Autumn. You can often borrow some colors from Dark autumn because of your neutral undertone, but we don’t want to go too “harvesty”. 

Dark Winter Outfit Ideas

What should I do if I’m unsure of my season?

This is highly dependent on where you are in your style journey. If you’ve narrowed it down to at least one of the four main seasons (winter, autumn, summer, spring) you’re in a pretty good position to slowly pivot your wardrobe. And the color capsule might help you do this.

If you’re still utterly confused and you’ve tried a million drapings and still oscillate between wildly different seasons, then it’s time to make a decision. How important is color in your style currently? If you feel that seasonal color is essential to your color style pillar, and you’ve been lost for a while, then it’s time to get an in-person analysis. It’s worth the investment. Every piece you buy will be around this decision moving forward, and it’s worth getting it right on the first try.

Now.. If you’ve realized that color isn’t your biggest style goal, then maybe it’s time to take a break and explore other aspects of your style toolbox.

I hope this has been helpful! And please let me know if you’d like any specific colors included in the next capsule I make (which will be for Fall 2024). 

And I’m very excited to announce that by Fall I will be offering in-person color analysis in both Brooklyn, NY, and Seattle, Washington. If you’d like to be notified about my color services, you can sign up here. 

Now embrace the warmer temperatures and sunshine in your best colors! Because if you’ve been on this path for a while, you know what a GAME CHANGER the right colors can be.

You got this!