True Summer

True Summer is the coolest and most classically muted of the summer family, the coloring of overcast coastlines and grey-blue water rather than golden beaches. Skin carries a cool undertone, sometimes blue, sometimes beige, often with a soft pink tinge, and ranges from fair to tan, with silver flattering it far more naturally than gold. Hair typically runs from dark blonde to dark brown, always ashy and muted with no natural golden glow, and true redheads are genuinely rare in this season. Eyes tend to be blue, grey, green or light hazel, softly greyed rather than clear, often with the same crackled-glass texture seen in Light Summer. Contrast sits low to medium, close enough that saturated, warm or high-contrast color looks jarring against this face. The palette follows: cool in hue, medium in value, and quietly muted in chroma, think dusty rose, sea green, slate blue and soft aubergine. Nothing here is bright or golden, but nothing is as pale as Light Summer either, these are deeper, more grounded cool colors. Worn well they read elegant and composed rather than dramatic. True Summer sits between Light Summer, lighter but equally cool, and Soft Summer, more muted still, and the boundary with each is where most self-diagnosis goes wrong.