After over a year, I’m still figuring out how to best navigate life as a Soft Autumn.
Muted earth tones are very hard to find outside of a sandy beach. Like, when picturing a brown shirt, you may think of a deep, rich chocolate or a warm, sophisticated cinnamon. Now take that clean top off the hanger and throw it directly in the middle of any beach. Let the elements and wildlife take hold: sun bleaching, sand muck, various species of urine, “accidents.” After a year, this once brown garment will arrive at a shade of dusky filth that’ll make my olive skin glow. Soft Autumn is the post-apocalyptic glamour.
Thankfully, the lovely folks at Pantone have removed these extra, unsanitary steps by releasing their 2025 Color of the Year: Mocha Mousse 17-1230. I feel seen.
Pantone recently announced their color of the year: PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz. It’s not simply Peach, not Warm Blush, not 1980’s Shell, not even Tawny Sunset. It’s Peach_Fuzz. That load-bearing space between Peach and Fuzz does nothing to make me forget KMD’s “Peachfuzz.”
To me,Peachfuzz (or, I guess, Peach Fuzz) can only ever be the insult used for teasing someone who can’t yet grow in their hair. Period.
The thing is, this Pantone color, this particular shade of peach, is pretty.
It deserves a name that doesn’t conjure up playground ribbing. If you absolutely can’t just call a color of the year by its singular name, Peach, then I suggest:
#1: PANTONE 13-1023 Cherie Wins Miss Adorable Dress
I guess I just prefer the name of a color to conjure up thoughts of Mr. Andy Gibb pairing a sequin blazer with red leather pants, while crowning the clear winner of Miss Adorable. Margaux’s “I’m strictly a female female” be damned.
What do you think? Will you wear Peach Fuzz this year? If you do and if you feel compelled to rub your chin, think of Cherie winning Miss Adorable in that fabulous dress and your posture may become regal.
Whelp, that 10% of my intuition was right, I am an Autumn. The other 90% doesn’t know what’s real anymore because for 40+ years I have dedicated my entire wardrobe around the delusion that I was a Summer.
To the untrained eye, I have all the Summer markings: I’m pale, I have light eyes, and my hair is ashy. But don’t believe online seasonal quizzes (or your own mother) because you may also be lied to (either by their faulty system or by your faulty view of yourself).
I now KNOW my seasonal color palette is Autumn because I hired a professional and I saw the differences with my own eyes.
As instructed for the appointment, I wore no makeup and arrived at a time scheduled to ensure the sun was out. The sun reveals the truth. Also, because the analysis looks for colors that harmonize with your skin tone, eyes, and hair, my dyed hair had to be hidden. We used a hairnet.
The stylist first draped fabrics across my front to determine if I was cool or warmed toned. The cool colors made me look sickly, so Summer (a cool season) was immediately out and I started chewing my lower lip.
Next, we compared Spring colors (bright) and Autumn colors (rich). Some Spring colors really popped on me, but in a way that the color was wearing me and I barely existed. The Autumn colors harmonized.
This is a pic of me draped in my best colors, trying to make the scar in my eyebrow work while wearing not nearly enough makeup to cover my look of dismay.
I was given a fan of colors in my season to help with updating my wardrobe, which currently consists of shades that don’t belong anywhere near me. I own a lot of greys, blues, pinks, and other cool tones (Summer) and I should own browns, greens, teals, corals, and other warm tones (Autumn).
Let’s see if you agree with this Autumn designation with a couple comparisons to Summer.
Exhibit A: As extreme examples, the one on the left shows me in full Summer clothing and makeup, complete with platinum dyed hair, while sitting in an office best used for potato professors. The one on the right shows me in full Autumn clothing and makeup (trust and believe that shirt is teal, not blue) with hair dyed back to my natural brown.
Exhibit B: For a subtle comparison, I have the same medium blonde hair in both pictures, but with Summer makeup and clothing on the left and Autumn makeup and clothing on the right.
In the extreme example, I think the Summer colors make me look like I’ve been locked in an attic my entire life, and someone needs to come get me; while, the Autumn colors make me look like I got the help I needed.
In the subtle comparison, I think I still look slightly sickly in the Summer colors and healthy in the Autumn colors.
Do you agree?
I’m so curious to know your color palette. How convinced are you that you’re a Winter? If you’re down, I recommend House of Color; next you’re in town, we can schedule an appointment with Laura, just sayin.
Love,
Em
P.S. Because I own almost no Autumn colors (I could open a shop called Soft Summer) and because I recently did a haul of misguided spending, I’ve decided to not open the floodgates to buying all new clothes. Instead, I’ve taken to dying some things (including that now teal button down). Nothing is safe. Stay tuned.
I wouldn’t blame you if you thought I was lying, but this IS happening. In part, I keep motivated by the mix I complied with songs that mostly have an electronic beat or a slight tinge of dissent or both.
It’s a lot of Crystal Castles. Like, if “Fleece” by Crystal Castles doesn’t make you want to get up and move, then this mix isn’t for you. As an aside, this “Fleece” music video is the vibe I get from the Honored Matres of Heretics of Dune.
If you’re still with me, then M.I.A.’s “Meds and Feds” is especially effective at getting me moving, and I sometimes need to remember to slow myself down.
I also always delight in hearing Aja’s lament on the wave of praise washed over Valentina in Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I remember watching this moment on screen and then finding Adam Joseph’s “Linda Evangelista” track immortalizing it the very next day. It was a gloriously quick turnaround and a savage burn.
Alternatively, if you ever need a good cry, I also have a solid catalog of songs that make me weep instantly; just let me know. There’s a lot of upbeat songs in the Cry mix. Here’s one that overlaps with the Work It Out mix: “Let’s Go Surfing” by The Drums.
What music gets you moving? Do some upbeat songs also make you sob deeply?
Love,
Em
P.S. Out to lunch recently, the restaurant played a mix of classic 90’s songs. Pete and I started uncontrollably (yet quietly) singing along to “Gonna Make You Sweat” by C+C Music Factory. And then a couple tracks later, Pete remarked “Another C+C Music Factory song; already?!” It took me a couple beats to correct him. It was “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. I broke out into a fit of laughter. I wasn’t laughing at Pete; I was laughing at the “tough guy” Mark Wahlberg, making a song barely indistinguishable from a pop dance hall mix.
To put it mildly, covid is awful. Pete and I finally got it after years of being careful, locking ourselves away, vaccines, boosters, masks, scented anti-bacterial sprays, etc. I expected the many hours of sleep, the fever, the inability to taste, the aches, the coughs, the phlegm; I didn’t expect the fuzzy brain fog. My dreams are so uninformative.
We got half-way through V: The Complete Series when we realized that the “complete series” is actually part 3 of the franchise. V: The Original Miniseries and V: The Final Battle (which is somehow part 2) apparently came first and will be watched in time. My guess is the fashion is the same in all: the villainous aliens in red spandex with triangle crotch coverings, the heroic humans in blue denim and brushed out perms, and the half-breed star-child in head-to-toe purple.
I’m finally on the other side of covid and back to work, but the brain fog is still confusing things. Perhaps when it’s cleared, Marc Singer will be Marc Singer, and not Kevin Bacon, but I’m unsure. Also, with so many inspiring fashions in V, one could compile a killer Halloween costume, but I’m already prepped and ready to be a tomato.
Are you ready for your upcoming costuming: Great Gatsby attire for a friend’s fabulously themed wedding anniversary party? Are there feathers? How many feathers?
P.P.S. Inspired by an episode of Karen Puzzles, I also watched The Circle. This is not to be confused with The Circle (with Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, and digs at Google), not The Secret Circle (about teens with witchcraft powers, headband-length skirts, and mascara), and not Circle(the ethics-horror movie where the white guy wins). No, I watched season 3 of The Circle, the reality show where people never see their fellow contestants and they vote each other out of temporary apartments for money. Two of the Spice Girls made an appearance in Season 4. ❤
So, here’s the thing, I cut ties with Neroli 36. I just fell out of love with that scent. I placed the half empty sampler on its pedestal with the other Le Labo (and Aveda) sprays and walked away. I sometimes peer at them.
I now fully embrace Fleur D’Oranger 27 and Bergamote 22, so much so that I’m usually wearing both. Bergamote is on the wrists and D’Oranger, on my neck (or basically straight up my nose and everywhere, at all times). Like, if I didn’t work remotely, HR would have written me up. Like, if I was a Peanuts character, I’d be Honey-Bee walking around in a cloud of orange blossoms and lime-oids and grass and mahogany wood blocks, probably. Like, if I was on a reality TV show, Dr. Kirk Honda would have things to say about my self-soothing through excess, while insisting he’s not pathologizing me from afar.
Pete is either immune or immediately used to this new scent layer, because he hasn’t commented. Except for that one time I retried Ylang 49; he complained that it “stings the nostrils” and he started sneezing.
Can you smell me from 500 miles away? Does it smell healthy?
Love,
Em
P.S. Thanks for the pronunciation correction. Le-LA-boo. Not LEE-la-boo.
DorEm Answers 