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Suit colors

There is no single best navy

Every menswear guide names the same six suit colors and stops. The useful question is which version of each one suits you — because a navy cut for deep, cool coloring and a navy cut for soft, warm coloring are visibly different cloths, and wearing the wrong one is why a suit can fit perfectly and still look borrowed.

What the tables are keyed to

Frame Atelier reads three things from a photograph and reports them as your color profile: temperature (cool, neutral or warm), chroma (soft, balanced or clear) and depth (light, medium depth or deep). It measures contrast between your skin and hair as well, where the photograph supports it, and uses it to refine the reading. There is no personality label attached to it — the profile is the measurement, and the tables below are keyed to it.

Where one profile covers more than one stored palette, the cell shows every color the app can return at that profile rather than choosing between them. That applies to Cool · Clear · Medium depth and Warm · Clear · Medium depth — two readings close enough to share a profile at three bands per axis, and far enough apart to be worth showing as a range.

Navy, ten ways

Navy is the first suit almost everyone buys and the one where the profile matters most, because the range runs from a soft grayed blue to near-black ink. Below is the navy Frame Atelier recommends for each profile — the same value the app returns after reading your photo.

Color profileNavy
Cool · Balanced · LightSoft Navy #4A5870
Cool · Soft · Medium depthSoft Navy #3C4356
Cool · Balanced · Medium depthSlate Navy #3A4660
Cool · Clear · Medium depthGraphite Navy #262E40 Graphite Navy #242E44
Cool · Clear · DeepBlue-Black Navy #1E2536
Neutral · Soft · Medium depthSoft Navy #3A4458
Warm · Balanced · LightLight Navy #4A5A74
Warm · Balanced · Medium depthInkwell Navy #2F3E48
Warm · Clear · Medium depthWarm Navy #34445E Bright Navy #2E415E
Warm · Balanced · DeepDark Navy #2A3444

Depth and chroma decide how close to ink the navy runs; temperature decides whether there is gray and slate in it or blue. Put the softest of these beside the deepest and the difference is obvious on the hanger — it is only invisible in a catalogue photograph.

Charcoal

The second suit. Charcoal is safer than navy across profiles because depth carries it, but the undertone still shifts: warm and neutral coloring gets a charcoal with brown or olive in the base, cool coloring gets one built on slate.

Color profileCharcoal
Cool · Balanced · LightSoft Charcoal #4E525A
Cool · Soft · Medium depthSlate Charcoal #3B3E44
Cool · Balanced · Medium depthCool Charcoal #3A3E46
Cool · Clear · Medium depthCharcoal #33353A Charcoal #303338
Cool · Clear · DeepCharcoal #34363C
Neutral · Soft · Medium depthWarm Charcoal #3E3A36
Warm · Balanced · LightSoft Charcoal #54504A
Warm · Balanced · Medium depthWarm Charcoal #403A32
Warm · Clear · Medium depthWarm Charcoal #4A443C Warm Charcoal #3A3630
Warm · Balanced · DeepWarm Charcoal #38332C

Gray, in three depths

Gray is where a measured profile earns its keep, because “gray suit” describes three different garments. Light gray is a warm-weather suit, mid gray is the year-round business option, dark gray substitutes for charcoal with less severity.

Color profileLightMediumDark
Cool · Balanced · LightLight Gray #C6C8CADove #AEB2B8Slate Gray #767C86
Cool · Soft · Medium depthMist Gray #B9BDC1Dove Gray #9BA0A5Muted Slate #5C626A
Cool · Balanced · Medium depthCloud Gray #B4B8BCPewter #898E96Slate Gray #6E7680
Cool · Clear · Medium depthIce Gray #C4C8CE Icy Gray #C8CACECool Gray #9EA2A8 Cool Gray #A0A4ACSlate #55595E Steel #6A7078
Cool · Clear · DeepSilver Gray #B6BABFPewter #84888EDeep Gray #4E5258
Neutral · Soft · Medium depthGreige #A99F92Mushroom Gray #8A8176Olive Gray #6E6E60
Warm · Balanced · LightWarm Light Gray #BCB4A6Mushroom #A89A88Pebble Gray #7A7264
Warm · Balanced · Medium depthWarm Light Gray #A6A092Taupe #8A7A64Olive Charcoal #4E4C3C
Warm · Clear · Medium depthLight Warm Gray #B6AFA2 Light Warm Gray #B4ACA4Warm Gray #9A9284 Warm Gray #98908APebble Gray #6E675C Warm Graphite #5C5650
Warm · Balanced · DeepWarm Light Gray #9E978ATaupe Gray #7A7268Olive Charcoal #3E4030

Brown — and who should skip it

Brown is the suit color the profile separates most sharply. Warm coloring wears it better than any other, and some profiles have no brown that works at all. That is a real finding, not a hedge: where the table below is empty, the app recommends no brown suit for that profile.

Color profileBrown suits
Cool · Balanced · LightMocha #705E52
Cool · Soft · Medium depthCocoa Taupe #6E5F56
Cool · Balanced · Medium depthCocoa #5E5048
Cool · Clear · Medium depthno brown suit recommended
Cool · Clear · Deepno brown suit recommended
Neutral · Soft · Medium depthTobacco #7A573A Camel #A17E5A Deep Taupe #6B5D50
Warm · Balanced · LightLight Camel #C8A878 Soft Tan #D2BC9A Cocoa #6E5640
Warm · Balanced · Medium depthChocolate #5A4232 Tobacco #8A5A34 Camel #B08050
Warm · Clear · Medium depthCamel #B58452 Bronze #8A6A44 Golden Tan #C09A6A Chocolate #543E2C Camel #B27E4C Golden Tan #C49C68
Warm · Balanced · DeepChocolate #4E3826 Espresso #3E2E24 Cognac #8A4E2E Deep Camel #9A6E42
2 of the ten profiles have no recommended brown suit — Cool · Clear · Medium depth and Cool · Clear · Deep. If that is your profile and brown has never looked right on you, that is the reason, and the fix is a deep neutral rather than a warmer brown.

Warm-weather and evening

Warm-weather suiting trades depth for lightness, which makes undertone more exposed, not less — a light suit sits right beside your face in bright daylight. Evening runs the other way: the darkest neutral your coloring carries cleanly.

Color profileWarm weatherEvening
Cool · Balanced · LightSoft White #F2F0EA Greige #BBB2A4 Powder Blue #94AECCTwilight Navy #37425A
Cool · Soft · Medium depthPutty #C4BBAD Greige #A6A099 Dusty Blue #6F82A0Deep Slate #2F343C
Cool · Balanced · Medium depthSoft White #EEEDE8 Cool Taupe #9A9288 French Blue #506E9EDeep Navy #2C3448
Cool · Clear · Medium depthCrisp White #F4F4F2 Storm Taupe #8E8880 Royal Blue #2E4A94 Crisp White #F5F5F3 Icy Greige #C2C2BC Sapphire #2A4CA0Black #1A1A1C Black #191A1E
Cool · Clear · DeepCrisp White #F3F3F0 Cool Taupe #948C82 Royal #2E4088Black #1B1B1E
Neutral · Soft · Medium depthOatmeal #D9CDBB Stone #B5AB9C Dusty Blue #7A8CA0Espresso #4A382C
Warm · Balanced · LightSoft White #F6F0E2 Oatmeal #E3D8C2 Light Denim #8AA0BCDeep Cocoa #5A452F
Warm · Balanced · Medium depthCream #F0E4CC Khaki Stone #B8A888 Warm Denim #566A80Espresso #453322
Warm · Clear · Medium depthIvory #F5EBD8 Stone #C4B69E Medium Denim #5878A0 Ivory #F6EFDE Stone #C6B89E Bright Denim #4A72ACChocolate #5C4430 Warm Black-Brown #2C241E
Warm · Balanced · DeepCream #EDE0C8 Stone #AFA28E Deep Denim #45586EBlack-Brown #2E2620

Black appears for evening on 2 of the ten profiles — Cool · Clear · Medium depth and Cool · Clear · Deep — and on no other. Everywhere else a very deep espresso, deep slate or your own darkest neutral reads as formal without the harshness black creates.

How to use this without guessing

All of the above assumes you know your profile. If you do not, the analysis takes about a minute: photograph yourself in indirect daylight with a white sheet of paper under your chin, and Frame Atelier reads your temperature, chroma, depth and contrast from the photo on your own device. It returns your profile, then the exact suit colors above — plus shirts, ties and leathers built to go with them.

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