Color combinations
What colors go with burgundy?
By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated
11 combinations below, and none of them were chosen by eye. Each one is generated by moving burgundy around the OKLCH color space in a specific, named way — a hue rotation for the analogous and complementary pairs, a lightness shift for the tonal ones, a drop in saturation for the ones that would otherwise vibrate. Every reason is written against burgundy's own measured lightness and hue rather than as a general note about complementary pairs, so the same move transfers to a shade that is not on this page.
Then the part most pages leave out: which of the twelve color types burgundy actually suits, measured rather than asserted, and a checker you can run against your own season.
11 combinations that work
- Neutral base A soft off-white carrying burgundy's own hue of 9° instead of a flat, hueless one, which is what stops the pair reading as two unrelated garments. Burgundy measures 33% lightness, so this partner sits 39 points away from it — far enough to do its job without the two collapsing together.
- Neutral base The same move in the other direction, to 93% lightness, still tinted with the 9° hue so it belongs to burgundy rather than merely sitting beside it. Between this and the one above, burgundy has both ends of an outfit without a second color entering it at all.
- Analogous Burgundy's neighbor 28° around the wheel, lifted toward the middle of the lightness scale so the two separate. An analogous pair reads as one considered idea rather than two, which makes it the safest thing to put next to burgundy when you are unsure.
- Analogous Burgundy's neighbor 32° the other way, taken further from 33% than the one above. The hue stays close enough to burgundy to be family; the wider lightness gap is what stops the two smearing together at a distance.
- Complementary Burgundy's true opposite at 189°, desaturated and moved toward mid-lightness before it is allowed near a body. A full-strength complement against moderately saturated burgundy vibrates at the edges; soften it and the same pairing becomes the one people compliment.
- Split complementary Two colors either side of burgundy's opposite rather than the opposite itself, at 159° and 219°. Against burgundy you keep every bit of the contrast and lose the buzz, which is what makes this the most wearable three-piece combination here.
- Tonal Three versions of burgundy, roughly 19 points of lightness apart, with 33% in the middle. Nothing can clash because nothing is a different color from burgundy, and from across a room the whole thing reads as a decision rather than an accident.
- Earth neutral A camel-weight warm neutral, pitched to stay visibly separate from deep burgundy instead of merging with it. Warm neutrals sit under almost anything, and this is the pairing to reach for when burgundy is the only color you want in the outfit.
- Cool neutral A cool gray, doing the opposite job to the camel above: it cools the pairing down and leaves burgundy as the only thing in the outfit with a temperature. Useful when burgundy at 9° is already doing enough work on its own.
- Accent A triadic accent a third of the wheel from burgundy, at 129°, and strictly at accessory scale. A whole garment in this beside burgundy is a costume; a bag, a scarf or a shoe in it is what makes an otherwise plain outfit look chosen.
- Denim Listed on its own because it is what burgundy actually gets worn with. Mid denim is a low-saturation blue sitting at about 51% lightness, close enough to neutral to behave like one against burgundy whatever the 9° hue is doing.
Each row is an outfit in miniature: the first circle is burgundy itself, worn nearest your face, and the rest go below it. The outfit builder runs the same logic across your whole palette instead of outward from burgundy.
Is burgundy warm or cool?
It sits close to the line. Measured in OKLCH its hue lands at 9°, which puts it just on the cool side — but only just, and the version a shop sells can fall either way. That is why two garments sold under the same name can behave completely differently against one face, and why the question has no useful answer at 9° without the specific shade in front of you.
Which color types it suits
Running burgundy against all twelve palettes — the same comparison the free checker does — it comes out best for Soft Autumn, Warm Autumn, Deep Autumn, Cool Summer and Deep Winter.
Burgundy is workable for Bright Spring, Light Summer, Cool Winter and Bright Winter, though better worn away from the face than under the chin.
Burgundy is hardest for Light Spring, Warm Spring and Soft Summer — not forbidden, but that group will want it as trousers rather than as a shirt.
Those verdicts are for #5C1A2B exactly. Shops sell a wide spread of shades under the name burgundy, and two of them can land on opposite sides of the same verdict — which is what the checker below is for.
Does burgundy suit you?
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Find out which colors suit you
The checker needs your season. If you do not have one, the scan reads your undertone, depth, contrast and chroma from a single photo and gives you your type plus a preview of your colors, free. The photo is read in your browser and never uploaded.
Questions
What colors go with burgundy?
11 are set out above, each named for the relationship that produced it, and each measured against burgundy rather than picked by eye. If you remember one burgundy pairing and no others, make it the neutral base: burgundy against a near-black or an off-white built from its own 9° hue is the pairing that never fails.
Is burgundy warm or cool?
Cool. It sits close to the line. Measured in OKLCH its hue lands at 9°, which puts it just on the cool side — but only just, and the version a shop sells can fall either way. That is why two garments sold under the same name can behave completely differently against one face, and why the question has no useful answer at 9° without the specific shade in front of you.
Who does burgundy suit?
Run against all twelve palettes, burgundy comes out best for Soft Autumn, Warm Autumn, Deep Autumn, Cool Summer, Deep Winter, and hardest for Light Spring, Warm Spring, Soft Summer. The burgundy verdicts come from the same arithmetic the free color checker runs, not from anybody's opinion.
Can I wear burgundy if it is not my color?
Yes, below the waist. What a season verdict is about is the light bouncing off a garment and up into your face, so burgundy trousers, burgundy shoes, a burgundy bag and a burgundy coat you take off indoors are all unaffected by it. That leaves most of a burgundy-containing wardrobe open to you whatever the verdict above says.
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