Today, we're looking at the most beautiful silvers to enhance your natural colours and wardrobe, as jewelry or any extension, such as eyeglass frames, belt buckles, or shoes. Metals reflect a lot of light and can add so much the radiance to the person wearing them.
The video is also here on YouTube.
We’re going to look at silvers by comparing the groups of natural colouring or Seasons, so we’ll take a minute to get our orientation. For silver to look great with the person, clothes, makeup hair, all related, the person needs to have some coolness in their natural colouring. That’s 10 of the 12 Seasons.
In the map below, the True cool groups of True Summer and True Winter are on one diagonal, each with their 2 Neutral Seasons right next to them whose warmth level is cool-neutral.
On the other diagonal are the True Warm Seasons of True Autumn and True Spring, each with their 2 Neutrals Seasons where every colour is set to warm-neutral.
That adds up to 4 True Seasons and 8 Neutrals. Actually, you could say each True Season has 4 Neutrals. For example, True Autumn has Soft Autumn and Dark Autumn right next to it, both warm-neutral, and True Autumn appears in smaller dose one step further out, in Soft Summer and Dark Winter, both cool-neutral.
Dark Autumn is mostly Autumn, drifting a bit to the Winter side, combining the warmth and coolness of the parent Seasons. All 8 Neutral Seasons combine some proportion of warm and cool together, more of one than the other, and wear a version of silver. Dark Winter also has Autumn and Winter as its parents, but more Winter than Dark Autumn, and its colours are all set to cool-neutral.
Silver behaves like pure white for True Warm Seasons in that white and silver are not the most attractive possible choice. Without any coolness in their colours, silver doesn’t find a way to work with the person or the rest of their wardrobe. The same applies for gold in the True Cool Seasons, True Summer and True Winter.
Jewelry shape, style, and design
Some Seasons have traditional shape associations, but they won’t apply to every person. All body types can be found in all groups of colouring. They weren’t in my mind when I chose the images we’re about to see, but we may mention them as we go along.
Season is about colour, and by extension, the reflection of light, since that’s what colour is. Like fabrics, metals have various types of finish, including matte, satin, shiny, and so on. This may be more relevant with metal than clothing or makeup where matte always works. If you've had a style or line analysis, follow those guidelines for your jewelry shapes and the colour suggestions mentioned in this post.
Silver: True Cool Seasons
Let’s look at True Summer and True Winter, both pure cool. Summer has softer colours and reflects a softer, more matte to pearlescent light. Winter has brighter colours and reflects a whiter, clearer light. Some silvers might go in either group depending on the person and those ideas shown in the centre lineup.
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True Summer
In the heart bracelet, a brushed surface diffuses the shine to be softer over a larger area rather than coming to a focussed white point. Very cool colour here, no visible gold or orange or yellow. Indoor light is often warm and silver may look warmer at times, but the person is under the same light and the colours balance out.
The fanned drop earrings also reflect a softened light from colours that are grayer in the metal, its highlights, and its shadows.
The brushed surface of the chunky hoops is soft as well. It doesn’t feel frozen or frosty. No significant warmth in the sense of yellow or gold and the reflection is slightly pinkish, easy with the soft pink-violet undercurrent that runs through Summer colours.
Either
The swirly dangle earrings have shiny and sharp edges, which align with Winter, and wavy lines that are lovely with Summer.
We see cool (blue toned) silver in the second item, with more shine than the Summer column but not extreme, in the shapes are delicate and curved, like tendrils of hair or ribbons, pleasing for Summer.
The blue-green stone trio is made with fine wire and small areas of shine to moderate the effect, and skin spaces to help adapt the colour, like sheer makeup. The colour of the stones often repeats the natural eye colours found in these groups of colouring.
True Winter
The silver sphere earrings are very shiny and cool. In the Your Best Yellow post, we said that you want the gold to look belonging with your Season palette yellows. With silver, being similar to white, look for the colour to align with the lightest neutral colours in your palette, look believable, and have some continuity. The effect you wouldn’t want is to lay the silver earrings on your palette colours and think, ‘Actually, these are less attractive when you put them together’.
If you laid these earrings with the neutral colours or entire palette of a Summer group, the earrings would look dominant or demanding and the colours of the person or wardrobe, the palette colours, would seem tired, faded, receding, sinking, somehow or hard to see. Lay these earrings on a Winter group of colours and they would look shiny, expensive, and the overall radiance of the person would be hugely enhanced because they reflect light in a similar way, a compounding effect, one standing on the shoulders of the other.
The silver band is more like the iceberg than the opera. True Winter is not jittery; it is still, like a statue. The shine goes to white and the band has a mirror finish, as if you could see yourself, rather than simply seeing through it like jelly or frosted glass.
The silver pearls bracelet may have a slight blue tone, like chrome, but overall, we see no particular colour, just white and black. That idea of no particular colour carries through Winter neutrals in that their wardrobe grays and blacks have very little colour, allowing the eye to find balance for colour colours with a lot of pigment saturation.
Silver: Neutral Warmth Seasons
These are the 8 Neutral Seasons, those on each side of the 4 True Seasons. They combine warmth and coolness in their colours.
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Light Seasons
Summer’s colour properties of light and soft influence both Light and Soft groups, in the two columns on the left of the image above. The Lights blend Summer with the light and bright colour properties of Spring.
In the pink strap watch, the colour is on cooler side of the Lights, but the sparkle of diamonds and shine of the strap finds common ground with Spring. Spring likes many levels of shine, from glow to gloss. This watch could work well for True Summer and the Light Seasons.
The Versace silver watch has a reflection that is less blue than the pink watch and seems barely yellowed or creamy. Either Light Season could wear this.
The candy pink ring has a smooth shine without feeling hard. The colour may be on the cooler side the Light Seasons, so perhaps more Light Summer than Light Spring, with a chalky opacity that softens light diffusion and is lovely for Summers. The piece shares so much that looks great with Spring, meaning the smooth bubble effect that suggests lift and lightness.
The hammered surface of the gradient earring softens the reflection. The slight yellow in the reflection from the metal works with Spring, plus turquoise is easy for any Spring-influenced Season and gradients are gorgeous for Summer.
Soft Seasons
These are the colour groups that blend light, soft Summer with dark, soft Autumn.
The silver of the sea monster ring has a touch of gold when compared with the silver of the pink watch to the left. The darker gray in the shadows could be an eyeliner or eyeshadow, a natural shadow colour for the person. The absence of black is helpful, along with a 3D effect like a sculpture that’s great with Autumn. The stone is a beautiful soft green, on the cooler side of the Softs but with many similar colours to be found in Soft Autumn eyes.
The pewter bracelet shows more distance between black and white, but overall is made of a textured metal that softens reflection compared with the item at the top of Darks column, which has a darker more contrasting effect.
The earrings with the dangle fringe have a lovely light pink sand colour, on the warmer side of colours in these groups, in a metal with a soft reflectivity. The colour could make a lovely hair highlight for Softs and serve as a good version of orange for Soft Summer.
Bright Seasons
In these groups, Winter is combining with Spring. Metals look best when they’re shiny, and stones the same, shiny, even blingy.
The bubbles ring at the top has a light bright shine, smooth metal, and a touch of yellow green in the metal if you compare it back to the watch at the top of Lights column. We don’t see the deeper gold of the Softs column. This might be nice for the Lights as well, rings being small and worn away from face, with a foamy frothy effect like the crest of a wave that looks good with Brights and Lights.
The 3-banded ring might be called iced silver beige. As a neutral colour, it might work well for the Lights as well the Brights. Comparing the colour with the earrings at the bottom of the Softs column, this version is lighter and clearer creating an effect that is cooler and brighter, less earthy or antique. The reflections are more shiny as Winter influences both Bright Seasons.
The blue stones in this bracelet are like rushing water. The clear colours, icy feeling, and sense of movement for Spring makes a dynamic statement, and not too dark, because the Brights are not very dark overall, although they may reach to or near the white and black extremes.
The silver lattice bracelet at the bottom is smooth and shiny, with just a touch of black to outline shapes, a good effect for Brights to crisp the shapes without adding darkness or weight. Triangles are often flattering for Spring, being angular and delicate.
Dark Seasons
Autumn mixes with Winter so these items are darker overall, though each colour need not be very dark.
At the top, a ring made of dark silver, like the darker metals of tungsten or stones like hematite. They show up well next to the skin and don’t even look that dark.
The next two are bracelets have a braid motif, very good with Autumn colours. On top, the braided mesh is textured throughout, creating a softer light reflection than the one below, perhaps an option for Dark Autumn, whose colours are also softer than Dark Winter.
The bracelet below has more contrast, meaning we see colours nearer white and black. The shine is sharper, smoother, and whiter, a cool option for Dark Autumn, and probably better for Dark Winter or even True Winter.
The black pearl and metal swirl ring or bracelet is interesting. The textured silver is a good Autumn effect, with the smooth stone and the helix swirl belonging with Winter. Winter colours have the farthest extremes and a slightly extreme or other-worldly effect can be artistic and elegant.
Silver: True Summer to Lights
Next, let’s compare the two True Cool parent Seasons with their Neutrals, beginning with True Summer, mixing with some Spring to create the Light Seasons.
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True Summer
At the top, water droplets in a cool silver with a pinkish tinge comparing with the centre pair in the Light Summer lineup.
The cloverleaf is a bluer metal, great in a cool based Season, with the satin surface that creates a softer reflection for Summer.
Silver crystal charms in the lower pair have hoops made of a shinier metal with a soft translucency in the charms. These could work for Light Summer as well, and Light Spring too, as Spring welcomes sparkle done with a light touch. The metal has no colour which makes it flexible in terms of Seasons.
Light Summer
The pink pearl strands have a delicate silver thread effect and soft light from the stones.
Filigree earrings in the centre have a slightly warm silver colour, soft reflection, and playful shape, a pretty swirl, like the trail of a balloon. Small monochromatic stones, like the charm earrings in True Summer, are a great effect on Summer, using the same colour and varying the materials. There are colours very near this among the light beiges of the Light Season palettes.
The connected hoop cascade is a lovely effect for Summer. The metal is shiny but the overall effect is lightweight. The sweeping movement of the small stones and the gentle circles, like rippling water, combine the water and air feelings of Summer and Spring.
Light Spring
Jingle dot earrings at the top are made with metal that has some warmth, a yellow tone, with light moving across it fairly quickly, more of a shimmy than a slowly moving ripple. Gold and silver together are terrific on Neutral Seasons, those that have a warm and cool parent Season.
Next, a linear drop are made of a warmer metal, with a yellower reflection and the brushed reflection of Summer groups.
The green heart, which could be brighter green, more pistachio, for Light Spring, still has much to share with Spring. The colour and opacity are natural-looking and yet candy enough for Spring, where heart shapes work very well. The colours of silver and stone are good together, the parts well chosen for one another.
Silver: True Summer to Softs
Summer is cool, light, and soft. Autumn is warm, dark, and soft. The result is neutral warmth, moderate darkness, and a softness contribution from both parent Seasons.
Shopping information: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3373824
True Summer
Beginning with a soft cool silver watch, with no warmth in the silver and overall more light than dark. Colours are monochromatic in the hands, numbers, and metal, an elegant look for Summer.
The drop earrings appear made of glass, a great substance for Summer, with a softer reflectivity than the harder shine of diamond.
The ring with the blue stones combines a beautiful blue green in a chalky-textured stone surrounded by tiny diamonds, a lovely way to add the glamour of diamond without the weight. The silver is shiny but not much of it visible and the main feature is the colour.
In the last item, soft silver with freshwater pearls, two Summer classics together.
Soft Summer
Moving over to Soft Summer, a slightly darker group, as we see in the watch with the metal a touch darker and warmer compared with True Summer.
The blue crystal pendant also has a warmer metal chain, with a gorgeous smoky blue in the stone along with touches of pink, for an internal gradient effect.
The cameo pendant has the darker silver with a very soft shine, combining the beautiful blue and white of Soft Summer.
Soft Autumn
A warmer silver is found in the textured basket weave cuff, a beautiful orderly pattern rather than the random filigree swirl of the earrings we saw in Light Summer, Spring being an unpredictable Season and Autumn being more steady or constant in how the colours and combinations feel.
The intricate earrings with the stone combine soft silver with soft gold, great effect for Neutral Seasons. Many Soft Autumns have eyes like the stone, with colours so soft that the eyes seems to be the most subtle light gray. We see more gold than in the Soft Summer row because Autumn is warmer than Summer, though Soft Summer could easily wear these.
The feather bracelet has more substance or density than filigree, with similar medium gray tones as the watch in the Soft Summer lineup. Light reflects in a rich, soft, strong way, giving a vintage feeling to the piece.
The earrings completing this column are silver toned gold, brass, and pewter, creating a soft, warm, subtle reflection, that looks as though they’re made of pearl. The colour is moving towards the warmer tones of Autumn.
Silver: True Winter to Brights
True Winter is the cool parent colour group for the bright, darker palettes. Bright Winter brings in a little Spring to combine with the larger proportion of Winter, whereas Bright Spring is more Spring and less Winter.
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True Winter
The blue black and icy blue earring, could work for True or Bright (or Dark) Winter. For many of the items in these panels, items could be shared between adjacent rows, but the decisions might depend on the item for the columns on the far sides. This silver isn’t high shine but it's consistent for Winter, cool and clear, and colour takes precedence for me, it’s what I notice first, like flowers over foliage in a garden.
The snaky silver bracelet has a very smooth high shine, easy for Bright Winter too.
The spider ring is made of bluer cooler metal for True Winter, and has a lightweight feel for the Spring side of Bright Winter.
The hoop earring is made of cool silver, black and diamond, Winter classics together.
Bright Winter
The origami earrings at the top could suit any of the Seasons in this image. Style is important with jewelry, and because silver is so neutral, shape and colour might take precedence over the exact version of silver. A little innovation or spontaneity is terrific with Spring and makes more sense of the colours in a way. The balancing act of a butterfly on a pin in these earrings, something otherworldly that works in the Bright Seasons, that slightly unsteady or kinetic feeling, very good with Spring, here in super shiny silver.
The ring is shiny enough for Winter and white and black are here. In the stone, we see small areas of black ink in some facets, with a kaleidoscopic effect as the hand moves, colours shifting through the gray range for an amazing effect. There’s a green tone in this black that is found in Winter charcoal and black, especially True and Bright Winter, like black tinged with dark avocado peel.
The dreamcatcher is made of sparkly clear silver with bits of black for jingle and movement, plus space through the net, which lifts weight.
What excites the Bright Seasons is a touch of excess or extravagance and colour is the easiest way to get there. As with clothing, the colour area doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be there. We would see the turquoise or purple on another person right away. Silver is shiny. With this colour brightness, soft silver makes a softer statement, like the top pair in the True Winter column, which is perfectly good but there’s room for another level of shine to balance these stones.
Bright Spring
The tiny stars are like diamond droplet waterfalls, super shiny silver and diamond without feeling weighed down. The crisp edges around the shapes repeats the features of many people in this Season.
The ring with the coastal blue and green bands includes bits of black, plenty for Bright Spring without feeling weighed down. As a warmer group where buttermilk replaces white, the softer shine of the metal makes the reflection seem warmer and the colours do the rest.
The orange and green earrings are made with still warmer silver. The innovative colour combinations look like flowers (or frogs!) in the rainforest. Original and modern works for Bright Spring.
The little amber knots combine warm and cool in gold, silver, and diamond. A recent client inspired these. When intense amber eyes are looking out of an ivory cream face, the visual is like the candy coating on the crème brûlée. When we analyze the colouring, the skin turns out to be warmer than cool.
Silver: True Winter to Darks
True Winter is our starting point again, this time bringing in Autumn. The result is less twinkle than Spring, and instead a steadier gleam, more grounded than airy, perhaps more terrestrial than celestial.
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True Winter
The first item in True Winter could work well for Dark Winter too, with shiny metal and a regular pattern of blue leather-like strands. For Dark Autumn, the metal may be too light and shiny so that the metal loses richness and looks tinny or less expensive.
The rope-edged hoop earrings are very shiny and based in black and white with no visible warmth in the metal, great for True Winter. The rope effect adds 3D texture that tends to be successful for Autumn.
The Apple watch is also based in black and white and reaches to the edges of that scale, compared with the Dark Winter watch to the right.
The black, white and red bracelet is a combination of colours that looks great on Winter, same as navy, white, and red or pink are flattering for Summers. In pure uncompromising red and a single solid colour, the eye is not called to move around a lot, creating a sense of immobility that expresses strength for this colouring.
Dark Winter
Two rings with banded details combine black with silver, introduce texture in the design and small elements of brass or gold for the combined warm and cool of the Neutral Seasons.
The garnet ring takes the previous design elements and adds rich smoky red. The piece stays well balanced and the colour relationships stay happy, with the stone warm enough that the gold doesn’t look orange, and the white, black, and red combination comes across nicely.
The dark silver watch is a little softer and more charcoal gray than the items in the True Winter lineup, with less contrast in the face of the watch and more texture in the strap.
Dark Autumn
The tight stack bracelet is first. Dark Autumn colouring is good with silver and not just dark silver. What makes silver succeed is warm silver and the overall feeling is volcanically warm (as well as volcanically dark), as if made by fire. The warmth of silver is especially important when the person wears colours from the cooler side of their palette, Neutral Seasons having cool, neutral, and warm versions of all their colours. If wearing warmer colours, a cool dark silver like the Dark Winter watch could be fine.
The textured hoops could work for either Dark Season, made of darker satin silver with great texture and density. The reflectivity may be too soft for True Winter, their texture and strength feeling more like Teflon, for example the Apple watch shown in True Winter.
The double cuff bracelet feels more solid than vintage, mined from the earth, artistic and natural in a warmer, darker metal. It's also a little tarnished, like a lamp you could rub and a genie would pop out.