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What’s This About

This page names 15 men The VOU places in the three Winter palettes, Deep Winter, Bright Winter and True/Cool Winter, with a reported outfit and a styling idea for each.

Each section pairs a dated outfit report with an outfit you can wear, such as:

a white dinner jacket with black trousers, from Adam Driver at Cannes in 2024, for Deep Winter

a navy slim-fit suit with black-framed glasses, from Benedict Cumberbatch in Toronto in 2014, for Bright Winter

a tuxedo with a deep navy shirt, from Pierce Brosnan at the 2020 Golden Globes, for True/Cool Winter

a comparison table of blues, reds, greens and purples across the three palettes

one office outfit worked three ways

and many more!

The placements are The VOU’s styling assessments; your own palette is found by comparing colours against your face.

Key Points

01All three Winter palettes lean cool and clear; Deep Winter leads with depth, Bright Winter with clarity and True/Cool Winter with coolness.

02The VOU’s placements are its own styling assessments, and your own palette is found by comparing colours against your face.

03A dark suit with a white shirt suits all three palettes; the tie or knit is where the palettes differ most.

04Nothing in your wardrobe is banned, and dress codes come before any palette.

The Winter family is the cool, clear side of the twelve-season system, and it is split into three palettes: Deep Winter (also called Dark Winter), Bright Winter (also called Clear Winter) and True/Cool Winter.

This page names five men for each palette, in the groups The VOU has published, and shows one reported outfit for each man.

The VOU’s placements are its own styling assessments, and your own palette is found by comparing colours against your face.

Every reported outfit links to the report it comes from; the “Try this” ideas are The VOU’s suggestions, not outfits the men have worn.

How the three Winter palettes differ

In the twelve-season convention used across The VOU’s colour guides, the three Winter palettes share clear colour and a cool lean, and differ in which quality leads.

Colour family	Deep Winter	Bright Winter	True/Cool Winter
Leading quality	Depth	Clarity	Coolness
Blue	Midnight navy	Electric blue	Clear royal blue
Red	Deep burgundy	Clear cherry	True blue-red
Green	Deep forest green	Bright emerald	Clear pine
Purple	Deep aubergine	Vivid fuchsia	Royal purple

The colour examples follow The VOU’s Winter colour season guide, which explains the convention and how to compare the palettes with clothes you own.

Deep Winter Celebrities

Deep Winter outfits work by controlling where the light and dark colours sit, usually a dark suit or knit with one clear light area near the face.

Adam Driver

The VOU places him in Deep Winter.

At the Cannes premiere of Megalopolis in May 2024, Driver wore a white wool and silk tuxedo jacket, a white shirt, a silk bow tie, black wool trousers and black leather shoes, according to Burberry Japan’s release of 17 May 2024.

The light jacket carries the contrast, while the black trousers and shoes keep the outfit grounded.

Try this: a pale grey overshirt over a black T-shirt with dark navy jeans and black trainers, which moves the light colour into a casual outer layer.

Colin Farrell

The VOU places him in Deep Winter.

Dolce&Gabbana’s April 2024 Sartoria campaign features Farrell in black and white photographs by Gray Sorrenti for the brand’s made-to-measure tailoring service.

The VOU’s Deep Winter outfit page describes one of the images: a dark double-breasted pinstriped jacket, a light shirt and a dark tie with light dots.

Try this: a charcoal pinstriped suit with a white shirt and a deep burgundy tie with a small light pattern, which keeps the same dark and light balance in colour.

Ian Somerhalder

The VOU places him in Deep Winter.

At the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Somerhalder wore a fitted Armani tuxedo, according to ET’s report of 1 May 2011.

Try this: a black or midnight navy dinner suit with a white shirt and a black bow tie for black tie, or a navy roll-neck under a charcoal jacket for a dinner without a dress code.

Trevante Rhodes

The VOU places him in Deep Winter.

At the Academy Awards in February 2017, Rhodes wore Calvin Klein, according to Glamour South Africa’s report of 27 February 2017.

Try this: a dark navy business suit with a white shirt, a dark blue tie and black lace-up shoes for the office, which keeps one light area framed by dark tailoring.

Aldis Hodge

The VOU places him in Deep Winter.

In January 2021, around the release of One Night in Miami, Hodge wore a pink suit by Frère, the label of designer Davidson Petit-Frère, with Laneus knitwear, according to Cleo TV’s report of 14 January 2021.

A coloured suit can still sit within a Winter wardrobe; the Deep Winter version of the idea is a deeper, cooler shade.

Try this: a deep aubergine or burgundy suit with a black roll-neck for an evening event, or the same colour as a knit under a charcoal jacket.

Bright Winter Celebrities

Bright Winter outfits usually pair one vivid, clear colour with a crisp neutral such as white, black or charcoal.