Autumn has always been my biggest colour temptation, but for a Summer palette, autumn dressing can sometimes feel like a contradiction.

In The Summer Who Wanted to Be an Autumn, I explored how Summers can borrow some of that Autumn feeling while still staying (mostly) true to their own palette.

I realised the magic of Autumn is not always found in the colours themselves — it is often found in the atmosphere they create: depth, richness and a certain kind of quiet drama.

For this exploration, I scoured hundreds of FW26 runway looks, searching for the ones that sparked that familiar Essence of Summer feeling. I wasn’t looking exclusively for Summer palette colours.

Instead, I was paying attention to the details that create a feeling: soft patterns, interesting textures, and unexpected combinations of colours from different seasonal palettes.

Something was off.

Refreshingly off.

The overall mood felt surprisingly close to Summer.

In this post, I will explore the elements behind this FW26 aesthetic — from colour combinations and textures to prints and styling choices — and how they can inspire a Summer wardrobe as we move into autumn.

Interestingly, FW26 was not a season of obvious colour statements. Instead, the palette was built around restraint: black, charcoal, espresso, oxblood, deep plum, muted pink, olive and silver. The bolder shades were often juxtaposed with soft neutrals, tempering their intensity and allowing them to feel more refined.

The result was a palette that felt simultaneously quiet and loud. It commanded attention without shouting.

Two collections that particularly illustrated this colour story were Burberry and Emporio Armani. Interestingly, they revealed two very different ways of creating an autumn mood.

Burberry: Weathered Neutrals

Burberry’s Life in In the Trenches collection was perhaps the clearest example of dark Summer neutrals creating an autumn atmosphere. Inspired by the trench coat and the unpredictable British weather, the collection built its world around rain-soaked landscapes, heritage fabrics and layered outerwear.

The palette reflected this mood through more than simple grey.

Alongside charcoal and slate, there were traces of midnight navy, steel blue, storm violet and dusty lavender grey — shades that felt slightly hard to define, blurring the lines between blue, grey and violet. Even the taupes carried that same muted quality, more like a cold stone than the warm earthy browns usually associated with autumn.

This is where the collection became interesting from a Summer perspective.

The colours have depth without feeling heavy.

The blues are not crisp or icy, they are blurred with grey. The greys are not flat, they carry hints of blue and violet. Nothing feels sharp or overly saturated; the colours have a softened, weathered quality.

The result is a palette that feels like London after rain: reflections on wet pavement, cloudy skies and the fades colours of the city seen through mist.

Burberry FW26 perfectly captured a side of Summer that is easy to overlook

— moody, elusive and quietly dramatic.

Emporio Armani: Cinematic Neutrals

Emporio Armani explored a different side of the same idea. Milan to the World collection leaned slightly more into traditional deep and earthy autumnal shades.

Before reading the collection review, my immediate association was Peaky Blinders: smoky neutrals, tailored silhouettes and a cinematic sense of old-world elegance.

Grey and brown dominated the runway, yet the collection was far from boring. The colours were softer and lighter, with muted blues and deep indigos adding a cooler contrast.

I was particularly mesmerised by a menswear look featuring brown outerwear paired with an indigo jumper. The interest came from the way the colours interacted with each other.

Brown gains depth when placed next to a cooler shade, while indigo appears richer and brighter beside the brown neutral.

The contrast between the hues creates visual interest, but their shared muted quality keeps the overall effect harmonious.

For Summer dressing, this opens up a more flexible way of thinking about seasonal colours.

A colour does not exist in isolation

— it’s surroundings can change how we perceive it.

I guess my point is this: yes, there are cool browns that naturally belong to the Summer palette. But that doesn’t mean you have to throw out every brown piece already hanging in your wardrobe. Have a warm chocolate brown coat? Try pairing it with charcoal grey trousers and a soft navy jumper next time and see what happens. You might be surprised.

For me, this is the essence of seasonal colour analysis. Not following a strict list of allowed colours, but understanding the principles that allow us to create harmony in unexpected ways.

Prints continued to have a strong presence in FW26, but they appeared in a different form from the louder maximalist print trends of previous seasons. Rather than competing for attention, they were approached with more restraint — integrated into the overall design rather than used as a standalone statement. Animal references in particular were reinterpreted in unexpected ways, moving beyond traditional leopard and zebra motifs into more abstract, textural and colour-driven expressions.

Cavalli: The Art of Abstract Animal

When I think of bold prints, my mind automatically goes to Cavalli. Interestingly, FW26 Cavalli collection Nero Carnale is built around a dramatic return to black. The collection leaned into the house’s familiar language of sensuality, animal references and theatrical textures, but filtered through a much darker and more restrained palette. Instead of the colourful maximalism often associated with Cavalli, the collection explored contrast between black surfaces, sculptural silhouettes, fluid prints and tactile details.

The most interesting part of the collection, from a colour-analysis perspective, is that the drama did not come primarily from colour contrast. It came from surface, movement and texture. Black became less of an absence of colour and more of a canvas: allowing materials, prints and silhouettes to create visual interest.

The animal influence was also approached differently. Instead of relying only on recognisable leopard or zebra motifs, the collection explored animal references through more abstract, textural interpretations.

My eye was caught by the photographic silver-fox imagery on silk chiffon.

The idea of the animal became part of the fabric itself.

This is where Cavalli challenges one of the common assumptions about Summer dressing: that a Summer palette must avoid dramatic prints.

The key is not the size or complexity of the pattern, but the relationship between the colours within it. Summer palettes naturally lend themselves to prints where the boundaries between shades are less abrupt — where colours blend, overlap and transition into each other. A high-contrast print with sharply separated colours can can easily overpower the wearer, but a print built from related tones creates movement while preserving the soft colour relationships that define Summer.

Cavalli FW26 demonstrates this beautifully. Beneath the drama of the prints, the colour relationships remain surprisingly gentle — proving that a Summer palette can embrace pattern without losing its natural sense of harmony.

LaPointe: Composing in Leopard

LaPointe’s FW26 collection titled Turning Inward explored a different approach to print. Known for its monochromatic aesthetic and strong, sculptural silhouettes, the house introduced patterns while maintaining the controlled colour language that defines its work. The result was a collection where prints became part of the overall composition rather than a separate statement.

What makes LaPointe’s approach to animal print interesting is the way the pattern is softened through colour. Rather than relying on the traditional golden and high-contrast interpretation of leopard, the collection explores versions built around cream, taupe, muted brown and dusty shades. The animal motif remains recognisable, but the colour treatment shifts its character — allowing the print to function almost like a neutral within the overall look.

One of the challenges of incorporating prints into a Summer wardrobe is that many naturally occurring animal patterns are built around warm tones and strong contrast — qualities that sit outside the softer harmony of a Summer palette.

Of course, that does not mean these prints are off limits. As I explored in The Summer Who Wanted to Be an Autumn (using an example from this very collection), there are ways to incorporate warm, traditionally Autumn-associated patterns into a Summer outfit.

However, LaPointe also demonstrates that some prints do not need to be reimagined or worked around. When the colours themselves already reflect the muted qualities of Summer, the print can naturally exist within the palette.