I'm Fighting the End-of-Summer Blues With Fall’s 6 Freshest Color Trends

Bye, butter yellow—hello, mustard.

Emma Childs's avatar
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Published In Buying Guides
a collage of women at fashion week wearing the fall 2025 color trends, including green, orange, mustard yellow, purple, and maroon
(Image credit: Photographers for Marie Claire)

Some people get the Sunday scaries; I get the seasonal scaries—a sense of overwhelm at the start of a new season because it means I have to turn over my closet and tackle a fresh batch of trends. The leap from summer to fall is particularly intimidating: flip-flops to knee-high boots, tank tops to cashmere cardigans. Even as someone easily rattled by change—and still unpacking the back-to-school shopping anxiety of my childhood—Fall 2025’s delectable color trends are making me excited about all the newness.

I write this on a sweaty 87-degree August day during yet another New York City heat wave. I'm desperate for a cool breeze and, as a result, a chance to wrap myself in warmer, cozier colors. As much as I've enjoyed butter yellow as a neo-neutral and zippy blood orange brightening my summer wardrobe, the idea of a chocolate brown chunky sweater or pumpkin-spiced trousers is what I really want. Summer's vibrant color trends were fun — but now it's time to embrace fall's rich and decadent palette.

Consider this a straightforward guide on which colors to swap for the summer-to-fall transition in 2025, curated by a fashion editor who studies runways for a living and is slowly, surely, overcoming her resistance to change. Here are six summer shades to retire and welcome their new replacements.

Swap Butter Yellow for Mustard

woman in mustard yellow leather jacket and skirt

(Image credit: Heidi Jones for Marie Claire)

Butter yellow has served me well, but fall 2025 is the time to give your warmer-toned counterpart, mustard yellow, a fighting chance in the fashion scene. The odds are already in its favor, especially since the mustard yellow trend received an endorsement from Marie Claire's editor-in-chief, Nikki Ogunnaike, in her Self Checkout newsletter. I plan to try the peppery yellow shade as a barn jacket or low-stakes T-shirt.

Swap Cherry Red for Rich Maroon

paris fashion week guest wearing a maroon red sweater and green floral skirt

(Image credit: Tyler Joe for Marie Claire)

I fully committed to the cherry red trend and bought ballet flats and a new Coach bag to play with the juicy color pop. Those items won't be entirely benched in my fall fashion rotation, but they will lose some playing time now that I've researched the maroon color trend that dominated the Fall 2025 runways. Specifically, I'm eyeing a barn red argyle cardigan and a striped rugby shirt, as the season also sees a resurgence of collegiate preppy style.

Swap Black for Chocolate Brown

a new york fashion week guest wearing a chocolate brown leather jacket and jeans

(Image credit: Tyler Joe for Marie Claire)

Black is a fundamental part of my wardrobe, and it will never be removed, now or in the future. That said, I'm also immune to the allure of luxurious cocoa brown, a color as delicious and hard to resist as my favorite sugar rush. Currently, my virtual shopping carts include chocolate-colored Adidas sneakers and a sweater vest to pair with wide-leg trousers for a casual-meets-preppy combination.

Swap Blood Orange for Pumpkin

a woman wearing a pumpkin orange leather jacket and black pants

(Image credit: Cris Fragkou for Marie Claire)

Pumpkin orange, trending for fall, is as expected as florals for spring. But with spiced orange frilly midi skirts that flawlessly execute 2025's boho fashion revival, and fashion girl-favorite Staud putting its unique spin on the color trend, pumpkin feels fresher than ever. I plan to start the new season by swapping out my leather sandals for a pair of orange-tinted riding boots, a silhouette that also happens to be a top fall 2025 shoe trend.

Swap Lilac for Royal Purple

a woman wearing a purple suit, purple shirt, and blue purple scarf

(Image credit: Tyler Joe for Marie Claire)

Choose a shade of purple; it has been a popular color trend recently, from digital lavender to vibrant lilac pastels in spring. But now, without a doubt, royal purple is taking center stage this fall. This shade is naturally associated with wealth and nobility, so any outfit you pick, whether a simple sweater dress or an east-west bag, will radiate rich-girl energy.

Swap Olive for Grass Green

a woman wearing a white button down shirt and green skirt and cheetah boots

(Image credit: Tyler Joe for Marie Claire)

Like purple, green has recently enjoyed its time in fashion's spotlight. First, there was the boldness of Charli XCX's brat green, then spring brought us the softer mint, which later evolved into summer's most discreet color trend, olive green. Now, the rise of verdant green is making waves, seen on the Fall 2025 runways at Prada, Gucci, and Saint Laurent. My budget doesn't quite allow for a designer splurge right now, so I'm considering J.Crew's cashmere collection as my entry into the grass green trend.

Emma Childs
Emma Childs
Former Fashion Features Editor

Emma Childs is the former fashion features editor at Marie Claire, where she explored the intersection of style, culture, and human interest storytelling. She covered zeitgeist-y style moments—like TikTok's "Olsen Tuck" and Substack's "Shirt Sandwiches"—and has written hundreds of runway-researched trend reports. Above all, Emma enjoys connecting with real people about style, from designers, athlete stylists, politicians, and C-suite executives.

Emma previously wrote for The Zoe Report, Editorialist, Elite Daily, and Bustle, and she studied Fashion Studies and New Media at Fordham University Lincoln Center. When Emma isn't writing about niche fashion discourse on the internet, you'll find her shopping designer vintage, doing hot yoga, and befriending bodega cats.