The 4 Universally Flattering Clothing Colors

Some hues bring out the best in everyone, regardless of skin tone or hair color.

Flattering Color: Eggplant

"Some colors work for all skin tones and hair colors, because they fall into the middle of the color spectrum, meaning they're not too warm or too cool," says Leatrice Eiseman, author of The Color Answer Book ($10, amazon.com) and director of the Pantone Color Institute, the international authority on color. Case in point: eggplant (Pantone 19-2311 TC). Eiseman calls the tone "the perfect purple" because it is extremely versatile, almost like a black, a dark brown, or a navy.