#00A86B
Bright emerald
A Bright Winter color
anchor color 3 of 10 in Bright Winter. Also called Clear Winter in other systems.
By Kathleen Olsen · Updated November 11, 2026
Bright emerald is the Bright Winter green: a clean, cold jewel green with the brightness turned all the way up. It is the color the whole season hunts for in a real garment and almost never finds, because retail makes it in scarves and gymwear and treats a grown-up emerald coat as a risk.
Bright emerald is an anchor color in Bright Winter. Its closest relative outside the palette is Emerald #009B6B, a True Winter color, at a perceptual distance of 9. That is near enough for that season to wear it as a neutral, with the accents kept in its own palette.
At RGB 0, 168, 107 there is no red at all, the green leads, and the blue sits well behind it. Zero red is what makes it cold and clean rather than grassy. The blue being present but behind the green is what keeps it an emerald rather than a kelly or a lime. Push the blue up and it drifts toward turquoise; add red and it turns into the warm bright emerald that belongs to Bright Spring.
A Bright Winter wears it as the single loud color in an outfit of black and bright white: an emerald dress with black shoes, an emerald knit over black trousers, an emerald coat over white. It pairs with fuchsia and electric blue for the people who can carry two brights at once, and with true navy when black feels heavy. It should never be softened with grey or cream; those are the two things that make it look cheap.
Retailers call it emerald, kelly, jewel green, bright green, parakeet or paradise green, and most of what sells under those names is either warmer or darker than this. Hold the garment against a sheet of white paper. Bright emerald looks cold and electric. A kelly green looks faintly yellow at the edges and belongs to Bright Spring. A bottle green looks dark and belongs to Deep Winter.
Bright Spring's warm bright emerald is five points away and a touch yellow, close enough that the two seasons effectively share the color on a rail; on a Bright Winter the Spring version reads a shade warm, and on a Bright Spring this one reads a shade cold. True Winter's emerald is nine points off and slightly deeper. Deep Winter's emerald is thirty-two points off, a true bottle green, and on a Bright Winter it reads heavy.
The nearest named colors in other seasons, by perceptual distance (ΔE in CIELAB; under 10 is hard to tell apart on a screen, over 25 is a different color).
Warm bright emerald #22B573
Bright Spring anchor · ΔE 5
Emerald #009B6B
True Winter anchor · ΔE 9
Warm turquoise #16BFA6
Bright Spring anchor · ΔE 23
Warm turquoise #1FC3B8
True Spring anchor · ΔE 31
Emerald #006B54
Deep Winter anchor · ΔE 32
Warm aqua #6FD6C6
Light Spring anchor · ΔE 34
As of November 11, 2026, nothing in stock samples close to #00A86B. The guide below has the nearest colors that do. The dot on each card is the color we sampled from the garment itself; trust it over the photograph. Links are affiliate links: we earn a commission when you buy through them, at no cost to you.
Yes. Bright emerald (#00A86B) is an anchor color in the Bright Winter palette, and close enough to a True Winter color for that season to wear it as a neutral.
Yes. True Winter's emerald is nine points away and slightly deeper, and both are cold, clean greens. Bright emerald reads a touch louder on a True Winter than the season's own version, but with black or pure white it holds without effort. It is one of the colors the two seasons can buy interchangeably.
Close but not quite. Kelly green has more yellow in it, and the version most retailers sell as kelly is five to fifteen points warmer than this. STAUD's Kelly is a correct bright emerald; most high-street kelly greens lean toward Bright Spring. The test is a white sheet of paper: bright emerald stays cold against it, kelly shows a yellow edge.
For a Bright Winter: black, bright white, true navy, cool charcoal, fuchsia, electric blue and true red for the brave. It is at its best with the neutrals doing all the work and the emerald as the only color. Avoid grey, cream and camel, which all make it look dirty.
Because it is a high-chroma color and most grown-up retail runs muted and earthy, especially in autumn. It appears in fast fashion, activewear and occasionwear, cycles through the better brands for a season or two, and vanishes. When a real garment turns up in it, a coat, a dress, a knit, it sells out fast, which is why the Bright Winter grid flags it.
The Bright Winter guide · All in-stock Bright Winter pieces · ← Hot pink · True red → · All colors