Broderie Cotton Top
Cognac
#A8501E
Burnt orange
A Dark Autumn color
Burnt orange
anchor color 8 of 10 in Dark Autumn. Also called Deep Autumn in other systems.
By Kathleen Olsen · Updated November 11, 2026
- Hex
- #A8501E
- RGB
- 168, 80, 30
- HSL
- 22°, 70%, 39%
Burnt orange is orange with the brightness burned off and brown let in. It is the eighth anchor of Dark Autumn and sits five points from True Autumn's terracotta, close enough that the two Autumns share it. It is the orange for people who think they cannot wear orange, and usually they are right about the clear kind and wrong about this one.
Where it sits
Burnt orange is an anchor color in Dark Autumn. Its closest relative outside the palette is Terracotta #B8572A, a True Autumn color, at a perceptual distance of 5. That is near enough for that season to wear it as a neutral, with the accents kept in its own palette.
Clear orange is a Spring color and most people's bad experience with orange is with that. Burnt orange is a different proposition. The brown in it takes the shout out and leaves the warmth, so on a Dark Autumn face it does what rust does, which is wake the skin up, and it does it with a little more light than rust.
The test is the brown. Hold the garment beside a clear orange, a traffic cone or a Spring coral. If the burnt orange looks like it has been toasted by comparison, it is this. If it looks like a slightly darker version of the clear one, it is pumpkin or a Spring orange and will read loud on an Autumn.
Retailers sell it as burnt orange, henna, canyon, copper, spice and rust, and the names overlap completely with terracotta and rust. The in-stock list below sorts that out by sampling the color rather than reading the label.
Easily confused with
Terracotta, #B8572A, in True Autumn is five points away and effectively the same color. Burnt sienna is eleven off and redder; pumpkin is thirteen off and brighter; rust is fifteen off, darker and redder. All five are Autumn oranges and shops use the names at random. Burnt orange is the one with the most brown and the least red.
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).
Terracotta #B8572A
True Autumn anchor · ΔE 5
Burnt sienna #C4532A
True Autumn anchor · ΔE 11
Pumpkin #C4621A
True Autumn anchor · ΔE 13
Rust #B7410E
True Autumn anchor · ΔE 14
Golden brown #A0692A
True Autumn anchor · ΔE 17
Warm burgundy #8C3A2A
True Autumn anchor · ΔE 19
In stock in this color today
As of November 11, 2026, 7 in-stock pieces across Boden, STAUD and Frank & Eileen sample within a close match of #A8501E. 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.
What it's sold as
Retailers almost never use the palette name. These are the color names on the in-stock pieces that sample within a close match of #A8501E today, so they are the words to search for.
- Boden
- Cognac, Spiced Ginger, Trim Leather Belt-Tan
- STAUD
- Cocoa Butter
- Frank & Eileen
- Rust
A retailer's name for a color says nothing about its undertone. "Navy" at one shop is a True Winter color and at another a Spring one. The sampled dot on each card above is what we trust.
Questions
Is burnt orange a Dark Autumn color?
Yes. Burnt orange (#A8501E) is an anchor color in the Dark Autumn palette, and close enough to a True Autumn color for that season to wear it as a neutral.
Can a True Autumn wear burnt orange?
Yes. True Autumn is nine points away and its own terracotta is five points from this. The two Autumns share the color; True Autumn's version is a shade lighter.
Can a Soft Autumn wear burnt orange?
Yes, as a stronger accent. Soft Autumn is eleven points off and the palette's own soft rust and dusty terracotta are the greyer versions. Burnt orange on a Soft Autumn is wearable in a scarf or a top under a jacket; in a coat it is a little strong.
Is burnt orange the same as rust?
No. Rust is darker and redder, fifteen points away. Burnt orange has more brown and reads as an orange where rust reads as a red-brown. Both are Autumn colors.
What colors go with burnt orange?
For a Dark Autumn: espresso, camel, dark olive, oxblood, warm charcoal. Burnt orange with cream is the easiest pairing. With black it loses its warmth; with navy it only works if the navy is warm.
The Dark Autumn guide · All in-stock Dark Autumn pieces · ← Terracotta · Warm burgundy → · All colors