Pumpkin

Where it sits

True Autumn palette

Pumpkin is an anchor color in True Autumn. The nearest color on the same side of the warm–cool line is Burnt orange #A8501E, a Dark Autumn color, at a distance of 13: close enough to mistake for it on a hanger, far enough to tell apart on a person.

At RGB 196, 98, 26 pumpkin has twice as much red as green and almost no blue. That is what makes it warm. What makes it True Autumn rather than Spring is the darkness: it holds about a third less light than a Spring orange, and the difference reads as earth rather than sun.

A True Autumn wears it the way a Winter wears red: as the one piece that carries the outfit. With golden brown, with bronze, with camel, with cream, with warm teal for contrast. It does not need a second strong color. It is a good color for a coat, a knit, or a scarf against a brown jacket.

Retailers call it pumpkin, burnt orange, rust, terracotta, spice, or just orange, and the names drift across a wide range. Most orange on the market is either too bright, which is Spring, or too brown, which is Dark Autumn. Hold it against a cream. Pumpkin stays clearly orange and clearly warm.

Easily confused with

This is True Autumn's own neighborhood. Terracotta, burnt sienna, and rust are all within fourteen points and all in the palette. Dark Autumn's burnt orange is thirteen points off and darker. On a True Autumn, burnt orange looks a little heavy. On a Dark Autumn, pumpkin looks a little bright. Both seasons borrow across the gap.

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).

In stock in this color today

As of November 11, 2026, 2 in-stock pieces across Boden sample within a close match of #C4621A. 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.

Elsie Cashmere Crew T-Shirt

Orange Lily

$160 at Boden

Stamford Cord Blazer

Spiced Ginger

$230 at Boden

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 #C4621A today, so they are the words to search for.

Boden

Orange Lily, Spiced Ginger

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

The True Autumn guide · All in-stock True Autumn pieces · Rust → · All colors