Navy vs Black: How to Tell Them Apart and Which Suits You

Navy is a muted blue, and it’s very dark. That’s why it can pass for black until you carry it to daylight.

Four shades make up the family. Navy, Prussian Blue and Oxford Blue sit at the very dark end. Indigo Dye is a step lighter and the most intense of the four, still blue. From lightest to darkest: Indigo Dye, Prussian Blue, Oxford Blue, Navy.

Near a face, that trace of blue is what you notice. It gives a dark garment a direction instead of a void.

Black has no clear hue and is nearly neutral. It is also very dark, though not every black is equally deep.

The family runs to five: Black, Eerie Black, Raisin Black, Onyx and Jet. Onyx and Jet are the two that read as dark rather than very dark, so they’re the lightest of the five.

With nothing in it to answer your skin, black does one thing: it draws a hard line. On a face with strong contrast, that line looks clean. On a softer face, it can look like a frame that is too heavy for the picture.

They share depth. Both are very dark. Don’t expect navy to be the lighter one: it isn’t.

The gap is color. Navy carries blue, and a little more vividness than black. Black carries almost none of either.

On a fabric, that’s a dark with a tint against a dark with an edge. On a face, navy tends to soften the border between garment and skin, while black tends to sharpen it.

A sweater tag is a poor judge. Dye, weave and a yellow bulb can push navy toward black, or the reverse, and a screen changes both again.

Three sub-seasons take both: True Winter, Bright Winter and Deep Winter. Navy and black are both in their palettes, matched with Navy and Black. Their temperature runs neutral to cool (very cool for True Winter) and their contrast is high to very high, so a very dark color near the face has something to answer.

Three take navy only. Bright Spring has navy in its palette, matched with Bright Navy. It’s neutral to warm, very bright and high in contrast, so a dark with some blue life in it fits.

Light Summer and Cool Summer get navy as a near miss: a neighbor sits in their palettes, Soft Navy for Light Summer and Navy for Cool Summer. “Take” here includes these close verdicts. Light Summer is very light and low in contrast, so its navy is the softened one. Black is on the avoid list for both.

Deep Autumn is the only black-only sub-season, and only close: a neighbor of black, Espresso, sits in its palette. It’s neutral to warm, dark and high in contrast. Navy is not for you there. Eggplant is the nearest thing in its palette, a stand-in rather than a match.

Five take neither, and black is on the avoid list of each.

Soft Summer reaches for Grayed Navy, Soft Autumn for Soft Eggplant. Warm Autumn uses Warm Eggplant in place of navy and Chocolate in place of black.

A stand-in is not a match. Reach for it when you need a dark, and leave the original for far from your face.

Settle it with a bare face and one dark at a time, window light on your side; the setup is in the guide to color draping at home. Do your eyes brighten, or does your face turn gray?

Four partners work with both: white, camel, burgundy and light gray. Beside a white, navy tends to read clearly blue and black gets a crisp edge. If you’re undecided, build outfits from those four and choose the dark later.

Each dark also has partners of its own: mustard and baby pink for navy, cream and emerald for black. Try each beside its dark before you commit. If your sub-season takes neither, keep both away from your face and put a palette color between the dark and your skin.

For other pairs of dark neutrals, the color guides go through each one.