It is of course the temperature and lack of colours. Everything looks so monotonous… grey, faded and drab. White snow looks perfect but sooner or later you get bored of it.

That is why it is so important to choose color palette for your winter clothes.

It should cheer you up, comfort and give positive emotions. Fashion for winter 2009 is rather contradictory in this respect. Black and grey are the hottest trend colours, though one can hardly describe them as optimistic or invigorating.

Here are ten colours that will be popular this winter:

Black

No wonder it is again in fashion. Designers love it and we do either. It seems to be comfortable, practical, noble, and what is even more important – black creates a leaner image of us.

Besides, it goes well with all closing items we have in the wardrobe. Black garments do not usually become old-fashioned; in case they do you can wear them as vintage ones.

Zac Pozen, Sandler, Chanel, Rad Hourani

The peculiarity of fashion for black in this season is that every item of our outfit should be black – headwear, a scarf, a blouse, a skirt or trousers, a coat or a jacket, tights (black opaque tights are a hot winter trend) and of course footwear (shoes or boots).

Accessorize your look with black gloves and a bag of the same colour.

Black and white

This season the combination of black and white takes on special significance. These tints are vastly included into office and business style outfits and evening wear as well.

Temperley, Julien MacDonald, Naeem Khan, Jens Laugesen

It looks elegant and is rather practical because you can wear the garments of this colour mix for various occasions accessorizing your looks with various bags and jewellery.

Brown

Brown can serve as a good substitute for black.

Allegra Hicks, Tommy Hilfiger, Nicole Farhi, Carmen Marc Valvo

It is less formal but adds much luxury to our look. It can be very well combined with garments or accessories of different hues.

Grey

Grey colour allows us more diversity of style than the black though it is practical and noble as well. Grey of this season is soft and pleasant to look at.

Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, Bliss Blass, Stella McCartney

Total grey of your outwear will make you look trendy too but designers advise you to choose various nuances of grey to prevent a solid grey look.

Combination of warm and cold grey tints looks especially well. Different prints on grey background look terrific. For instance, floral prints look pretty feminine and elegant.

Both tight-fitting and voluminous garments of grey colour look well.

From Bright blue to Electric blue

Do you remember electric blue that was in Vogue in 1970s? It is again with us this winter. Though you have to be bold enough to choose this colour for your winter wear.

Jens Laugesen, Temperley, Stella McCartney, Christian Dior

I guess vivid blue is for extreme natures only. But other, not so radical, variants are possible either. For example, a combination of black and blue.

Lilac and Violet

Leading fashion houses offer us a great diversity of these tints for winter 2009. They vary from very warm hues close to bright pink to very cold ones.

Reem Acra, Richard Nicholl, Todashi Shoji, Bill Blass

The colours seem to be rather aggressive and you probably don’t feel like choosing them for everyday wear. However, you can select a couple of items for your wardrobe (for instance, a coat and gloves, a dress and shoes).

But sometimes only one bright item is enough to attract attention to your image. For example, suede jackboots of fuchsia colour.

Red

This colour is extremely popular. It is greatly admired but despite that not many ladies actually wear it. Some women think it is too aggressive, others don’t want attention to be focused on them as it is inevitable when you wear red.

Vivienne Westwood, Milly, Synthia Steffe, Balmain

You can make it softer by combining with black or grey. Your footwear or a handbag can be red, it looks really nice.

Orange

It is the most positive, the warmest. Orange is particularly good when winter sun is not warm enough and there are no other bright colours of nature. It improves mood very well.

Prada, Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior

Orange was used by many designers for a few seasons in succession. It is good in itself and items of this tint do not need any décor or embellishment.

If it is too bright for you choose some accessories: gloves, shoes, scarves, handbags or even opaque tights.

Yellow

Yellow is a colour of sun and warmth, the very things that we miss in winter a lot. Add them to your look and you will attract all eyes.

Vera Wang, House of Holland, Reem Acra, Tory Burch

Green

Green is especially popular as we are longing to spring as soon as winter starts. Green was chosen by many designers. You better not wear all items in green but choose one or two to represent spring tints in your look.

Armani Basi, Marc by Marc, Temperley, Vivienne Westwood

Now you know the hottest colours for this season. Keep them in mind to provide yourself with positive mood!

Also you can see video about color trends winter 2008-2009: