Ask people which color they find hardest to wear and green comes up a lot. I understand why. Most of us picture one green, usually a flat army olive or a loud St. Patrick's Day kelly, and decide it is not for us.

But green is not one color. It is hundreds of them. And here is the thing I learned from years of designing prints: nature puts green next to every other color on earth, and somehow it never clashes. Pink roses, blue sky, orange poppies, brown bark. Green holds it all together. That makes it one of the easiest colors you can own, once you find your shade.

Which green are you?

Start by holding a few greens up to your face in daylight. You will know within seconds which one makes your skin glow and which one makes you look tired.

• Sage and olive are soft and earthy. They behave almost like neutrals and look lovely with cream, tan, denim and rust.
• Mint and seafoam are light and fresh. They brighten the face and pair beautifully with white, blush and lavender.
• Kelly and grass green are cheerful and confident. Use them where you want energy: a top, a print, a statement pant.
• Emerald and forest are deep and rich. They feel luxurious in fall and winter, especially with gold jewelry.

As a loose rule, warmer skin tones tend to shine in olive, moss and emerald, while cooler skin tones look radiant in mint, jade and blue-leaning greens. But rules are for breaking. Wear the one that makes you happy.

Start with a green top

A green top is the best entry point because it sits near your face, and that is where color does the most for you. Four outfits I come back to again and again:

1. Green with denim. Every shade of green works with blue jeans. It is the outfit you can put on half asleep.
2. Green with cream or white. Clean and fresh, especially with sage or mint. Add gold earrings and it goes from errands to lunch.
3. Emerald with black. Sharp, elegant and a little dramatic. My pick for an evening out.
4. A solid green top over a printed bottom. Choose a wide leg pant or skirt that has green somewhere in its pattern. The solid top anchors the print, and the whole look reads as intentional.

Browse green tops, bottoms and layers in every shade in our Green Clothing collection.

The colors green loves most

Pink is green's opposite on the color wheel, so each makes the other glow. Sage with blush is gentle; kelly with hot pink is pure joy.

Blue feels like the coast: calm, natural and impossible to get wrong. Our Seashore Styles collection plays with exactly this pairing.

Orange and rust warm olive and forest green up beautifully for autumn. Orange is a color I adore, and I explain why in Orange Is My New Happy.

Purple is the unexpected one. Emerald with plum is moody and artistic, the kind of pairing you see in old paintings.

If you want to understand why certain combinations feel the way they do, I wrote about it in Color in Clothing: How Expressive Fashion Transforms Everyday Style.

Green in print is where I get excited

Solid green is lovely. Green in a print is where it really comes alive, because you get five or six shades at once without having to coordinate them yourself.

Some of my favorite green work at SingleTree Lane lives in prints inspired by places and textures. The Everglades collection pulls its greens from Florida wetlands. Our colorful camouflage takes a military pattern and reimagines it in greens you would never see on a uniform. The Green Caravan collection is built almost entirely around green, and our floral clothing uses it as the thread that ties bolder colors together. If you are curious why prints like these are everywhere again, read Why Pattern and Print Are Returning to Fashion.

When you wear a green print, keep the rest of the outfit to one solid color pulled from the pattern. Let the print do the talking.

Yes, you can wear green head to toe

Tonal dressing is one of the most modern ways to wear color. Pair sage pants with an emerald top, or a mint sweatshirt with olive joggers. Two or three shades of the same color look deliberate and polished. Keep shoes and bags neutral so the greens stay the focus. Professional stylists use the same trick, as I describe in Why Professional Stylists Use Color.

And if you want to finish a green outfit with a bit of fun, a printed hat is my favorite move. I share a few formulas in How to Wear a Bucket Hat.

Why green, why now

We spend so much time indoors, on screens, surrounded by gray. Green is the color of everything we miss when we are stuck there: trees, gardens, the ocean on a clear day. Wearing it is a small way to bring some of that outside world back in. I talk about how color affects mood in Color Psychology in Clothing, and green might be the gentlest mood-lifter of them all.

Find your shade, start with one green piece, and see how it makes you feel. My guess is it will not be your last.