With the sun near the horizon, its light travels through more of the atmosphere, which scatters the blue and leaves a warm tone. Shadows grow long and soft, and faces and fabric are lit from the side instead of from above. Fashion and lifestyle photography uses the hour for its mood.
The same warmth shifts colours. White turns cream, pale blue turns grey, and metallic fabric picks up a golden reflection. A golden-hour image therefore sets the mood of a product, and a neutral studio image beside it states the true colour. On a real shoot the hour allows only a limited number of frames before the light is gone.