Winter’s Jewelry
October 26, 2009 by Christine Scaman · 11 Comments
Seasonal colour analysis is about a whole lot more than what clothes and makeup to buy and NOT buy.
Colour is more about FEELING than looking. It defines how it FEELS to be you and how it FEELS to others to perceive you.
Winter: cool, dark, and icy colours, stillness, and balance.
Take a True Autumn, whose energy is practical and efficient, unpretentious, truthful, natural, and comfortable. In thick sweaters and layered wools, in their gorgeous earthy colours, with leather belts and boots and functional watches, they look so real and right. Each part of the design enhances every other because they all follow the same harmony.
Take that same True Autumn and dress her in Winter’s white and black abstract designs, shiny fabrics, and minimalist platinum accessories. She looks all wrong. The energies are so conflicting that the person is an ongoing battlefield. The viewer interprets this as “it FEELS unpleasant to look at”. It feels off, like seeing all the hot colours of an autumn landscape on a still frozen ground. There is visual tension instead of visual connection. To the viewer, this FEELS like effort.
This piece of jewelry is very in keeping with Winter’s accessory style. Like its namesake season, Winter FEELS uncluttered, immobile, and timeless. The piece is silver to represent the absence of heat in the season and the person’s skin tone.
A Winter's necklace.
The shape of the stones is oval. The design is simple and repeating. It doesn’t move or dangle. It is of a substantial size and drama, but uncomplicated. It is not exaggerated but it is noticed. Winter won’t wear the matching earrings and bracelets. She feels it’s too conspicuous and showy. She’s already had the necklace on and off four times, wondering if it’s too much. (Her Spring sister looks fabulous in busy effects, the more activity, the better.)
On any of the 3 Winter seasons in 12 Season analysis, this FEELING in jewelry is perfect. When the person repeats those same rules in clothing, accessories, hair, and makeup, the looks is getting reinforced in each element. From the viewer’s perspective, the fusion is undeniable and compelling. It FEELS so right that you just want to keep looking.
To the wearer, it FEELS like the inside and the outside just merged. Like the necklace, the True Winter is quiet, maybe shy, but gets noticed. She moves smoothly and in a physically arresting way. She may appear very confident and poised, but those closest to her see self-doubt and worry. She is as contrasting in her character as in her clothing.
When your outside and inside are perfect mirrors, the key turns in the lock and the real you steps forward.
Icy Colours and Pastels
October 17, 2009 by Christine Scaman · 1 Comment
Personal Colour Analysis determines what the colours that perfect your skin tone have in common. We use terms like “icy” and “pastel”.
The Winter seasons wear their light shades as “icy colours”.
The Summers wear their light shades as “pastels”.
What’s the difference?
Icy colours are pure. They are not grayed, dulled, or dusty (that’s called a “soft” colour). They are very clear.
Icy colours are also very, very light. On a light/dark scale, they are much closer to white than pastels are. Pastels have more colour. Icy means those colours reflected when ice crystals act as prisms and split white light.
Icy colours are completely cool. They are crisp and frosty.
They are consistent with Winter’s formal feeling. They are more regal (Winter) than soothing (Summer).
So ICY = VERY LIGHT + CLEAR + COOL
ICY IS NOT PASTEL, NOT SOFT, AND NOT WARM.
A pastel is light, but not extremely light. It’s also grayed or softened just a little. Pastels are gentle, soothing as watercolours. They are in keeping with the delicacy of Summer, whose mood is peaceful and calm.
Each of the 12 Seasons has an atmosphere all its own. True Summer dressed in their tranquil, conservative pastels are so harmonious that it FEELS wonderful to look at.
Put True Winter in that outfit and it is flatter than flat. Dressed in their icy Winter colours with 1 dark, cold contrast, with the drama created by the colour simplicity, it is difficult to tear your eyes away.
Wrong Colours Away From The Face
October 3, 2009 by Christine Scaman · 9 Comments
Divergence
There are those who believe that even if black is not among your good colours, you can still wear it away from your face, or with a right-coloured accessory. I have tried to agree with that but I can’t. To my eyes, it throws the look completely off balance, even if it’s just dark shoes.
Whenever people cannot agree about something, it’s because there must be many right answers. If there were only one right way, we’d all be doing it, not unlike dog ear cleaning methods. A large amount of it comes down to opinion or taste.
When colours fight, one will win. One will lose. For any person with very light colouring or very low contrast, black is overpowering. It will win, meaning that in the contest between what is getting noticed, it will be the black. The person wearing it fades to grey, the edges get fuzzy, and the whole image is weak.
Working examples
I know a heavy set blond-haired, blue-eyed man. He favors dark shirts and pants, presumably to look thinner. Because his body clothed in black takes over his face, his head seems to shrink by comparison. His body appears disproportionately large, even larger than it already is, because the eye is occupied with looking at the body all the time. The black sucks your gaze down from his face.
Of the 12 Seasons in personal colour analysis, only 4 or 5 can balance black without disappearing in it.
There are darker Summers out there, almost Wintery looking, but they can’t wear Winter’s dark drapes well. They can wear black as pants and shoes, because their hair tones approach black. Also, their coloring is dramatic enough to balance that same effect in the colour black. BUT, they do not do well in a black top on its own, scoop-neck or not. Black looks too heavy, dense, and solid.
Many of these women have thought of themselves as Winter for so long that they are comfortable in black. Once they see how old and tired they look in the solid colour, they quickly learn to adapt it with their cool roses and incredibly sophisticated neutrals. By softening the black with better colours and feminine details, it becomes a possibility for some of them.
Does the darkness and statement of black contrast well with light and/or warm hair? Maybe if there were nothing else to look at but clothes and hair. But the face pays a price. Seasonal Colour Analysis in clothing aims to perfect the skin tone above all else.
The essential element
I do agree with the convention that pants and shoes look best in the range of tones of the person’s hair, and not going darker than the darkest tone in the hair. You have many tones in your hair when you study the range from lightest to darkest or warmest to coolest. You still have a lot of choice.
A reader introduced me to the work of Jennifer Butler. Her site is full of good stuff. This is a very short YouTube video on this topic.
Watch some of the videos, or the main large one at the top on her Videos page. Her work is fascinating and hugely creative. I loved watching all the videos on her site. She is very comprehensive in her ability to incorporate colour, style, silhouette, and the individual’s inner essence with awesome (and humbling) skill.
Since I’m the Budget Colour and Style Analyst, I prefer the IKEA version of clothing, clean straight lines. Gathers, details, smocking, jewels – I don’t know, the final look always seems complicated. Perhaps she’d leave me to my simple ways, who knows, though I’m the first to admit I could use her help.
Colour and style expert Irenee Riter has an enormous amount of information on her website. She takes yet another approach to colour and human beings, with Color Ovals and InterSeasons. On this page, some more on wearing your hair colour
See the image about 1/3 down the page with the comment “looks like a head sitting on a dresser”? That’s exactly what the light-coloured man looks like in the dark suit, plus 200lbs.
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