Myles Is A Bright Winter
September 27, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 40 Comments
All out glamour.
All out color. Such flamboyance of color that it takes Bright Winters time to get used to wearing it. Not Myles. He got it instantly, like he’d always known it.
Men are usually more intensely colored than women of the same Season, and Myles’ natural coloring is a great example of that. The concentration of pigment in the hair color alone is a testament to the high color saturation of the entire person. It is less obvious in the Bright Winter woman, but Jocelyn (Jocelyn Is A Bright Winter) could still dominate every color she wore, almost including black.
As a Bright Winter, in 12 Season (Tone) Color Analysis, he is fundamentally a Winter, but incorporates a small element of Spring. That means that the True Winter palette, with its dark reds, blues, and especially purples, has a pale yellow light shining on it. Colors become lighter and so slightly yellowed. The effect is of brightness and high energy, conveyed by the highest color saturation in the spectrum. (To understand saturation better, see the article What Are Clear And Soft Colours?)
You’ve met Myles before in Clear and Muted Orange In Eyes, in the first photograph illustrating beer bottle transparency in the browns and oranges coloring the iris. Here is his eye, once more. Notice the very sharp transitions between hair/skin/eye color, and how generously pigmented the colors are.
Myles had one of the most sophisticated internal color guidance systems that I’ve seen, man or woman. He could see the effects with ease, in others and in himself. He could describe what was happening under the color’s influence using unconventional analogies that scratched well beyond the surface. He could direct his own analysis after having watched his wife’s. He originated the expression “the face in hi-def” that I’ve used to describe the sharp focus of the facial structure in right color.
Draping
On such uncommon coloring, we were bound to see some extraordinary effects. The draping begins with 4 drapes representing extremes of the 4 True Seasons. The Spring drape is a deep shimmering golden caramel. Those eyes of his were enormous and glowed with a shockingly golden yellow light, not something I’d ever seen at 10AM, or any other time. It was like meeting an owl in a dark night forest.
His skin was too yellow in the Spring drape. It follows that the whites of his eyes were quite yellow. That was bound to happen in a pure Spring drape on a person of predominantly cool skin, since Myles is a Winter type. We quickly got all that sorted, but for a moment, the blazing luminosity in the eye made you forget everything else.
Myles’ PCA proceeded quite quickly because the optical effects were so undeniable. There was no other Season to which he could possibly have belonged.
Among the Bright Winter test drapes is a gleaming dark sapphire fabric. Not only is it electric blue, it is very shiny. Nobody, but nobody, can balance that color unless they are Bright Winter. It dominates even True Winter unquestionably. Myles wore this color with ease, and without fidgeting the way men do in shiny fabric. He felt confident, attractive, and relaxed.
The final point is to notice the very fine quality of the skin texture. Many Springs have this very youthful, poreless appearance in the skin. If the skin were fabric, Spring’s would be handkerchief cotton to satin. Many Springs also have a triangular or pointed feature, like Myles’ finely carved nose.
The uplifted outer corners of Audrey Hepburn’s eyes are another example. On a child, they look like the eyes of an elf, or Tinkerbell. You might see the more pointed chin of a heart shaped face, a prominent bow in the upper lip, or the outer corners of the mouth tipped upwards. For these reasons, Springs can look very youthful and alert.
The Bright Winter Man
Men are harder to know from their attire because there is more social pressure on them to conform to “guy” looks and behaviors. I see it already in my 13 year old son. A woman can communicate the unrestrained allure of a Bright Winter with jewels, shiny accessories, luxurious fabric, and large blocks of very bright color. She is the only one among the 12 Seasons who can wear logos, and they won’t look plastic.
What does a man do? First of all, what is he trying to communicate? That’s everyone’s first question when they dress.
The Bright Winter man combines Winter’s power signal with Spring’s positivity and enthusiasm. His subliminal statement is dynamic force. He is the contrast of sunshine on ice. Is there a more glorious, energizing place to be than a ski hill in March? The bracing wind, the speed of the run, the sun we’ve waited all winter to feel on our skin…no wonder people are euphoric.
The overall effect of his look should be dark, like all Winters. It should also of the highest contrast, the most important component of Winter dressing. There is maxed separation between the lightness of the skin and the darkness of the hair, so clothing combinations feel right to look at when they repeat that.
Spring makes this personal color palette the lightest of the 3 Winters, so he wears stark white extremely well. White combined with a bigger dark block is better. White (or icy light)+bigger very dark block+small bright accent=even better. Dark + bright is equally great. Only Bright Winter men can still be taken seriously in these pairings. Men of other Seasons are somewhere between dominated-by-clothing and rapper-snowboarder-silly.
His biggest problem may be not looking too formal. Even a black-brown or ink-navy suit will look like a tux with a white shirt. Dark charcoal gray will be a fantastic suit color. With an icy violet shirt? Only one guy in the room will be doing that, the only one everyone’s looking at. He looks commanding and interesting, but that violet softens him a bit. It even hints at playfulness.
When he wants to look scary dominant imposing authoritative, he can wear the night sky suit, even better with a little shine in it, the white shirt, … what about ties?
I love ties. I can look at them for hours. A man can say more with a tie than a woman can with anything. This guy can’t go as wild as his Bright Spring brother can, his Winter reserve just won’t let him. He is better when he’s on the formal side. When he chooses more traditional (still high contrast) designs with larger dark blocks that repeat the suit color, the element of bright color will seem less bold.
Winter does not want to come across as unpredictable or random. Nor do you want a design where all the colors and lines seem to flow together, which happens when the pieces of the puzzle are small. The Winter exterior should look very composed and quiet, but dramatic.
Lines should be thicker, rather than fine, which balances the strength of the colors better. The print should be obvious, which tie designers seem to do mostly in stripes. The other choice is 10,000 ladybugs. The edges of each color block should be crisp, since they are in the natural coloring. This tie could be worn well by the Bright Spring, and even the True Spring man. The tie is here, at Nordstrom.
As a Neutral Season, meaning a blend of 2 True Seasons, the palette offers a warmer go-to golden red and a cooler blue-red, a strong fuchsia. Even as a very small constituent in the overall look, the harmony gets noticed. Women can create this effect with lipstick or eyeglass frames. The red in this tie repeats that golden, strawberry red undertone, and looks electric on this coloring. It is here, at J.Crew.
I like this tie too. It is a Winter grey, like clean sharp steel, a blade, a knife edge, a scalpel. There is a slight jewel effect in the lighter stripes, like platinum, or crystallized sugar, that sparkles without being obnoxious. Tie here at Nordstrom.
On no group of man does safe color fall flatter. Casual clothing in general is very difficult because of the inherent formality and intensity of the appearance. All 3 Winters have some difficulty with jeans, but this group most of all. Nothing works, not the faded color, the almost-sloppiness, the rugged strong quality. Jeans should be the darkest possible black or blue in a classic cut.
T-shirts should be shockingly saturated with color, hopefully more IRL than in the photo. The diagonal line in this polo (here at Nordstrom) gives a triangular effect that repeats that physical traits we talked about earlier. Zigzag lines add energy and asymmetry, both Spring’s influences.
For men, Colour Analysis is more about looking good than the spiritual journey that it becomes for women. They understand that the viewer interprets appearance as education, social status, risk-taking, and creativity. For a man, clothing is an investment in themselves and their business. Fair or not, appearance is a factor that helps people decide how much money they’re willing to give us.
Men, you attract trust with your clothing, a commodity that men don’t come by easily. Making these choices is not what your wife is for (until after your PCA).
Junior Party Dresses for the 12 Seasons
September 19, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 8 Comments
School has been in for two whole weeks now. For some reason I don’t know and don’t want to know, my teenager is looking at formal dresses. My organs are eating each other thinking I’m going to have to go choose one of these with her.
That she can exclude what would look better on someone else helps me get through it. At the risk of confirming that everyone is my favorite type of client, I really really enjoy personal colour analysis for teens. It’s just the pure joy of color, before they are towing around too many false beliefs.
Marketing is starting to eat a wormhole into their self-image, but they still have enough of the clear-headed child left to just accept how they came here to look. Our own face is always a double edged sword as a learning canvas, but teens can quietly accept their incredible beauty at its most honest, without putting up every barrier within their reach.
I love the journey for Mom too. She can drink her tea and watch her child be transfigured into a human being in her own right, a clear vision of the person she helped create.
We loved what we found at Macy’s and Windsor. Text and product photos are linked back to the web page of the store.
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Soft Summer
Sequin Hearts Homecoming Dress at Macy’s.
Mauved-grey. Soft color transitions. Overall light-medium effect.
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Bright Spring
Somewhere between waterfall and mermaid, the black is not overwhelming.
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True Summer
Jump Dress watercolor ruched mini at Macy’s.
No, True Summer is not dowdy. It’s swimming pool blues.
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True Winter
The shoulder detail is very pretty close up, rather starry night.
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Dark Autumn
Jessica McClintock Homecoming Dress Macy’s.
The whole thing, the shoes, the gloves, the hardware, the hot-but-cool. Has this store hired a color analyst??
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Bright Winter
Blondie Nights Homecoming dress at Macy’s.
Bright Winter might as well buy elbow length black opera gloves while she’s at the store.
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Soft Autumn
XOXO homecoming dress at Macy’s.
The more I look at this, the more I like it. There’s an old world glamour here that I adore.
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Light Spring
Alexis Sequin dress at Windsor Store.
One of my favorites. Not overwhelming on this delicate coloring. Feminine, doll-like, but fun.
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Dark Winter
Keesha Royal Blue Homecoming dress at Windsor Store.
Might take a tall girl to wear all the pleating, but the dark majesty is there. Even the length is a bit more serious and reserved.
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Light Summer
Lavinia Periwinkle Sequin dress at Windsor.
Well, I just loved this. Muted silver, perfect ribbon, light as foam, gives a feeling of seriousness to a palette that often feels too lightweight.
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True Spring
Milly Purple Homecoming dress at Windsor.
Even the photo says Spring. This is when hair color and clothing color really do complement (as opposed to the pale blond on black we’re so used to seeing).
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True Autumn
Iridescent Red Bubble Homecoming dress at Windsor.
Speechless with love, a beautiful Autumn ombre rust. Makes me want to go dancing. Forever 14.
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***The images above are linked back to the stores that own them. If you own these images and would like removed, I will gladly do so.***
How Autumns Intensify Eye Colour
September 13, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 45 Comments
I went into the drugstore yesterday. The cosmetician’s makeup (the cosmetician! very pleasant, very helpful, but who hired her for this position?) was so dark and severe that it would scare children. I am no better at impartiality when it comes to my own face than anyone else, but there was nothing more this woman could have done to detract from her appearance. Her eyes never get noticed, lost in the pharaoh effects and dark burgundy lip. She might be a Soft Autumn, so it feels a bit of a tragedy to look at her.
We talked about Spring and Summer in previous articles (How Summers Intensify Eye Colour and How Springs Intensify Eye Colour). There, it was suggested that every single step of the makeup process should intensify eye colour. Your first reaction to a good blush should be “it strengthens the color of my eyes”. As the picture frame of your eyes, eyebrows should to be natural in shape and color, and groomed to look like you, but neater.
In 12 Season (12 Tone) Colour Analysis, Autumn’s colors are warmed by gold, medium on the light/dark scale, and muted to various degree, depending on which of the 3 Autumns is in question.
Eyeliner should not be so dark that it becomes obvious. Because so many women buy this product in color that is too dark, that’s what the industry makes. Finding lighter colors and a good variety of browns and greys takes some searching. The Autumn challenge is to find color of the right degree of warmth. If the color is too hot, the rims of the eyes look bloodshot. It is surprising how warm the Autumn brown can be and still do what we want:define the eye shape and then disappear into the face.
For anyone who might be new, you might wonder why I’ll never show you any blue/green/purple makeup that the viewer could perceive to be those colors. Next time you see a woman with that makeup, think about whether you’re looking at eye or the makeup. A dark green that looks more like dark brown? Fine. A taupe olive that looks more taupe? Fine. Teal that looks like peacock? Well, y’know.
I know there are blue die-hards out there. Wouldn’t it be ok to wear blue in eye makeup, as an orange complement, since Autumn’s undertone is orange-brown (more about undertones in Skin Undertones)? The cartoon effect of blue makeup can get away from you, but your taste may be different from mine and that’s fine. Color is big enough for many opinions. I’d suggest you wear your blues in clothing, and let them complement the eye colour. Clothing’s power to strengthen eye colour can’t be overstated. As a bigger color block, it is more effective than makeup for this purpose.
Soft Autumn
The principle of the Season, the radiance, the special look that nobody else can pull off so realistically: “Our Earth is our cradle. She feeds us, protects us, and never does anything harsh or unexpected that might harm us. She is gentle, warm, and generous in her abundance. Even her light is moderate, kind, welcoming.”
Who would put black eyeliner on that? Or cool foundation and fuchsia lips? It would feel like a ski jump in a September cornfield. Don’t overwhelm the eye with makeup, which happens too fast. Better to underwhelm the eye with makeup. A very little goes a long way on the Soft and Light Seasons.
The hair is butterscotch and brown, like peanut butter fudge. Make the eyeshadow toffee. Every Autumn has the ability to repeat her hair color in her eye color.
This is a Soft Autumn eye. The orange at the center repeats the freckes.
Make this the hair.
Is this the same as Spring’s red? No, that’s here. Is there a difference from a bottle? You’d have to ask a colorist, I don’t know. It might depend a lot on the base color the pigment is being applied to. If anyone does know, please share. The difference is that Autumn is the nectar, while Spring is the juice.
Notice too that there is a lot of Summer in this person’s eye, where the outer half or more is gray-blue-green. Soft Autumn is a Neutral Season and a cooler-neutral eyeshadow can work as well as a warm-neutral (shown in the graphic below).
Among the test drapes that are used to identify Season, there always seems to be one that connects powerfully with the eye color. I don’t really pay big attention to intensifying eye color till the last stages of the analysis, but when I see that the Season I’m narrowing down to also creates the strongest eye connection, it helps confirm that we made the right choice. For Soft Autumn, the olive drape is the best eye color intensifier.Interestingly, for the other Soft Season, the Soft Summer, the best eye color drape is the soft pine green. The drapes are finding something in these eyes that is not immediately obvious.
Below are the eyeshadow cool and warm colors, the olive drape, and the brown eyeliner I use on almost every Soft Autumn. The eye above belongs to a cool-side Soft Autumn and my usual brown eyeliner (Rimmel Sable) can be very slightly dark in the daytime. On her, Soft Summer’s brown-grey (Clinique Smoky Brown) is very good as well.
If an eyeshadow the same color as the eye were applied, it would look too blue. Matching eyes to eye makeup is a big boobytrap. The tendency is to pick the wrong eye colors and it ends up looking matchy, like the dreaded “tried too hard”.
True Autumn
Autumn says to the world : “My burnished glory can melt with its heat, but I’m also safe and strong. I am what I appear to be and honor truth above all.”
These eyes have a very particular property : they contain the color of metal. It might be copper, flame, or a darker greener bronze color. This effect is sometimes seen in the other Autumn Seasons as well. They have to be wearing the right clothes or you won’t see it.
Metallics in the thread of a scarf, or somewhere, is the kingdom of the True and Dark Autumn.
Get your hair color to pick up something in the eye. Too many Autumns have weak, safe beige hair. It will only age them. The other pitfall is to go too dark, but these are very medium-darkness people. I like this hair color, or perhaps a shade darker. Even in second-best makeup, you can’t not notice the eyes.
We discussed True Autumn’s best makeup colours previously, here. A metallic dot of antiqued gold eyeshadow just over the iris, and under the matte shade that covers the whole lid, is sublime. The viewer keeps seeing a flicker of flame in the vicinity of the eye.
Metallic lipstick or blush also can be beautiful on True Autumn. The caution is to be careful to put in on tight skin and only 1 feature at a time. Once over 40, adding a laminate to the hair might be a better way to add fire than a shimmer makeup face.
We’ve talked about ways to repeat and complement eye color. What about contrast? A warm/cool contrast won’t work. This skin is absolute in its warmth. Cool color will sit on top and look like silver icing on an apple crisp. A dark/light contrast isn’t possible since there are no extreme lights in the person, and extreme darks look obvious and severe. I don’t see any room for contrast here.
Dark Autumn
I always have trouble pinning down this Season. “I am here to get something done so get out of my way” is close, but Dark Winter can get this way too. Try again. This is their unique radiance: ”I can rule the world with my might but my opulent beauty surpasses all”. This is the image that I can’t shake (minus the singing).
Copyright Walt Disney 2005.
The Aztec princess, born to rule and privilege.
These eyes are gingerbread brown, chocolate gingerbread, liquid bronze, or can be a green-bronze color like the head of the wine goddess in the lamp photo above. The colors of the sky swirling above Pocahontas’ head, from her crown to the top of the poster, are about right.
The eyeliner has to be very dark brown. Mascara is black-brown, possibly black depending on the darkness of the person and hair. Gentle eyeshadows look like a cement wall, instead of an invitation deeper into the person. Use rich coffees, with cream and without.
Eyeshadow hilite is darker than most other Seasons’. M.A.C. Brule is good. All the light colors for this Season are darker than anyone else’s. The other Dark Season, Dark Winter, can wear Winter’s icy lights, but not this group.
Dark Autumn and Bright Winter are the 2 Seasons that need time to accept (and wear) the full richness of their colors. Many women back away from the strength of these colors. They are exotic colors, not traditionally feminine. The clothes and makeup are hot too, chili pepper, wasabi, nubuck tan. They watch in amazement but want it to be over, like it’s too much to absorb. It would be as if you woke up and saw 3 suns in the sky. They feel awkwardness, danger, almost embarrassment that these colors are who they are, like they’re too shamelessly attention-getting. Mind you, Autumn is nothing if not sensible. They are quick to adapt to what works and many know what they’ll see before they sit down. They are among the fastest learners.
Play up the hair and arrange it around the face. It repeats the eye color exactly. If it’s too flat or skinned back, you lose a huge eye intensifying opportunity. Do everything you can to make it gleam. Avoid anything too red, wine, magenta, or burgundy. It looks more natural when it’s more brown, like redwood, mahogany, dark chestnut. Port wine is the reddest you’d go.
Wear the lip color, sheer if you have to. Lancome LaLaque in TechnoBrick is a great compromise. The lips have to balance out the eyes and hair so you look complete, instead of like a puzzle with corner missing.
Kip Is A Light Summer
September 5, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 8 Comments
Kip’s family and ours have known one another for many years. As a child, he had flaxen hair and light blue eyes, and he certainly gave a Spring impression, or at least a very yellow impression.
He’s in his 30s now. His hair has darkened. He has a tan at the moment. Combining the freckles, the fact that his mother, and probably brother, are True Autumns, that his skin resembles his Soft Autumn sister’s, and that there are red tones in the hair (and very much redder on other family members), I wondered if Kip was going to be that Spring/Autumn person that we discussed in a previous article and its comments (see the previous article No Summer+Winter or Spring+Autumn Blends).
Draping
We saw right away that Winter was dominating and severe. The blackened sapphire and emerald took over.
In the True Autumn drapes, Kip might have been up every night for a week looking after his young children. The shadows and unshaved appearance were obvious. The lower half of the face was darker, making the jaw look very severe and the face 10 years older. BUT, his eye color intensity was surprisingly good. For those who are new here, you’ll read often that I do not factor the eye color into determining the Season. It simply does not matter. However, I very much consider which drapes make your eye color the most intense.
In the True Spring drapes, the skin was too yellow and the eye color was dull and greyed out. If I could erase the yellow in the skin, there seemed to be an easing of the lines, a more even luminosity, as is usually seen in any Spring blend. The skin looked healthy and very evenly colored, while True Autumn made the skin obviously worse, even in the very slight Autumn Seasons. So, Kip was not going to be the person who can wear True Spring and Autumn colors equally well.
True Summer was interesting. The yellow caused by True Spring cleared from the skin. The skin retained the good effects the Spring drapes created, of young, clear, ideal skin, but could also intensify the eye color to the same degree that the Autumn drapes did. The whole effect was a little flat, though the balance with the person was the best of the 4 True Seasons.
Light Summer’s bare trace of sunlight gave us the perfectly lit skin, without compromising the eyes. Light Summer is the Neutral Season (so blend of 2), that is mostly Summer with a minor influence from Spring. I guess that the reason the Autumn drapes worked so well to intensify eye color was their low saturation, which is the color characteristic that Autumn shares with Summer. When doing the analysis, always focus on the skin. Once you get that right, the eyes will automatically be their best.
In men, the deciding Season always creates the cleanest, strongest bone structure. They do look younger, the skin clearer, but what I see is just plain “handsome”.
Light Summer’s Colors
Light Summer’s are popsicle colors. No, not quite that bright. Rainbow colors. It’s not just True Summer overexposed. The light and clarity of Spring make the feeling of the whole palette much more lively. Any single color may be similar to some of True Summer’s, but the whole person viewed together, just as the whole Colours Book fanned out, is more energetic than True Summer. That clearance of True Summer’s gentle cloud brings a springy feeling, in more ways than one.
The Light Summer is color in sunlight. Compare this to Soft Summer, which is color in shade. Notice the shirt he’s wearing – color in shade. The chair is probably the true color. In sun, it would be Light Summer’s – so a little bleached out, and better on Kip. Still cool and fresh, like True Summer, but just that mention of clear light.
Watch how the color moves in the image below as it changes from light areas to shaded areas. In our physical world, light is reflected from objects in a continuum of light-true-dark, or warm-true-cool. In 12 Tone, or 12 Season, Color Analysis, the Tones progress from one to the next through the same sequence.
Kip’s most remarkable color was his off-white (the color of the Light Summer white drape in the previous article How Light Summer Goes Grey) . Not a browned off-white, like clamshell, which is Soft Summer’s. This is vanilla ice cream, but not French vanilla, which is too yellow. It took a conscious effort to remove that drape because he just looked so extremely right. Everyone in the room just kept looking. The longer a right color is on you, the more good things come out. The longer a wrong color is on you, the more bad things come out.
Summer’s palette showcases Kip’s gracious intelligence better than any other. Far more a listener than a talker, more peaceful than animated, more caring than needing, the personality of Summer men is admired more for their support of others than their call for self-promotion.
Color that’s too cool or cloudy says nothing about his easy smile and sense of humor, the pleasure he takes in physical activity, his respectful appreciation of Nature, or his capacity for adventure. His essence is quiet and easy to be with, but is made for the outdoors. The feeling is relaxed, sea and sand, boats and bicycles, not formal.
Light Summer Clothing
As important as it is to always look at color in daylight, the Light Seasons have to be especially careful to do so. There is no type of dark color that flatters them. In mall lighting, it’s too easy to go too dark.
A soft white shirt and a silver grey jacket would be outstanding. Pure white will take over, reducing the person, and we do not wear clothes to be diminished by them. A man wearing a coat/shirt in too-strong colors makes him look weak, and makes the size of the head look too small for the shoulders.
Spring/Summer men don’t sing to me in plaid, which can look workday and practical. Corduroy, same. Too much texture looks heavy and dulls the fabric. Light colors belong with light fabrics. Uncomplicated cottons, denim, natural linen, lightweight wool, and knits look smooth and balanced. Autumn’s focus is work and productivity. Spring is lighthearted and lives to enjoy life, to play, to have fun.
A light cotton shirt with a colorful stripe in a single color, which I think is called a Bengal Stripe (below from Savile Row Co), cool tan chinos, now that looks good. His temperature looks cool (he needs to, he’s a Summer above all), but there’s that little effervescence that elevates him to another frequency.
Love it in pink and in turquoise.
Purple and yellow
He definitely has a yellow look, though less than in his teens, and yellow in his skin. Any Spring blend needs to get comfortable wearing purples, though Light Summer hasn’t as many choices as the purer Springs. Because purple and yellow intensify one another, and the Colours Book shows you the right purple swatches for your particular type of yellowness, it looks remarkable. The shirt below is at Paul Fredrick. The white is that trace-of-vanilla off-white and all the purples are right.
Women love feminine colours on men. OK, I love them. It doesn’t need to be a mauve turtleneck. One stripe in a tie will get the room’s attention. Women keep looking at the one guy who can wear a cherry popsicle stripe in a sky blue tie. Men respect it because so few men know how to do this and accentuate their masculinity, rather than seem to compromise it.
Before you turn 30
This was a very interesting PCA for me. It reinforced what is easily forgotten, to never drape a person with predicted ideas of the outcome. Never start guessing. Go into the analysis with a blank slate, do the driving, and let the drapes give you the answer.
About finding that Spring/Autumn flow…the instrument I use to measure color, the Sci\ART drapes, are not designed to help me find that coloring. I don’t think it matters.
As a professional community of Personal Color Analysts, our strength will not be in fragmenting ourselves over linguistic and detail. We are already exclusive enough. Whatever system analyzed you, you’ll still look way better than you did before. Wouldn’t a world where everyone had a PCA by the time they’re 25 be beautiful? If a PCA were as automatic a grad gift as a laptop? If PCAs were part of everyone’s life like gym memberships?
Kathryn Kalisz’s passing in January was a loss to our entire community. Too much knowledge is lost when one person passes, unless we share our strengths. As Kathryn once said to me, “There’s plenty of business for everybody.”
Note: I do not own the images above. If you own these pictures and would like me take them down, I will gladly do so.
Understanding A Color 1
September 1, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 15 Comments
Clients often bring an item of clothing or makeup to ask if the color is right for them. It helps me to have a way of answering the question that I use each time.
Personal Colour Analysis is about looking better on less wasted money. 80% of this venture involves correctly talking yourself OUT of wrong color items.
Process
These are the questions I ask myself. There’s no particular order, though I usually start with “Is it clear?”, since that can be the hardest call.
..Is it clear? Is it clear = blossoms/candy/fruit punch/popsicle OR is it muted = grayed, dulled, not-vivid, not-bright?
.. Is it light? If yes, is it pastel and heathery Summer, OR icy and frosty Winter?
..Is it warm? If yes, is it orange-brown-Autumn leaves OR yellow-tropical-Spring?
Example 1
We’re looking at the brown hoodie. I always step back see a color, allowing it to be surrounded with other things. Color is understood by comparison to other colors. A proper Personal Color Analysis is based entirely on comparing one color’s effects to another. We’ve all played the games of seeing ghost colors when our brain adds in complementary color around an object, of seeing items of the same size appear bigger and smaller next to other colors…all optical illusions. That is exactly what colors are doing next to your face and body, making your features appear yellow, oilier, bigger, smaller, etc. Your Personal Colour Palette is determined by which colours make you look most perfect.
Back to the hoodie.
Clear or dusty? >> dusty.
Light? >> no, more medium, I think.
Warm?>>no, not obviously orange or yellow.
So, the item is dusty, not clear. Therefore, Summer or Autumn or one of their blends are more likely.
It’s medium in darkness, not overly helpful.
It is neither orangey or yellowed. In fact, it’s almost pinkish. Therefore, Autumn and Spring are not likely. Is a weak Autumn blend possible? Sure, but then it won’t belong to one of the 3 Autumn Seasons.
Seems likes we’ve narrowed it down to Summer.
Trying to categorize it to its exact Season in the 12 possibilities isn’t really useful. This present exercise is more valuable as a way of EXcluding items from your shopping cart. Nobody whose main Season is Winter, Spring, or Autumn would buy this. The fine tuning is left to matching it to the Colours swatch Book.
Dominant Characteristics
There are color analysts who use this Color Me Beautiful technique very successfully to analyze human coloring. In my hands, that method seems to shake out a few snakes in the weeds. For analyzing clothes and makeup though, I like it. I could see how someone might call that hoodie dark and set off on the wrong track, but if you stick to the characteristic you’re absolutely most sure of, here being heathery-grayed-muted, it’s a good way of classifying an item.
So Sometimes, I’ll start with “What is most obvious?” on the 3 Colour Scales? The light/dark, warm/cool, hi/lo sat? To me, the most obvious thing about Example 1 is that it is dusty (low saturation). You could say cool too. There is a tendency to call all browns warm at the outset, like we tend to call all greys cool.
Example 2
So often, it’s the browns that mix us up. OK, mix me up. Another tendency is to give browns to Autumn. Autumns do look unequalled in their browns, but they’re usually wearing another Season’s shade of brown (before their PCA, of course).
This very cute shoe is at ShoeMall. The photo is linked
It’s clearly light. Heathery- grayed or clear and intense? Not sure, grayed I guess, like a pastel beige, but it’s hard to decided how gray a grayish color is. Maybe somewhere in between the two. (See Icy Colours and Pastels to understand the distinction between grayed and clear color.)
Warm or cool? I’d go with cool because I can’t see sunshine yellow or dull rust in it.
So it’s cool-side and light. Therefore, we’ve EXcluded True Autumns (orange-warmed and medium-dark), Springs (yellow-warmed and light), or Winters (icy lights, never pastel, and cool). Disqualified too are their strong blends (meaning, the 3 variations of each of those True Seasons). If you’re one of those 3, you probably wouldn’t buy this.
There is still room for error because all 3 of those True Seasons have some lighter colors in their palette. Maybe this is a color that any of the 12 Tones (Seasons) could wear, though not in shoes if the hair is a really different color. Could this be an example of a color that anyone could wear, that would be pulled together by the rest of the outfit?
If I’m really not getting a fix on a color’s position in the 12 Tones, I’ll switch to how it makes me feel. This beige feels cool, light, fresh, clean – Summer. The triangles and funky design say Spring. So I’ve probably EXcluded Autumns and Winters based on that.
Lesson : Check the Colours Book. Some colours are tougher to classify and unexpected in that Season. Some are also quite close between all the Seasons and very versatile workhorse colours.
Example 3
This great sequined doublet cardi is at J.Crew. I adore J.Crew’s way with color. They have many more colors on offer than the 4-color palette of so many other stores. When they create a color, they commit to it and get it right.
At first glance, I can see how you might say Autumn, because it’s golden-like. You might even see that shiny doublet piece peeking out and think “…and that dazzle is incongruent with Autumn’s feeling”.
Autumn is the nectar. Spring is the juice. This top might seem cider. Doesn’t help.
But Autumn doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel heavy or dulled enough. Nor does it convey mellow, cozy, or strong, all Autumn sensations. It might be orangey, but somehow the color feels too clean, maybe even a little sharp. It’s not greyed, certainly, in fact it seems quite saturated. The color is more strong than weak. It would be hard to saturate it more (remember that saturation is quite different from darkness), to make it more intense.
If we were looking at a landscape, would this color be in the foreground or melting away in the background? It would be near because it’s still vivid. It’s worth noting here that this element of saturation can give color a third dimension, a position of depth in space. Our brains understand that far away color is greyed, less brilliant, lower in saturation.
[A question for the color experts among us : Could the same be said of cool and dark colors? Both recede. A mountain range’s colors are cooler near the horizon. A forest is darker in the distance. Are all 3 parameters, hue, value, and chroma equally able to be the 3rd dimension of depth?]
Since the clarity of it might be confusing, though I see it as very clear (not at all cloudy) (apple juice, not peanut butter-a comparison I’m using to compare degrees of clarity, not the precise color itself), could we work it out based on its warmth? So, yes, it is a warm color. Is it warmed by Autum’s dull rust or Spring’s daffodil-buttercup yellow? I don’t get dull rust here. It’s more some kind of yellow-ness, right?
Does its lightness or darkness help us? Well, it’s more light to medium. Since it’s warm, we don’t talk about icy or pastel. Not really helpful.
My feelings tell me it’s clear (high saturation) and yellow. I look in the Colours Books. I find it among Bright Spring’s colors, with a gentler version in True Spring. The whole outfit is outstanding for Bright Spring, with the small but important element of black, yet overall light effect. Suddenly, the sequins make sense.
The Lesson is : Never shop without your Book.
.. you won’t remember color accurately, though you think you will; after 6-9 months, you’ll be better at it
.. for Including items in your cart, there are in-between levels of light/dark, warm/cool, and hi/lo saturation. For the 8 Neutral Seasons, you won’t get the degree of in-between-ness correct. The color analyzed swatches can be unpredictable. The color variations in the 12 Seasons are quite unique, to a level that the fashion industry has not nearly caught up with.
Your Suggestions
I enjoy this type of exercise because color is surprising and we all learn. If any of you have been confused or intrigued by a color, LMK. We’ll do another one of these articles.
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