Spring Colours

Pantone Greenery for the 3 Springs

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This is the fourth and last post in the series about Pantone’s Color of the Year 2017, Greenery.

The previous posts are linked for Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

The original Greenery swatch is included in the palette in the lower right corner of each panel below, third row, far right.

Matching and Comparing

Any Season could have four, eight, or ten accurate palettes, as technical or artistic as you please, and never repeat a single colour. Many readers have that many swatch books and more and have benefited from seeing how palette designers may view a Season. When everybody’s right, the world is a richly layered place.

As the client, I might only want one palette. My colour analyst assured me that one is plenty. She showed me ways of using it with anything I want to buy. That works for me.

I match items to the colours in my palette. I look great, and even better, I have started hearing my own voice and my closet looks more and more like me. You might have the same experience.

One day, you might see a post like this one and decide to try this new approach. As you place new items among those you already own, you notice that it’s easier to see what you like. With the help of your colour analyst, you find  two or three  Shopping Scarves that are in your Season for sure. Along with your palette, these become a new point of reference.  Your fabulous, out-of-the-box, you-and-nobody-else wardrobe is picking up speed and you still look great.

Colour is for everybody. It looks young and healthy, as if you’re standing up straighter,  like a form of good posture. Team player that it is, there plenty of ways to make it work for you and with you. We are here to help you get started.

Spring wears lime comfortably. They wear green in general easily. I actually delayed this post wondering what I would talk about. In the panels that follow, I try many interpretations of colours that seem close to the palette, just to see if anything jumps out, and find some things to talk about :)

True Spring 

This Season seems able to wear a huge variety of textiles. From matte to very shiny, the fabric and person look better together. Colouring with even slight Summer influence (such as Light Spring, further down) can get lost behind sharply white highlights.

Transparency works. The drop earrings in the top right are comfortable, but the T-shirt below them seems a little heavy. Could be that the yellow content is gold, not yellow. Could be that the textile goes darker in the shadows instead of lighter in the highlights.  Those might harmonize it with Dark Autumn. Does it matter? Not to me. I’m Canadian and in my world, everyone needs warm weather clothes and True Spring colours are not plentiful in winter fabrics. The colour shares so much more than it differs that you can still make plenty of inspired outfits.

The glasses. So cute, ay? No white or black and a  nice brown that could repeat the hair colours. Plus the turquoise that Springs wear so well , not in areas so big that the colour competes with the eyes or keeps pulling the viewer’s attention (just their admiration!) Spring’s fun wink at tortoiseshell.

The other earrings, near the centre, appeared in Dark Winter and will be in Bright Spring, just to see what happens. It’s amazing how much what’s around them matters in our perception. Seem fine to me. Again, they share more than they differ.

Of the three shoes, the middle pair appears in Bright Spring too. With a lot of skin showing through, in the green that loves Spring, and worn further from the face, the colour is less fussy. I’m undecided about the lower shoe. The idea wasn’t whether it contains yellow, but does the yellow harmonize with the yellow in the other colours. The  more I look at it, the better it’s getting, which is often a good sign.

The shirt below and to the left of the word True. You don’t really notice it. Could be that the image is small or it isn’t quite pigmented (saturated) enough. Still fine. It doesn’t stick out as awkward. True Spring is not especially bright or soft. It’s especially warm.

 

Greenery for True Spring

 

 

Bright Spring

In the top right are the blouse and earrings that were in the Dark Winter panel. Fine with the top with a slight preference for Dark Winter. Not so sure about the earrings, they seem to be sitting further back or down compared to the items around them. Either that or the image is small. When you photograph things to compare, including yourself, a constant distance for the camera helps.

Bits of white and black are no problem, or what looks like white and black, as shown in the bottom row. The items are bright, lively, warm, and fairly light, all things that work.

The green and blue top under and to the left of the word Bright was in Dark Winter too. I like it better here, perhaps because more of these items are casual.

No problem with the green sandals in the middle.

Also good with the fluo-green Nike pullover and purse above Pantone. Humans don’t have neon pigmentation but some can make beautiful sense of it, to their and the garment’s advantage.

 

Greenery for Bright Spring

 

 

Light Spring

This person in their colours. Choirs of angels.

Did you see the time-lapse video on the 12 Blueprints Facebook page with the so beautiful Light Spring model (posted about a month ago)? That was with no makeup. Lola lipstick (from the Blueprints line), a sparkly turquoise drape, with a pink coral tossed over one shoulder. My goodness.

Did you see Cate Linden’s recent Light Spring client wearing Sorbet gloss (posted on her Facebook page on August 31/17)?  It’s very sheer and when it meets Light Spring colouring, it brings out all the good.

The one shoulder top above the Pantone palette appeared in True Spring. The yellow content might be too strong. Or the pants are too dark. It seems distracting but your eye might love it. Your eye is not wrong, it’s just yours.

I like chalky textures around Summer, of which this colouring has a small amount. It shows the hazy quality, like a toothpaste feeling. Autumn has haze of a different type. You wouldn’t call it haze or fog. It’s thicker than that, like velvet and chocolate. The ring might be a little velvety.  You know what I’m going to say, right? So what. It’s pretty and so-better than all the other greens in the store that day. There are greens very close to this in many Light Spring eyes.

The green strappy shoes have been replaced here by the green cropped sweater. All good in the hood, as my darling son says.

 

Greenery for Light Spring

 

 

 

Along my path, I have been more grateful than I can say for how generously everyone has shared their way of seeing colour. How it looks through my eyes is not the final word. It’s the first word of a conversation. If you see it differently and have time to type a comment, I and many others would love to read it.

 

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Colour Analysts

Introducing Colour Analyst Hope Turner (Massachusetts)

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When I introduce a colour analyst and a person as first class as Hope, I know that I must be on the right path.

Every student teaches me colour analysis through a new set of eyes, which I value tremendously. I like to learn and Hope modeled to me what an exceptional learner looks like. Colour analysis is like following a mind map. There are many ways of arriving at the right answer and many ways of getting off the track. Hope could pause and calmly ask, Why did I think that? She smoothly changed course and moved forward. Teaching a great student is a privilege. The amount of knowledge that they absorb and process during a very intensive 4-day course is astounding. For colour analysts, systems are essential but there’s more. The system has to be applied to a human being.

In the same way that 5-star chefs and the creators of the world’s most beautiful and well-made garments have a process, PCA also needs a process. Today, in many industries, the amount of information floating around exceeds the platforms of structure and method that support it. This can be wonderful for expanding everyone’s perspective, as long as options and decisions can be substantiated. From the beginning, Hope was gifted in the language of the process, with all its details and technicalities, and equally skillful in applying it to real people walking their various roads.

I loved Hope’s gentle ability to draw information from the client’s past that could improve their PCA outcome, welcoming whatever they wish to share, thereby creating a supportive and constructive experience for a client. We had some great talks about how to enrich the client’s (and the colour analyst’s) experience by helping people contemplate and move through change.

Hope Turner

 

 

I believe everyone is beautiful. Naturally. As they are. Every single person.

The poem “Saint Francis and the Sow” by Galway Kinnell expresses this beautifully:

“The bud 

stands for all things, 

even for those things that don’t flower, 

for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;   

though sometimes it is necessary 

to reteach a thing its loveliness, 

to put a hand on its brow 

of the flower 

and retell it in words and in touch 

it is lovely 

until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing…”

 

Have I always believed this? No. But I have been fortunate that various life circumstances, including personal color analysis, have conspired to reteach me my own loveliness and the loveliness of others.

I grew up living in different countries – Pakistan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Venezuela – and traveling extensively with my family. My parents worked as international school teachers. I have immense gratitude for their career choice, as it allowed me to see so many parts of this remarkable world. I have always been drawn to connecting openly with people one-on-one or in small groups.

I decided to get a Master’s in Social Work, and I currently work in a community mental health clinic in the Boston area. I find that social work and color analysis have more similarities than might be expected – both provide opportunities for genuine connection and for affirming the unique loveliness of each one of us.

Knowing my colors has given me the confidence to be more playful, try new things, and take myself less seriously. I also feel freer to express myself authentically, not only in the way I dress, but also in the way I move, speak, and act. I know that I look my best when I wear the colors that harmonize with my natural coloring, and I feel less affected by what others think or what the media tells me I should look like. In short, knowing my colors has helped me feel genuinely happy with the way I look and confident to express myself the way I want without worrying about what others think.

Some of you may be familiar with personal color analysis and the 12 Season color palettes. Maybe you think (or hope) you know which one you are. For those who are worried you will find out your color palette is different than what you think it is or what you want it to be, I hear you. And I encourage you to take the plunge and discover the truth of your beauty.

My journey to discovering my Bright Winter colors was a circuitous one. Finding our true colors isn’t obvious and requires a compassionate, helping hand. It was a gift to find this in Christine, who taught me to see loveliness in new ways and guided me from where I thought I should be to where I truly belonged.

I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

My website is www.colorsbyhope.com, and you can reach me at hope@colorsbyhope.com.

I offer services in English and Spanish. If you live in or travel through the Boston area, I hope you will get in touch and let me help you discover and celebrate your natural beauty.

One of my clients recently said to me, “I feel like I so much better understand myself and the way I want to present myself to the world.”

What will happen when you see yourself in color?

 

 

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Colour Analysts, For All Seasons

Seasons in Families

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We are often asked whether Seasons have inheritance patterns in families. The answer is yes, of course, but they can be unpredictable.

It may be that every child except one is similar to the parents. The children that are the same in Season as the parents may have very different natural colouring. For example, Dad may be Bright Winter with medium brown hair and dark yellow-brown eyes. Child is Bright Winter with very dark brown hair and green-brown eyes.

In a 60-40 or maybe 70-30 ratio, spouses are often very close in Season. In my early days, this used to worry me quite a bit. It doesn’t any more. They might not look alike, and yet they turn out to be a Dark Autumn and a Dark Winter. Or they are a Bright Winter and Bright Spring that look similar and as the story unfolds,  it turns out that they met by being cast as brother and sister in a play.

Family stories are one of my favourite things about being a colour analyst. I love clients in family groups, which I’ve said once or twice. By once or twice, I mean a couple hundred times, to quote Justin Bieber and probably someone else before that. As privileged as I feel to be a colour analysts, sharing the love, history, and support in the room with families is always special.

From various charts I found through Google, brown eyes and dark hair are dominant. Red hair and straight hair are recessive. Freckles are dominant, so is a streak of white hair. As with so much about human pigmentation, there is more to be known. Many genes are involved in the colours of each pigment, different genes becoming more active under certain circumstances. Eight genes are known to participate in the colour of melanin alone, though the total number may be greater than eight.

To organize some of the information and see if patterns emerged, our colour analyst group took a poll of Seasons within our families.

Sarah Frazier is in Bellevue, NE.

Visit Sarah at her website,  Color With A Purpose

 

Sarah is a Dark Winter.

Father: Bright Winter

Mother: Dark Autumn

Both sisters: Bright Winter

My dad is a BW, my mom DA, I’m DW, and my two sisters are BW’s.

Nadine Laniado is in Oakhurst, NJ.

Meet Nadine through Facebook on the ColorHue Design page.

Nadine and her husband are True Winters.

Her mother: True Winter.

Husband’s mother: Dark Winter

Daughter: Dark Winter

Daughter: Bright Spring

Son: True or Bright Winter (probable, not yet draped)

Sister: Dark Autumn

Nadine and her husband  both have brown hair and eyes with olive skin. Two of the children have blond hair and blue eyes.

Shahna McNally is in Edmonton, Alberta.

Visit Shahna at U in Colour

Shahna: Dark Autumn

Mother: Dark Winter

Father : probable Dark Winter

Husband: Light Summer.

Child: Soft Autumn

Child: Dark Winter

Child: Dark Autumn (unconfirmed)

Cate Linden is located in Louisville, KY, and travels widely in the US to meet people who want to know their colouring.

Meet Cate on her website at Cate Linden Chromatics.

Cate: Dark Autumn

Mother: Dark Winter

Husband (former): True Winter

Daughter: Bright Winter

Son: Bright Winter (unconfirmed)

Cate’s sister: possible Dark Winter

My mom is DW, I’m DA, my ex husband is TW, our daughter is BW. I suspect my son is also a BW. Sister DW probable.

Johanna Jarvinen is our analyst near Helsinki (Espoo), Finland.

Johanna’s website is Flow With Nature.

Johanna: Bright Spring

Mother: Bright Spring

Mother’s sister, brother, and his children: Bright Spring very possible, all bright blondes.

Amanda Brown has a PCA studio in Onalaska, WI.

Meet Amanda on FB at Color Therapy PCA

Amanda: Soft Summer

Mother: Dark Winter

Sister: True Summer

Ksenia Zvyagina is our analyst in Moscow, Russia.

Ksenia’s website can be found at Beauty In Bloom.

Ksenia: Bright Spring

Father: Dark Winter

Mother: Light Spring

Sister: True or Bright Winter (probable)

Dad’s brother and his daughter: Dark Winter

Husband: True Winter

Rachel Nachmias is located in Philadelphia, PA.

Visit Rachel’s website at Best Dressed.

Rachel: Bright Winter

Mother: Dark Autumn

Father: Bright Winter

Brother: Dark winter

Maternal grandmother: Soft Summer (her father and sister possible Dark Autumn)

Courtenay St. John Gibson sees clients  in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Visit Courtenay at her website, Studio St. John

Courtenay: Light Spring

Husband: Light Spring

Mother and Aunt: Bright Winter

Husband’s mother: Light Spring

Husband’s sister: True Spring

Daughter: Bright Winter (with three possibly Bright Winter children)

Christine Scaman is in London, Ontario, Canada.

This is her website.

Christine: Dark Winter

Father: Dark Autumn

Mother: Light Summer

Sister: Light Summer

Brother: Dark Winter

Husband (former): True Winter

Child: Dark Winter

Child: True  Winter

Child: True Summer

Many thanks to Susan for sharing yet another lovely featured image for this post.

 

For All Seasons, PCA Training Course

Getting Ready To Be A Colour Analyst: Gifts

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This is Part 7 of 7.

Previous videos in this series:

Getting Ready to Be A Colour Analyst: Invitation

Getting Ready: Possibility

Getting Ready: Concerns

Getting Ready: Creation

Getting Ready: Decision

Getting Ready: Commitment

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Many thanks to Susan for the beautiful and inspiring featured image.

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Winter Colours

Green and Purple for Dark Winter

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Thank you to my dear friends Linda for the topic and Susan for the beautiful tulips that look like the Canadian maple leaf.

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In the sequence of the 12 Seasons, Dark Winter is the colouring group that is mostly Winter with a smaller influence from Autumn.

With Winter, the Season shares:

– a white white, that most people would call white without qualifiers,

– a black black, and many other very dark colours

– pure colour in jewel tones, that gives certain colours a candy or plastic/synthetic quality

– extremes of lightness in icy light colours, meaning colour that is almost white with a drop of pure pigment

With Autumn, Dark Winter shares:

– muted colour, which gives some colours a feeling of weight, like velvet

– optical agreement when colours meet a certain darkness level

– a log cabin quality so that certain colours may feel a bit rustic or military, especially in matte textiles

Matching and Harmonizing

When looking for any colour in any Season, begin by looking for colours in the palette. That’s a fine place to start, and to stay if it feels right to you. Many colours could fit into various palettes very well. The other colours in the outfit will find what they have in common and allow you and the colour to shine.

For those who enjoy more detail or precision as they apply their Season to their shopping choices, the fact that many colours interact with various palettes feels unsatisfying. They ask, “Can’t every colour fit best into one single Season?”

The answer is, “Yes, it can.” To choose that best palette, the colour agreement between all the colours in the palette is evaluated, in addition to the best apparent match. After all, every colour in you will be wearing your clothing. We don’t see only your greens when you wear a green blouse. We see all your colours.

With the palette spread out, a lot of information is coming your way. If the overall looks pleasing but you are not sure about the decision, look at one colour family, such as blue, or one strip, at a time.

For Dark Winter, the garment colour should work well with the rustic and the candy sides of the Season. The strip with white should look about how it does on a neutral gray background, not divided or distorted. The entire strip from lightest to darkest should be equally energized.

If the lightest colours disappear or look muted, this will happen to the facial colours too. People share with me the most inspired analogies. A recent student whom I loved welcoming into our community recently described this as the arms of the palette suddenly looking shorter.

Five Tableaux

  1. Warm Greens

 

Warm Greens for Dark Winter

 

 

In the row across the top:

1 is too muted and warm. It loses ground next to the candy colours of the palette.

2 is getting there but I would prefer something more jungle or palm green, like the darker colours that Bright Spring might wear. I would hope it is at least this saturated IRL, or a bit more.

3 looks right, on the high side depending on how much your monitor saturates colour.

4 may be too pigmented because the palette colours lose energy next to it, and may be better for Bright Spring.

If you expand 5, the yellow reflection is strong, and maybe a little wrong, making little sense with the purples. Not the worst choice, since Dark Winter contains Winter yellow, which is quite pigmented. I might buy it if I loved the top otherwise.

6: Between two Seasons, a game to help you decide is, “Which is worse?” It hinges on the concept that they will be separated by their differences. If I place or imagine it next to the warm mustards of Dark Autumn or the icy colours of Dark Winter, I prefer it with Dark Autumn. But the colour is dark and appears to be of neutral warmth, which Dark Winter can work with. Wear it with the warmer colours of the Season. If these colours exist in the eyes or in a print worn in the same outfit, even better. I would buy this if I love the item and the price.

The notes for 9 are similar to those for 6, though I find it more Autumn. If the person is very saturated or Winter-like (near black hair and eyes) in natural colouring, it might appear too muted. What’s good is that next to the palette colours, the attention remains about even between them, the energy remains good in each, and neither is changing the other.

10 is a colour that appears, or seems to appear, in many palettes. Another technique for deciding is to hide the strip that has the apparently matching colour. How well does the garment work now? It doesn’t. Nothing in the palette, ie: person, improves next to this colour.

11 appears to contain the same colour as 10 but is different enough to flatter the person better. I like this item.

12 is like 5 but more so. The yellow reflection is too bright. The colour is just too happy to stay calm under a Dark Winter face. The appearance doesn’t settle. The eye keeps going back to the dress. Wouldn’t buy it.

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  1. Cool Greens

 

Cool Greens for Dark Winter

 

 

1 is fine.

2 may be too saturated, meaning that it is greener than the palette greens are green or blues are blue. Combine that with the sense of a strong yellow component and we may be getting into True or Bright Winter. The same could apply to 5.

3 is a little cool and soft but Dark Winter shines in these dark blue-greens. At this saturation (or pigment concentration), I would have to love the item to buy it. A little more feeling of ink would be good.  It could work for True Summer as well. The quality of the yellow or the reflection seems too light compared to the Dark Winter palette. The garment and the warmer neutral tone strip of the Dark Winter palette seem to be pushing each other apart. OTOH, they are not changing one another, which is always a good sign.

4 and 9 are close enough colours.  The quality of the yellow is not continuous with the palette colours but they still share a lot. Dark Winter would not wear a colour much lighter, except in the icy colours. The reflectivity of 4 seems a little light in weight.

6 is the marker in this group to which I compare the others. It’s too cool and probably too clear (bright) for Dark Winter. If the woman tests very near True Winter, and with the item being dark, and this colour being one that Dark Winter adapts the way Summer adapts blue, it will work fine for some Dark Winters. As we try things in our Season, we learn ourselves better and better until we are very fine tuned in our understanding of our own colouring.

8 is great.

10 seems fine.

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  1. Prints with Green

 

Prints with Dark Winter Green

 

 

The lime green in 1 is challenging to find on its own, and because the colour is bright, it can be more noticed when the colour is not quite right. Here, the other greens make sense of the lime, and it won’t matter if it is slightly out of Season. Love that blouse.

The cool, dark olive for this Season is important. Cooler than dark tobacco, it is excellent with the eye colours. 2 and 3 are examples of how it might look.

4 has a lot of warmth. Depending on the palette and interpretation, and the pigmentation of the woman, the black, the ability of the textile to saturate, and its shine all help Dark Winter.

5 may be technically a Dark Autumn blouse.  The pale pinks in the flowers, the corals in the flowers, the cool-associated colours of green and blue, and the darkness improve its potential for Dark Winter.

The white in 6 is warm for Dark Winter but it looks good with the lipsticks and the other colours. Love this sweater.

The white in 7 has a pinkish quality that I associate with Dark Autumn white. With the whites away from the face and a green this good, if the dress were a great fit and price, I would still buy it.

The metallic quality of 8 is great. An industrial look that looks terrific next this colouring.

9 may be too bright and candy but it’s a nice accessory.

10 is bright but it’s an emerald green that Winters can work with. Jewel tones make sense. The mesh-mosaic texture, animal print, beiges, and darkness level are all great.

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  1. Blue Purple

 

Blue Purples for Dark Winter

 

 

1 is one of those peculiar colours that I am still learning. Although this one has enough muscle for Winter and a dullness one might associate with Autumn influence, it also contains a lot of red. I considered it for True Winter but I think it’s too heavy and smoky for True Winter’s lighter, clearer look.

2 is great. I seriously love this on Dark Winter.

3 is a more wearable version of 1. Colour is entirely what you do with it. We have all seen a colour we might overlook in a palette become the most breathtaking garment.

4 is good.

5 is in the ballpark but it hard to read in the image. If the blouse were whiter and the model’s hair less clashing with the sweater, it might be quite workable.

6 is on the candy side but I like candy accessories sometimes. It will still work with the wardrobe without requiring any change in the outfit or cosmetics.

7 is kind of fascinating. One gets a sense of lilac and softly curved lines but the associations between those and Summer are in the past, or in my past.  It is as light as Dark Winter would get in a head to toe colour.

8, 9, and 10 are quite ok.

11 may be True Winter, but shoes, like purses, are some distance from the face. These will still cooperate with Dark Winter because they share so much.

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5. Medium Purple

 

Medium Purples for Dark Winter

 

 

It doesn’t take much before red-purple lands you in True Winter. 1 may be too red but it is not dulling the palette colours. 4 does seem to drain energy from the palette colours. The other suggestion that these are not right is that it’s hard to find a great lipstick. The warm lip colours in the palette go from great red rusts to absolute spaghetti sauce…and sadly, that is exactly what they will do on the face if they are worn next to this dress. With a cooler lipstick, might work fine but honestly, I’m doubtful.

Love 2. True and Dark Winter would be fine. They make sense of dark purple.

3 is fine.

The stones in the straps of 5 are a little lightweight for the gravitas of Dark Winter, but they are small in size, the chain is good, and they convey a jewel tone to some degree. Shells would be less than ideal.

6 may be cool and saturated but it would look great on many Dark Winter, particularly the dark of hair, eye, or skin, and those who enjoy cosmetics.

7 is a fun accessory colour. Winters look good in purple, adapt it easily, and should wear a lot of it. The handle and belt are fine. Nobody’s Season changes in the summer months, tanned or not, but many of us enjoy brighter and lighter colour choices during the warm, sunny months, and perhaps more whimsical choices than we might otherwise wear. With a white top and dark jeans or casual lower half of ensemble, very nice.

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  1. Red Purple

 

Red Purples for Dark Winter

 

 

What happens, as shown in 4, is that the red gets high, the candy level increases, and tips the item into True Winter.  The T-shirt fabric helps mute the colour. It’s not nearly as bright as it would be if the fabric were smooth and shiny. Dark Winters should try this on and then decide. With white or iron grey hair, or a cool bandanna, or great earrings, absolutely.

7 is similar in that the suede helps but the colour is probably too red and better for True Winter. However, on the feet, with a black dress, I would gladly stare at them all evening.

1, 2, 5, and 8 are a little browner, more plum and less grape. Excellent colours. For a larger area near the face, or on a woman who looks Autumn, or a woman who prefers natural or less saturated looks, this colour will be better. For the Dark Winter who tests so close to True Winter that it took 15 minutes to decide on the Season, and whose eyes are crisp and black-brown (rather than full of lovely warm rusty browns and mossy greens), any of these colours will be fine and so much more amazing than what she might have bought pre-PCA.

3 is an example of a cooler white compared to item 6 in tableau 3. The texture gives it a little dullness but anyone would call it white. True Winter would wear this just as well (if not better) because the white looks almost blue.

 

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For All Seasons, Summer Colours

Colour Shopping Online: Light Summer

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For the technique of opening the palette to harmonize colours into Seasons, full credit goes to colour analyst and Sci\ART trainer, Terry Wildfong. The method works equally well with fabric, cosmetic, jewelry, and any other item that you want to place into the best colour environment, the one where the palette and the item will bring out the best in each other. The palette stands in for the person of the same natural colouring.

Items purchased online should be easy to return. Expectations of perfect accuracy from pictures on screens may be overreaching. If your preference or the purpose of the garment requires it to be perfectly in Season, shop in person.

The general question when I shop online is, “Does this item share enough in its colour properties to be worn extremely well by a person of this colouring, and will they allow the item to look excellent in return?”

Readers had some questions that we can talk about first.

  1. Do I use special lighting?

For harmonizing colours, I always work between 10AM and 4PM with indirect daylight (no sunlight) on the screen. I use a Macbook Pro that is about 3 years old. Some monitors add a definite colour cast that you’d want to be aware of and perhaps use a different device.

There is a full spectrum lamp on the screen. This is a 23W bulb with a 100W equivalency. It does not emit huge light. I buy mine from LifeLite in Canada. It fits into a standard fixture. The bulbs used for PCA are larger and emit more light.  Full Spectrum Solutions in the USA is a good source, or many others, I would think.

The CRI is 96. The CRT is 5800K. A CRI over 5000 and a CRI over 90 are desirable. Both numbers should be specified on the box.

Many energy saving bulbs emit an oddly coloured light. Many full spec bulbs don’t have the specifications on the box and the light is often too yellow or not balanced. Colour is light. The wavelengths of light entering the object greatly influence those that will come back out.

White is the most difficult colour to place in Seasons, IRL or online, because it reflects so many wavelengths including the lighting itself. Black is also challenging for the similar reason that it reflects so few colours and they can be quite subtle.

  1. Does photography change colours?

Undoubtedly yes. The photographic effects are unpredictable, with no average effect that could be expected from every image within the same store, or across different stores.

For the most part, I evaluate the colour on the screen without assumptions such as, “It’s probably not that warm and goes into this cooler Season.” For every item on every site, I start from the beginning using the image as it is presented. I do compare the colour to as many other things in the image as possible, which we will see later in this post.

Certain sites have a tendency to present colours that are slightly muted relative to what comes in the mail, LLBean and JCrew as possible examples, but it is variable. I have had this experience with Nordstrom and Macy’s also.

No site that presents higher saturation comes to mind but it certainly happens with certain items or textile pigments. I see it in online client images with drapes whose colours I know, or in my own videos, where human, textile, and cosmetic pigments are translated differently.

There may be variability between camera sensors and software. Some seem to average the colours in the image. If the drape is very warm in colour, the rest of the colours are cooled, or vice versa. This seems to happen more with iPhones and some digital cameras, and less (or less noticeably) in fashion photography. I am not sure how to get around it. I have played with white balances till I got tired of getting no satisfactory or predictable result.

Some sites are extremely irregular between thumbnails and larger image, or larger image and video. ASOS is an example. The video often shows an item that is less saturated than the pictures. When picture, video, and thumbnails are all different, it’s impossible to tell. I usually go by the video.

  1. How does shine affect Season or images?

The colour of the highlight is dependent on the light source, often causing the item to appear lighter and warmer.

The smoothness of the shine may contain helpful clues. The smoother the shine, the whiter the highlight, the more likely to move into Winter. If the shine is grainy or pebbled, meaning that the surface is uneven, the highlight tends to be more muted but this is not consistent. If the highlight is grayish or not very different in colour from the textile, the shine is more characteristic of Summer and Autumn- influenced colour.

  1. How do you use colour clues in the model?

Everybody everywhere understands colour by comparing it to something.

A model is helpful. I try to establish relationships and rationality. If her shoes are clearly Autumn, discordant clothing is probably not Autumn. This goes beyond my taste to what humans generally (but not always) agree on. Few people would pair whisky brown with candy pink or dusty grape.

Whether her hair is dyed or not doesn’t matter, it’s just a colour block. Same with lipstick, it’s just a colour block. Yellow hair is more likely Spring-side but many golds are redder, heavier, and actually work better with Autumn. True red lips are probably Winter-influenced. I don’t get more specific than that.

The model is also good for general assumptions. If the model has black eyes and hair, we can be fairly comfortable that she belongs to one of the 5 groups with Winter-influence. I think in terms of more than and less than relationships than her Season. If a model is medium in her colouring and her head is receding while the clothing is coming forward, it is probably brighter than she is.

Plants, furniture, shoes, brick walls, or any other comparison opportunity are useful.

If the item is pictured with nothing else in the image, I go to #5.

  1. Can I make outfits?

Some of our clients desire perfect Season accuracy for every purchase. Others are pleased when they can sidestep unflattering colour purchases, aiming for the general sense of their Season group. I fall in between, looking for colours that can form very good relationships with me and with my wardrobe, cosmetics, and hair colour. I have a thing about clothing and hair colour because so often, they are truly uncomfortable together and nobody ever seems to notice, and I wonder why not.

Holding the palette to the screen, I consider the palette as a whole first. The very moment that the palette is placed up in front of the screen, keep awareness of where your attention goes. Look for roughly equal attention between garment and palette. If you’re ignoring one, or if one feels too insistent, it might be a problem.

Be patient. It takes practice to sense where your attention is. Your subconscious mind knows. You just have to pull the information forward into your conscious awareness.

Sometimes changing what is in front of our eyes shifts the attention but the colours might work well enough. The chemistry of the retina might just feel momentarily shaken up and our decision-making ability is temporarily suspended. This is similar to putting on makeup, especially for Winters. The lipstick or eyeshadow seems like a lot at first. Instead of removing it, it is best to go do something else that does not involve mirrors. When we return, we wonder what the issue was.

As in PCA with a person, if you are not sure about a decision, then you don’t know yet. Both choices remain viable, whether it be both Seasons in an analysis or the garment on the screen with the palette. Keep going.

Spread the arms of the palettes far enough apart to see the garment colour between them. If you can focus on the palette, and then focus on the garment, and think, “OK, this could work. At least they are not pushing each other apart. I can see both at once and find the picture pleasing.”, next, divide the palette into sections. Trying to evaluate an entire palette at once may be like trying to evaluate all the drape colours together at the same time. For me, there is too much information to manage.

First, the neutrals. Are they staying the same? Does the white look fresh and clean? Do grays look about the same as they appeared away from the screen? Can a white shirt/gray pants outfit be easily assembled? If anything takes on a green, yellow, or red cast, so will the face. Could you image the neutral colours as eyeliner and eyeshadow with that garment?

Next, the reds. These are the native reds in cheeks and lips, and the lipstick and blush colours. Could you insert the garment colour into one of the strips and nobody would know the difference? Would you pair the colours in an outfit? Would you wear this blush under those eyes?

Green seems to have two choices in life, to be great or gross. Look at the green strip on its own. This strip may also contain some of the more unique colours to that Season. Is the effect together pleasing or at least convincing?

The yellows. Consider each colour area separately. Has the lightest colour all but disappeared? Is the darkest colour somehow unpleasant? Does one of the middle colours suddenly look as if it doesn’t belong, as if the strip has broken up somehow?

Pins

A reader had the good suggestion of using pins on Pinterest. Links to merchandise can be unpredictably here one day, gone the next. For now, I’ll put the pins in the Shopping for Your Season and Style board. If this process works and we do more, I can put the pins in their own board for ease of finding in the future.

For now, as I’m sure you’ve thought of, open the two windows side by side to follow along. If that doesn’t work well, we can do something else next time.

  1. Light aqua dress, mauve background.

No.

The link to the pin is here.

Thought process:

Spring side, no recognizable Autumn.

Light or Bright Seasons possible, both have these types of colours.

The dress is very bright relative to the wall. They are not forming any great relationships or agreements. One might say that the dress is easier to see against the wall but the wall is not enhanced in any way. The wall is Summery, so the dress probably has little or no Summer.

A gain at the expense of another colour in the composition is inconsistent with my idea of harmony. For harmony to be satisfied, the whole must be agreeable. The wall, dress, and shoes from this picture, placed in the same landscape, would be a fantasy, not a solid, capable, believable world. The wall and the dress are not improving one another. It is difficult if not uncomfortable to look at both simultaneously, like a world with the wrong-coloured sky. My conclusion is that the dress and wall are different Seasons.

The shoes are Autumn or Spring or have some of both. They are not doing anything much, neither balancing the head, elongating the leg, or clashing significantly.

Next, I hold the palette to the dress with the arms of the palette spread far enough apart to see the dress through them. If I look at the dress, the Light Summer palette fades. I am almost ignoring it. I can see that certain properties are shared but not enough to feel like they making one another better. The lipsticks have little energy unless she wore only the darker choices, which is a possibility. We would have to see it but I wonder if the lipstick would look weirdly dark or weak or somehow not luscious above this dress.

The longer I look at it, the more the dress is taking on neon characteristics, and this is in dim lighting. The dress is more than most things in the image. I’m starting to think Bright. Worn by a Light Summer woman, the dress will become even brighter and she will become “the woman in that blue dress.”

At this point, I would skip on to the next item.

2. Woman with wavy blonde hair, silver medallion pendant, white distressed jeans, and aqua tunic top.

>Maybe but for sure be able to return it.

The link to the pin is here.

Why the top could be (or work with) Light Summer:

It is more muted than the jeans, which we can be fairly certain are Winter. Therefore the blouse is not likely Winter, or not strongly Winter. Even Dark Winter turquoise would probably balance white better, but she could probably wear it, being the muted Winter. I suspect that Bright Spring would also be too saturated but True Spring is possible.

The yellow component in the top is strong but this may be because of the lighting and time of day, or a Spring colour.  Light Summer has colours like that in the palette and she could wear it well enough but it does seem strong next to the palette colours. I would love to go to the store and find that it is more muted and less yellow than the picture.

It is cooler than the hair colour, which seems Spring like, but dyed  yellow hair can often be difficult in any palette so I don’t use it. The yellow green grass and leaves look Spring coloured, and  the blouse seems reasonable enough.

The model offers me no clues.

I don’t think the neutrals of Light Summer are ideal.

The pendant seems fine but turquoise would allow for cool and warm.

The clutch is somehow not being noticed but that could be the jeans. No conclusion.

The Autumn-like shoes do not seem to share a lot with  the top.

3.  Woman with coral dress with bow at waist and upswept hairstyle.

>Yes.

The link to the pin is here.

I love this colour on Light Summer. My eyes are tuned to look for it.

I do not know her Season but her eyes and eye makeup contain darkness that is causing me to lose the dress. If one thing is enhanced at the expense of the other, something is off. The dress and the woman are not making one another better but neither are they a lot worse. They are just there.

Her head has become mostly eyes, which is taking the idea of eyes as the focal point too far. The idea is not to vanish half the face, or the person’s presence, or spend money on clothing for which the best thing you could say is, “It’s just there.”

Eyes need a face to be anchored in. The building blocks in the image of a person need to stack up: hair, eyes and upper half of face, lower half of face, upper half of body, lower half of body. That is the level-upon-level of positive reinforcement that PCA offers those who have their formula (Season).

The lipstick could be lovely on Light Summer but I’m losing it with these eyes.  A face, head, and person are visually balanced when hair, eyes, and lips have similar impact. (Silver and white hair have plenty of impact). These eyes override the face and garment. The eyeliner and the eyes are competing for my attention and I have trouble moving on.

Not sure about the shoe colour but the bow seems to work. It matches, which is fine although not necessarily what we look for. You could find a similar colour in four or five palettes that looks like it matches. Colour matching is not what PCA is.

No conclusions to be drawn from the hair colour.

The fabric texture is good for Light Summer. They look super in it.

4. Same woman as 3 with more lips and dress. 

>Close call but no.

The link to the pin is here.

This colour for Light Summer may be too heavy but if I were shopping, I’d try it. It may be different off the model. Something is making her skin greener than it probably is and the same may be happening to the dress.

It’s hard to make sense of it with the aquas and greens of the palette, which begin looking frivolous or childish when in truth, they are stunning and vibrant on a Light Summer. Greens are excellent for getting a sense of what could be rational together.

I added this pin to show another version of the previous woman. Although not claiming that this is perfect, and this dress might be Light Summer too, she seems to have more presence than in the previous dress. I can look at her eyes and be aware of what she is wearing. The eyes are supported in a solid face, not a blurred or fluffy-edged face. The lips are doing something. Her hair has richer pigmentation. If it takes darker colour for her to show up, maybe she is a darker Season than Light Summer.

I do not believe for a second that anybody wears only the dark colours in Light Summer, and is still a Light Summer. They might be darker-looking Light Summer compared to some imaginary average but they are the whole Season. The palettes are adjusted for that colouring’s colour ranges and we can mix and match fairly freely within ours. If Light Summer wants to wear her darker green and navy blue, go ahead. It could be great.

Kathryn Kalisz’s Sci\ART palettes are correct. Not rigid, but correct for all person of whatever race, age, or gender. If you can only wear half of one of the palettes to show up, I would be looking for another palette. Other PCA systems will beg to differ on this point and that’s perfectly OK. I welcome all new ideas and ways of seeing things.

5. Long one-shoulder shimmery dark turquoise. 

Yes.

The link to the pin is here.

With some explanation:

 

6. So-cute child’s dress with yellow bow at waist.

> Yes.

The link to the pin is here.

The colour is soft but gives no feeling of shade or smoke as Soft Summer would.

A faint peach or buttery quality appears in the bow and skirt which is great on Light Summer, in makeup also. Many in this Season wear the warmth beautifully, right up to the edge of Light Spring.

Looking through the strips of the palette, the colour works nicely. The darker choices are fine and the dress holds up to them. The lighter colours do not become weak. The palette has energy and the dress colour has energy.

Holding up the strip with the yellows, it makes great sense.

The bodice may be a bit cool but it does not have any significant brightness. Maybe it’s a bit lemony but True Summer will have difficulty with the warmth of the waistband. Light Summer will do fine with a bit of brightness.

The white is softened, not stark. The glitter is delicate.

The gray and muted silver of the model form are fine and balance well.

Light Summer could use this item to her advantage. Perhaps other Seasons could as well. The colour analyst may be required to place an item into a single Season. A Light Summer client only needs to know if an item could work in her favour or if she is better leaving it at the store.

 

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Colour Theory, For All Seasons

Leaning in Your Season

17 Comments

The idea for today’s post comes from a group of questions that readers and clients have asked. Thank You for sharing your observations. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to clarify my vision of personal colour analysis (PCA).  I hope that clients will understand and celebrate their colouring more fully, and that prospective students may find it easier to select the training systems and PCA communities that are right for them.

The phrase, leaning in your Season, may have different meanings depending on the situation and who said it. Usually, it refers to a person whose colouring harmonizes with their primary Season and reasonably well with some of the colours of the group next door, leading to the conclusion that they lean into that neighbour Season. It might also be taken to mean that they lean into some of the neighbour Season’s properties, as, “I’m a Dark Winter that leans cool.”

We haven’t done a long post for a while so we’ll delve into this subject. No pictures or it will be 20 pages long instead of 10. This may be the longest one ever,  divided into 10 Q&A.

As point of clarification: How well the next-door Season works from a technical perspective and how often you might dip into its colours to find clothing in stores are two separate topics. Makeup is different again and will have its own question.

Since this website doesn’t touch on how PCA is actually performed, which is a whole other iceberg, I will try to keep it as practical as I can and still answer the questions, given my inclination to over-theorize with anyone willing to listen.

 The Order of Colour

Seasons follow the order shown in the image below. The order is not a human construct. It is based on how light behaves.

Leaning into immediate next-door neighbour Seasons is what most of this post addresses. It does not relate to any particular dimension of colour, as warm or cool, or more or less saturated. Separating the dimensions from one another is in the realm of the trained professional colour analyst, though clients often gain a sense of their ranges in time. We’ll be talking about wearing another Season fairly well in general terms.

Leaning into Seasons across the circle will not be relevant. To me, it doesn’t happen because it does not work on many levels. Here are two:

First, theoretically, crossing the circle would be the effect of believing and saying that, “I believe that the order of colours in rainbows is flexible and random.” If you take that stand, it follows that colour positions in colour wheels is interchangeable, since its ROYGBIV order comes from rainbows. If that is your belief, it’s fine but we will digress on most every aspect of PCA.

Second, in real life, people don’t drape that way. The Spring side and the Autumn side look odd in a million ways in each other’s colours, with the amount and location of the oddness depending greatly on the particular individual being draped.

Nobody crosses the circle to find a Season of partial harmony. I don’t invent things. I just describe what I see. I never see a person who drapes almost as well except in immediate neighbours. Depending on how an analyst prioritizes observations, she might disagree with this and we might or might not arrive at the same Season result.

This post is about using immediate neighbour Season palettes.

 Reader Questions

  1. Is it really possible for one season (let’s say Dark Winter) to have different sections for people who “lean” a certain way?

Say, those who are more “smoky” in appearance, those who are more “intense”/more saturated (which can lead one to thinking BW), and those who are more “warm”/Autumn?

Answering the second question first, yes. Many different natural presentations are possible in any of the 12 Seasons. People can look different in the same Season.

The first part of the question can have a short answer, which is: anything is possible in how Season colour collections are sectioned from the field of all possible colours, but it is not necessary to subdivide any of them and would make little sense because,

a)  Although the people look different, they reacted to the drape colours in the same technical ways. That’s how they got put in that Season. The drapes span the Season; they do not sit dead center (more on drape colour choices below). They are looking to pick up all the clues in all the possible natural colouring. In Dark Winter, colours will span jewel tones, muting textures, warmer to cooler, and other variations. Every drape in the set is taken into account when the sets are assembled. Variety of textiles is highly useful (more on drape fabrics coming up).

b) Kathryn Kalisz (founder of the Sci\ART system of colour analysis) got the Season parameters right. They do not need changing. When I say genius, I mean it as an understatement. Her vision has proven itself in real life over and over and over. It takes a long time and many faces to fully appreciate how well her Seasons allow for the nuance of facial expression, unique colours, facial geometry, the magic of colour combination, and the energetic extension of what we see to what we feel.

This is partly why the drapes span the Seasons as she devised them. They are right to all six senses. The more I do PCA, the more I see, the more I would resist changing what she created. The boundaries could be moved, and sure, they would relocate who goes into which Season, but I believe that a lot more would be lost than how people look. She understood the psychology of colour, including human, with an incredibly fine degree of tuning. Or, to always look at questions and solutions from many angles, am I becoming more and more attached to what I learned first? Lots of things are possible. I have awareness of the possibility and still believe that the mountain of evidence in favour of her Seasons keeps getting higher.

Regardless of natural appearance, every Dark Winter looks most fully expressed and harmonized when they wear the Season as is, and the same for the other Seasons also. Everyone might not have the same colour in the same place in their appearance, but the paintbox that coloured in their lines is the same and therefore, they react to drapes the same way. Every person might not wear every colour in the same item, location, area, or combination, but they still belong to Dark Winter. Colouring is balanced between eyes, skin, and hair, and in the totality of our appearance.

Even the most saturated Dark Winter benefits from something in that Season that True Winter did not provide, or something was lost, altered, or distorted in the neighbour palette. True of every member of every Season or they wouldn’t have been that Season.

 

  1. Does anybody fit perfectly in the middle of their Season?

Yes, if middle is defined as draping decisions with very little contest from the neighbour Seasons.

Other people drape adequately in some of the neighbour colours, usually 1 to 3  of the 6 used in the Test Drapes. The final Season decision may go back and forth between Dark and True Winter or Dark Winter and Dark Autumn. This depends greatly on how the analyst reads drapes and which colours she has in her sets (more on drape colours coming).

If the contest between Dark and True Winter was very challenging, someone might decide they lean into that Season. This may be technically true or possible, since, on the circle diagram, I think of Dark Winter as 1030 to 1130. Leaning need not apply to how they dress unless retail gives them no other choice, which is absolutely true sometimes, and no big deal at all.

As I have learned more about colours, drapes, PCA, and how clients apply information, I try not to talk of leaning or make sure that the client appreciates that their entire Season is way-way-way more important, beautiful, and communicative than anything about leaning. They shop and look better and enjoy their Season more when they don’t hear about this, or its relevance is minimized.

The language is mostly technical as the analyst works through, “Is the person at 1115 or 1145?” Suppose we said one day, “Gosh, it’s so hard to distinguish the Winters. Maybe if we moved the Winter drapes further apart, it might be easier.” Suddenly, people would start leaning the other way.

When we read about things, we can envision bigger swings than were intended. Picture tiny, tiny shifts. To the client, this makes no difference unless they live in a place where retail supplies colours in all 12 Seasons, which they don’t even if they live in Manhattan. Nobody does. A Dark Winter will still come out as Dark Winter.

Clients will certainly wear some colours from a few related groups, and the wardrobe interactions will be beautiful even if the colours are not be the absolute best version of that colour. True Winters may disagree but everything need not be 100% to work extremely well. In fact, it never is. If the colours share 80% of their attributes, you’re in a great place. Dark Winter and True Winter share a great big piece of territory. Light Summer and True Spring darker turquoise could be worn by either group and the surrounding colours will find all the things they share and make a home and a context for them.

Many Dark Winters wear some Soft and True Summer, maybe a blue from Bright Spring or a darker coral from Light Spring. They are content and look way the heck better than if they’d bought all the other stuff at the store that day. Their Season educated them as to which other colours would cooperate. Their colour analyst taught them how to tell.

 

  1. If I did wear some of the neighbour Season adequately, even though I am clearly my one Season, does that mean I should shop for those colours, or avoid the opposite side of my own Season?

In no way does draping decently in a neighbour Season mean wearing only half of the correct Season palette. You are an entire Season.

Folks often think that more Seasons might make things easier, not unlike asking for more drapes. The reverse will happen. They will end up having more information to manage, more difficulty in analyzing clients, more interruptions in fabric and product continuity,  more categories that apply to fewer and fewer people, more confusing disctinctions between groups, and more challenge telling colours apart among Seasons. Everything will cost more time and more money with little added benefit.

I might be convinced of 50:50 combo palettes between two Seasons, or palettes with only half a Season, if I had ever seen one single person who would benefit from it *in a technical situation*, but that never happens.

Even Seasons with the widest natural presentations do not need to be split up. More groups means more blur for everyone, including the client’s final appearance. When Kathryn Kalisz devised the Sci\ART Seasons, she got them right. Sure, a bit of variability is fine, unavoidable depending on inks, materials, the palette designer, the number of colours, but not a great deal.

I am not a believer in narrowing down our palette. If the drapes found black, white, and primary colours, then they did. If you are a Soft Season, darkness somewhere is good such that your total look averages to medium or medium dark. The palettes are already adjusted to be the right darkness, warmth, and saturation. You don’t need to think about this too much except maybe with combinations that most people figure out instinctively anyhow.

Don’t follow every suggestion every day. Nobody needs to look the same all the time. Everybody should wear all their colours.

 

  1. How do you (Christine) apply your Season (Dark Winter)?

I believe that presentation matters, more at some times than others. The same piece of jewelry can be received in a brown paper bag or a beautiful box that shows the piece at its most beautiful. It’s the same food if you have to eat it with your fingers or at a lovely place setting. Human decoration is like that. Presentation makes a difference to how we are perceived and received, in the short and long term.

Clothing, like draping, is about fit, style, price….it never comes down to just one thing. If I held out for only Dark Winter colours in my closet, I’d own very few clothes or spend all my time shopping. I wear a mix of True Winter, Dark Winter, and the cooler and darker colours of Dark Autumn. I look Autumn-ish, and would not likely be mistaken for a True Winter though I test better in many of those colours than in Dark Autumn.

I have made happy peace with how I want my colours and my appearance to serve my life, my closet, and me. Season is a place to relax, explore, and enjoy the miracles that are colour, life, and humanity. It is not a place to feel constrained or anxious about missing the boat, which is one choice when striving for perfection, the other being to do nothing. Anxiety over not being perfect or not doing anything means continuous struggle, which I consciously move away from. I put a lot of thought, time, and effort into the creation of a peaceful life in which I gave back more than I took, which I do not say from some lofty ideal but because that’s when life seems most willing to work with me.

The great thing about knowing your Season is how shockingly better you look at every level of practice. Fairly close was how I decided to use my palette. There’s nothing bad about being 80%, and at 80% of our palette, there is no wrong, or barely enough to matter. At 80%, I was like, “You mean, this is it?? I do this and I’m good??” Picture me doing the gesture of shaking water off my hands.

I don’t get too caught up in repeating natural contrast, for example. I prefer variety in appearance, exploring many possibilities for many different benefits. To my personal taste, it is over-thought and something about the look becomes predictable or uniform. You may feel otherwise and enjoy the tighter framework. That’s perfectly fine.

By Nature, I am eclectic in how I navigate life; maybe that’s the wrong word. Send me into a store asking me to come back with something red, and I’ll come back with everything except red.

Some folks want to be perfectly in Season all day everyday; excellent. Some will want to be Cordon Bleu chefs, master tailors, and the most perfectly controlled diabetics possible. That will entail more education, practice, and experiments that a perfectionist might see as fails while someone else might consider a big success.

I fully get that we cannot know how good we could be at something until we use the best materials. The standard of colour accuracy for which we aim with the drapes is light years and several galaxies beyond what I apply to my own shopping. I also believe that there are as many right ways to wear a Season as people wearing it. However you choose to wear yours, I’ll see you there.

Also, I trust the process. The more ways in which I see it applied, the more I know it works. I’m not about to outthink it or reinvent the world’s best-working wheel. The palettes are amazing out of the box.

If Christine is going to talk about Christine, you know we’re going to go on a trip. Please don’t read the next section unless you really love abstractions.

Bottom line answer to the leaning topic: Wear all your colours. Use them to paint the most detailed world of You that you possibly can. If you tested decently in one of the neighbours, wear some of those too (you’re going to have to anyhow).

For me, one purpose of knowing Season is the freedom and exploration of a space that is mine for a reason. If I were a colouring app, I would make Planet Me generous and gorgeous with new colours every day. Instead of seeing Season as discrete spots of colours or a test with Yes/No answers, I imagine it as a maze, a web, a fantastic piece of software, an intricately, exquisitely, mysteriously interrelated, interwoven world of similar energies. I picture connections between our colours and those of our attire, like conversations between colours flying back and forth, how our world would look if Google’s activity suddenly became visible. Each energy (colour) that is left out leaves a gap, a drop in the curve, a hole in the canvas, a slowing down of the velocity, and an assumption that we understand levels of human perception that in truth, we barely grasp. A Dark Winter wearing an area of burnt orange because there are dark yellows and oranges in the eyes look cool to me, outside the box, someone like me who thinks about what could be. Like all human communication, Season is a means of finding people who are like us.

Way off track. I really am very normal to meet, very medium and pragmatic. At least I think I am. I mean, I’m Canaydian, ay?  I know all this sound a little crazy but I can tell from your Pinterest boards that you feel it the same as I do.  I just write down what I see.

All I’m saying is, don’t impose limits that may be more real inside your logical mind than the other parts of your  mind or anyone else’s mind.

Reeling it back in. OK, I’m good. Next Q.

 

  1. What percentage of colors can one expect to be their “best” within their Season?

Sometimes, folks take best colours to mean that the entire palette will be their most striking colours. In the sense that the palette shows you the best colours to wear out of the field of every possible colour, this is true, but not necessarily that every colour will be equally amazing.

Is that just common sense? I’m not sure. I think people sometimes confuse the purpose of knowing their Season. But you did specify “within the Season”. You already appreciate that a Season is a whole system of colours that are grouped together because they are able to form strong relationships. This looks good to the viewer on conscious and subconscious levels.

Within a Season, I’m never sure of what ‘best colours’ means. Dividing up the answer:

a) I want to be sure that I’m answering the question that was intended. Please add to the comments if I don’t. How were the ‘best colours’ chosen?

By the analyst at the time of the draping, or some other way? Since the meaning is usually of colours that were great at the draping, I’ll speak in that context.

b) When the person who declared those colours your best leaves the room, are they still the best?

Depends who you ask.

The client? Which client? The one who wanted every Season except the one they are, or the one who already suspected their Season and loves every colour? The one who has had it in her head for 20 years that she can’t wear yellow because some aunt said something, way back when?

The client’s family? The least objective people possible, and probably the most invested in keeping the relationship exactly the way it has always been.

The client’s friend who came to the appointment? The one who wanted to be that Season herself, or the other friend who loves anything coral?

The analyst? Which analyst? The one who loves orange but seems to magnify it (me, who does not enjoy testing with orange), even if the client is a warm Season? The one who can feel colour viscerally and has tears running down her face for 8 out of 10 colours? The analyst who sees faces better than features, or the one who connects with features more than entire faces?

Christine? She would answer that, of the 20-25 drapes in each Season (counting Test and Luxury, more on that below), maybe 5 to 8 are breathtaking, but Christine also has preferences, aversions, and idiosyncrasies particular to her experiences.

Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of working with humans, not machines. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

c) When the person who declared those colours your best saw you in roughly 1-5 examples of each hue family, and only met you an hour ago, are they the final word on your best?

Keep in mind that in any Season’s set of Test Drapes, the client is only seen in 1 version of each of 6 colours in the drapes that she has. Every set has 1 of each white, yellow, green, blue, and red.

Test Drapes are not selected to be the most beautiful colours that the Seasons can wear. Although many are gorgeous, their purpose is to represent the Season’s colour dimensions for that hue as exclusively as possible related to the stage of the analysis process in which they will be used (meaning, what is the purpose of the drape, what will it be compared to, and what is the decision that we are trying to make at that point in the analysis.)

Everything is a balance. We want the Test Drapes to be very beautiful on most clients who wear them. Suppose that the analyst  sees many Bright Winters, and that many of them happen to test better in True Winter than Bright Spring. The analyst will request that her Bright Winter colours be a tiny bit cool, especially for colours that Winters don’t always wear easily in large blocks, such as yellow.  So now the Bright Winters love their yellow. The other side of the see-saw is that it is technically more difficult to separate the 3 Winters than it is to separate a Bright Winter from a Bright Spring. If the Bright Winter drape colours are close to True Winter, the analyst’s job has now become more difficult. Of course, there are 6 drapes in each set so it will never be a single drape tiebreaker decision. I’m just pointing out that there are no simple decisions. There are many angles for every choice to consider.

Test Drapes colours are not identical between analysts. Neither are they calibrated to be at the exact center of every Season; they span the range of the Season. Even if all 6 colours were right in the middle of the Season, every client won’t be so there is no point in putting energy into that. The consumer’s experience will not improve as much as it could be by directing attention into other areas.

Even if I wanted to achieve it, fabric availability where I live at the present time does not permit exact mid-Season drapes or identical drape sets. I once thought I wanted that, now filed under God’s Greatest Gifts (Are Unanswered Prayers). Even if every colour were identical from set to set, analyst to analyst, and year to year, the fact will remain that every analyst would not read them the same way, so there is no value in creating that. The consumer’s experience will not improve…

Using identical fabrics over and over means that new, more beautiful, more evocative, better calibrated, and challenging colours could not be brought in. The reason we know about texture, shine, Season parameters, and so many other things, is because we kept bringing in new colours. The rewards of this expansion have been so great that we are not about to stop. When Terry and I shop for fabrics, we are always on the lookout for the better and best colours. Terry Wildfong is my highly respected colleague and trainer in the USA.

Many colour analysts own Test Drapes only, which is perfectly fine but will limit how many colour variations she and the client will see. If we add the Luxury drapes, the client has now been seen in more colours, say 3 to 5 of each colour family. Is that enough exposure to decide what best is? What if the set didn’t have the lightest, or the coolest, or that client’s very best green?

Sometimes Season is a tough call and we’ll include the Luxury Drapes in the final decision, looking for the most complete and effective wardrobe and most harmonizing colours with the natural unaltered appearance. The decision among the people in the room is usually unanimous. However, I seldom notice consensus on which are the best individual colours or best combinations. So that’s interesting.

 

  1. How important is it to always wear my best colours?

It makes a huge difference to always wear your Season, or as close as you can, if that’s what ‘best colours’ means.

It is not important in the slightest to wear a narrowed version of our Season palette. Do we only listen to our 10 favourite songs or eat our 10 favourite foods? Or is the world richer, better, more complex and fantastic because we have the contrast of variety?

Season is a place to explore the fullness and complexity of self-expression, and the many possible faces of individuality. Who wants to see the people they know wearing their fabulous colours all the time? Like an overplayed song, they don’t seem so fabulous after a while. A language with 10 words is incapable of nearly what a 60-word dictionary can express.

Wearing only the best of the best looks boring to me, like presenting a quarter of a person. The reality of humans is of contrasts between our light and our shadow, and a million other things. Showing only our light is a little boring, unconvincing, repetitive, and artificial. There is so much more to a warm, breathing, learning, trying, growing, feeling, and sensing human being.

Wearing only our so-called best may transfer too much power to the opinions of others. Maybe it would be better to ask, “In which colours do I feel best?” Speaking only for myself, I pay attention to being exactly the same person whether I can (figuratively) hear applause or not. Otherwise, I cannot know who I am. Perceiving ourselves through the eyes of others has tremendous value. It changed my life story. Like everything, it needs to be balanced or it becomes difficult to trust our own voice, and eventually, to hear it at all. Other people’s voices can be quite insistent.

I appreciate that trusting one’s own voice takes time but try to move towards it. You will attain a level of freedom, self-reliance, and release from the opinions of others that will be worth the effort. In the end, the person with the final word on your best colours will be you. Your PCA is a form on introduction to that person.

 

  1. Is it better to think some colors will be phenomenal, others mostly passable?

Given the inherent variability in the meaning of phenomenal and passable (see #2 above), yes, some colours are phenomenal. The rare colour is that way on almost every person in a Season.

Other phenoms relate to individual pigmentation, as one example. Coppery carrot on Bright Springs with those colours in the hair and eyes is as silencing as truth always is, and not so much on Bright Springs based on a pink and blue or yellow and turquoise pattern.

Gray might be less exciting on some Season or persons than others, but every world needs its support structures. Even a rainforest has brown, gray, white, beige, and so on. How believable would a world without foundations be? Who would trust it?

Everyone should wear every colour in his or her palette. They might not wear them the same way, which the analyst helps each client sort out at the time of the appointment. The client also decides where they feel best expressed. Some want a closet of 6 colours, some 60. The client needs time to choose where they feel best, which is not something the colour analyst might ever know. The beautiful thing about Season is that every choice is right, and oh boy, does that free up a lot of time and money.

 

  1. This in mind, could it be generally a good idea to buy sister season fans? Or to buy fans by other companies in addition to TCA? Or buy corporate?

yes

Sent from my iPhone

:)

The more ways we see something, the better we understand it.

The more ways we see how someone else sees or does something, the better we understand how we wish to see or do it.

 

9. Does makeup choice lean warm or cool? 

Yes, in many women, it does. None of this post refers to makeup, which is influenced by many other factors than clothing. Its application directly next to the over- and undertones of the face, skin chemistry, reactions with nuance of particular skin and eye colours and  foundation, and inherent pigmentation of lips and skin are some of them.

If lipstick turns orange, one possibility is that the person is a cooler Season, but I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. They might be a little cooler inside the same Season. Makeup takes some experimenting. Makeup lists are extensive enough that women can try a few choices and find their level. Some will wear the full range of warm and cool colours inside the Season, but not usually with the same flexibility or flattery as with clothing.

Warm and cool options refers to Neutral Seasons (those between 2 True Seasons). The final decision depends on how the woman  wants to appear, clothing, occasion, and so on.  Her decision is also influenced by how she is accustomed to seeing herself. It takes time to see ourselves in a new way.

For True Seasons, who are fully cool or warm, the decision often comes down to the lightness or darkness of the cosmetic choice. Again, every woman will play with a few options as she assembles her cosmetic wardrobe.

 

10. Is it possible to be a pink-skinned DW? Does every season have pink-overtone and yellow-overtone persons?

Every Season has various presentations. In the same way that most every Season can have a version of many eye and hair colours, so can they have various skin tones.

Human colouring is often balanced on the surface, especially in the Neutral Seasons, though we are all coloured in equilibrium. A Light Spring with warm yellow green eyes will have pinker skin or more ash hair. Or at least the skin and hair look cooler, remembering that we are seeing them compared to those eyes. If the eyes suddenly switched to blue, the very same skin might seem warmer to us.

There was a question about whether hazel eyes could appear in any Season. Depends on what you call hazel, but if you mean greenish brown, then yes, though far more in some groups than others. My ideas of hazel doesn’t commonly appear in the True cool Seasons or on the Spring side, but I would never exclude any Season possibility based on that. In Light or True Summer, I’d be checking and rechecking, but in both, I can think of clients whose eyes might be called hazel. Light Spring looks more green-yellow than green-brown.

Some schools believe that the balance in our colours, whether warm and cool colours or complements depending on the words we want to use, happens between the overtone and undertone. I don’t know if that’s true because I have seen no data. Theories about how things appear or should be are not usually how they are.

I have no idea if undertone is located in a discrete biological layer, or whether people have different colours of hemoglobin, or whatever it may be. Although I don’t believe either of these is correct, and have my own theory (which I will keep private), we don’t need to know. The improvement in people’s presentation is staggering without this knowledge.

It doesn’t matter about some things. You can think an industry should have itself down to one right answer, until you think of your own profession. As an insider, you know that there are questions. This is normal and will always be so. Yet, your industry does lots of good. Medicine doesn’t have all the answers but few among us would wish it to disappear from our lives

One right answer to how to wear a Season sounds great except that the reality of it would be dry and alienate or exclude too many people. I believe that any problem can have many excellent solutions. Give an artist a paint palette with your 60 colours; a new painting every day for years to come. One Right Answer gets in the way of the fabulous possibilities that are waiting for us.

Wear your whole Season. Wear some of the neighbour Season if it makes sense for you. Breathe freely. Shopping Hell is almost at an end.

 

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About The Training Course, Colour Analysts

Getting Ready to Be A Colour Analyst: Commitment

3 Comments

This is Part 6 of 7.

Previous videos in this series:

Getting Ready to Be A Colour Analyst: Invitation

Getting Ready: Possibility

Getting Ready: Concerns

Getting Ready: Creation

Getting Ready: Decision

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Thank you to S. for the beautiful header photo of Spring, the ultimate metaphor for hope and renewal.

 

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Winter Colours

Please No Colours for Winters

31 Comments

The last in the Please No Posts.

I was asked, “Don’t you just wear whatever you want?” Such a good question.

We could eat whatever we want, decorate our house however we choose, and invest our money however we want. We know that those will not be our best choices.

We look to other sources for help and guidance. To choose our best colours, the source is a colour analyst.

Please keep in mind that these are my opinions. They represent what my eye finds elegant and flattering,  or unbecoming. Everyone can and should have their opinion when it comes to taste.

The previous posts:

Please No, Springs  is here.

Please No, Summers is here.

Please No, Autumns is here.

Should the video below not play, you can watch it here on YouTube.

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The Colours

Bright Winter

  1. Light Summer aqua. Eyes and no face. Not even much eyes come to think of it. Not much of anything relative to what is there.
  2. Soft Autumn rose. Truly fuzzed up face.
  3. Generic burgundy. Functional.

Beauty colour: Blue periwinkle.

 

True Winter

  1. Some kind of Soft and True Autumn fusion peach beige. The ultimate in go back upstairs.
  2. True Summer green on True Winter. Better on some True Winters than others. Also, True Summer green only gets a bit lighter than this. Give a Winter green that is much more something – light, dark, saturated.
  3. Faded denim. On any of the 5 Winter blends. It looks too weird to classify as casual.

Beauty colour: Pomegranate juice.

 

Dark Winter

  1. Soft Summer cool soft rose. How can it be so gorgeous on them and such a washout on Dark Winter. Aren’t they similar Seasons? Technical similarities with some crossover in the darker colours may be a better way to think of it.
  2. True Autumn beige. I once thought I was an Autumn who knew what suited her. Mmmm-hmmmm.
  3. Light Spring pink. Considering the presence this person can emanate, why doll clothes?

Beauty colour: Dark green. The colour and the person are one and the same, like a walking magic show.

 

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Science, beauty, truth. Transformational results.

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