Mastering the Art of Wearing Any Color: Tips for Flattering Every Hue
How to successfully combine or wear the colors for your seasonal color type is often skipped or only briefly discussed in personal color analysis. It was barely even covered in the training I originally did. The main focus tends to be on finding your seasonal color type which is all well and good but for me personally, I felt like I was kind of left hanging and that my clients were also as far as how to utilize all of the lovely colors we now had at our fingertips. I plan to remedy this so that moving forward no one is left not knowing how to use these tools.
Your Personal Color Scheme
Have you felt like you can't wear certain colors or pull off a certain look because they are "not your season" let me tell you that this is not true. Color is not meant to be limiting. There seem to be these false ideas floating around that if you are a Spring you must always dress like a Spring which translates to bright cheerful colors 24-7. Or if you are a Summer, you should only wear blue and pink and lots of pastels or an Autumn only wear earth tones and orange.
While these colors exist and can be worn by these seasonal color types it does not mean one has to or should wear these stereotypical colors regularly. If you like these colors then go for them. But if you want to be more creative and have more variety simply sticking to the typical look for your season can get very boring very quickly. Not to mention it does not account for individuality within your color spectrum.
Knowing your primary undertones is a great place to start and seasonal color analysis can help lay the foundation for finding them. However, the palettes (even in the expanded seasons) don’t always account for individual characteristics. Plus some of the colors have been misassigned over the years and contain the wrong undertones.
So how should one go about finding their best colors in this case? Here are some basic steps:
- Find your undertones - are you blue-based or yellow-based? You can read more about this here.
- Observe your overall contrast level (the combination of light and dark within your features) - Is your skin much lighter than your hair and eyes? Light eyes and skin with dark hair? Perhaps all of your features are light. Or are they all relatively in the same range? This could mean medium or deep. This informs the color depth of the colors within your color palette.
- Find your personal intensity - how bright and saturated can you go? If the color overwhelms or overpowers you’ve gone too far.
- Refine and narrow down your individuality - what sets you apart? For example, if you have warm yellow-based undertones but your skin is more coral-pink than gold, the strong oranges and corals may not be your best. Or you have cool blue-based undertones with obvious plum hues in your skin. The plum and plum-purple hues will be some of your best colors. Yellow in the eyes? Narrow down which yellows and wear those. They may be golden and bright or pale and icy. Honing in on these beautiful individual characteristics will help create that “Wow!” factor.
Creating Winning Fashion Color Schemes
How can you get more creative with your color palette? Maybe you have a specific aesthetic that you want to achieve.
For example, if someone is an Autumn color type but one of their favorite times of year is winter. Does this mean one cannot have a "wintery" look when that time of year rolls around? No, it does not. If they are not a Winter color type how do they do this? By wearing the deepest, coolest, and brightest colors in their palette. This will give them that "jewel-toned" look. What we call color temperature in color theory (the psychological feeling presented by colors) is relative. So, even the yellow-based hues have their versions of cool and warm colors.
The key to wearing any color or color scheme you desire is to observe the main colors in that color scheme and find those colors in your color palette.
Is the main color green, blue, red, etc? What other colors are included? This may sound too simple but that is all there is to it. You have the full range of colors from the color wheel at your disposal; they vary in depth and brightness depending on your color type. The two exceptions are magenta and orange. Magenta can never be a yellow-based color and orange can never be blue-based. So, depending on your undertones you may need to substitute that specific color range. If you have yellow-based undertones substitute purple for magenta; and if you are blue-based substitute red, beige, or brown for orange.
Color Communicates
Colors make a statement and communicate something to others. In addition to choosing clothing styles that fit our bodies well and are appropriate for the activity we are engaging in, some thought should go into the outfit's color scheme. This is where your aesthetic and what you want others to perceive come into play.
Dark Colors - present an image that is more dramatic, sophisticated, mysterious, authoritative, or trustworthy depending on the hue.
Bright Colors - are generally seen as energetic, bold, confident, creative, and powerful.
Pastel Hues - give a sense of calm, youthfulness, and balance.
Earth Tones - are grounding, elegant, and comforting.
Instead of telling yourself or thinking that you can't wear certain colors or dress a certain way because it's "not your season" the real questions are - what is my version of these colors? Are they dark or light? Bright or soft? Cool or warm? What is the mood of the color or color scheme (i.e. cool and calming, bright and cheerful, dramatic or passionate)? What is the fabric texture? Is it shiny or matte? Rough or smooth?
These are all elements a designer or stylist looks for when putting together the perfect outfit. You too can learn to think along these lines. It's just a matter of knowing what to look for and putting it into practice. Before you realize it, it becomes second nature.
This is my goal and what most personal color analysts strive to communicate and teach their clients.
So, can you dress in a different seasonal color type or create different moods? Yes! The trick is to observe the characteristics of the outfit and dress according to those principles using the colors in your palette. Let's take a look at this outfit below... How can this color scheme work for any color type?
What else? The overall mood presented is bright, confident, and creative. The fabric textures are smooth and combine matte and shiny elements. The top features a bold geometric print. You can achieve a similar look by wearing a suit in your best bright red, pink, green or other hue of your choice. Choose a silky blouse in a similar print - black and white zebra stripe, polka dots, oversized floral, etc. But again stick to your best colors. See how easy that was? There are no limitations on color or style - period. Let's look at another example.
Image Source: Pinterest
In the above photo, British actor Kit Harrington is wearing a plum purple (magenta undertone) sweater, soft black jeans, and boots, and a brown leather bag. The brown bag is actually a yellow-based brown. A black or cherrywood color would have been a better choice for him.
The texture of the sweater is matte and rough which tones down the color a bit. The jeans are also a matte denim and his boots and bag are a shinier waxed leather. The overall look and feel of the outfit is relaxed and comfortable yet sophisticated. The color scheme is dark, rich, and a bit mysterious. Since Kit is blue-based overall this color combination looks fantastic on him even though it is not 100% perfect. That's okay it doesn't have to be.
But what if you are yellow-based? Choose a textured knit sweater in a warmer (red undertone) purple, jeans and leather boots in a rich charcoal, and leather bag in charcoal or brown-black.
As you can see it is quite easy to play with different color schemes and styles once you break them down into their basic elements.
To break through creative barriers or blocks I like to look to nature for inspiration. Each season goes through a natural transition or arc where it starts out dark, gets lighter and brighter, then begins to fade and get deeper again as it transitions into the next season. You can follow these natural transitions by dressing according to the time of year if you want to. And I mean truly following the seasons. You could also look at the different times of day - sunrise, midday, sunset, and twilight for color and texture inspiration.
Or you can have fun wearing whatever hues are the colors of the year or what the fashion mags say are the current "in" colors. Do what makes you feel confident and attractive.
The bottom line is your natural coloring will always be in harmony with all of the colors contained within your color spectrum (blue-based or yellow-based) from the brightest to softest, and lightest to the darkest. There is always a combination of light and dark, warm and cool, bright and soft in varying degrees in nature just as they exist in you. :)