See the difference?
The blue t-shirt "wears the woman", in the photo on the left, making it hard to see her face. By contrast, in the photo on the right you notice the woman rather than the color of her clothes (except, maybe, to note that the whole look is harmonious).
The wrong colors can make you look older, heavier, tired and even ill (of course you could use this to your advantage if you wanted to take a sickie!). The wrong colors also often wear you, so that people see your clothes before they see you (a friend might say “that color shirt is great”).
Not only do the correct colors for you make you look healthier, younger, slimmer and brighter. They also make you feel healthier, younger, slimmer and brighter. Now your friends say "you look great". Color also affects our mood and emotions, our perceived body shape and the overall impression we make on others. So why would you wear anything other than the colors that suit you best?
What is Seasonal Color Analysis?
Seasonal color analysis categorizes people into one of 4 categories...
- Winter
- Summer
- Autumn, and
- Spring
The categories are named after the seasons and the colors found together in nature to help you remember the range of colors they include. Your seasonal color range will complement the coloring of your skin, hair and eyes.
Understanding Color
Understanding a few characteristics of color will help you understand your own coloring and help you make more informed color choices when you buy clothes. Attributes of color include it’s…
- Hue --this is the name of the color
- Temperature --a color can be perceived as cool, warm or neutral. Yellow based colors are perceived as warm, while blue based colors are perceived as cool. Pure colors are neutral—that is neither cool nor warm
- Value --a color can be described as light, medium-light, medium, medium-dark, dark
- Intensity —-whether the color appears clear or muted
Your main seasonal color has these attributes and so do clothing colors. When you know your flow season, to determine if an item of clothing is the correct color for you look for colors with attributes that most closely match your seasonal colors’ attributes. Keeping this in mind helps if you’ve forgotten your swatch or the exact color isn't in your swatch.
Seasonal Colors
Winter colors are cool, clear and dark to light intensity. Think of the winter landscape colors. In the low light of winter colors appear darker, but on a bright day with the sun reflecting off snow colors appear pale and icy.
Summer colors are also cool, but muted and medium-light to medium-dark in value. Think of seeing the landscape through a summer heat haze. The colors are muted, paler versions of Winter’s. The light colors are creamy pastel rather than icy.
Autumn colors are warm, muted and medium-light to medium-dark intensity. Think of fall New England landscape colors of rich burnt oranges, reds, golden yellows and sludgy greens.
Spring colors are also warm, but clear and bright with medium to light intensity. Think of the bright clear colors of spring flowers and the new season’s clear, bright green shoots.
Extending Seasonal Color Analysis
for More Color Choices
With the infinite variety of each unique person’s coloring some people don’t fit neatly into one season. So most Image Consultants now use a refined version of the original seasonal color analysis called flow seasonal color analysis.
Flow color analysis categorizes a person as one of 12 flow categories. It recognizes that a person may have coloring characteristics from more than one season. A person still has one primary season, but also has elements of another season—the flow season. The flow season color range takes this into account.
For example, a woman who has dark black-brown hair, dark brown eyes and an olive skin will be mainly Winter, but flow towards Autumn. She will be a Deep Winter. The Deep Winter swatch includes all the main Winter colors and some of the Autumn range such as olive and khaki to complement her skin.
Flow Seasonal Color Analysis
This diagram shows the 12 flow categories and their relationships to the seasonal categories. Flow names reflect the "look" of the flow...
- Cool -- Winter or Summer with cool skin, hair and eyes
- Warm -- Autumn or Spring with warm skin, hair and eyes
- Clear -- Winter or Spring with stunning eyes. Many celebrities are Clears
- Deep -- Winter or Autumn with dark hair and eyes and warm skin
- Light -- Summer or Spring. Light skin, hair and eyes
- Soft -- Summer or Autumn. Either velvety/chocolaty looking, "heavy" neutral looking or light neutral looking
How to Find Your Flow Season
The process involves looking at your overall facial "look" and the coloring of your skin, hair and eyes to determine your flow season. Then using color drapes to establish your main season.
The easiest and most accurate way to find out is to have your colors assessed by an experienced Image Consultant. Find out about my in-person color analysis service by clicking here.
If for some reason you can't get to an Image Consultant the next best alternative is an online color analysis where you supply a good quality photo and answer some questions about your coloring. Contact me to find out about my online color analysis service. Alternatively, as a rough indicator you may be able to assess yourself (or get a friend to help), at least for your main season.
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