Coffee with Cream
Eternal Voyageur writes:
BTW the camel colour made me think of requesting you to do a piece on creams, beiges and off-whites someday. I always struggle to connect name to colour, let alone decide which ones are flattering and which are not.
Here’s the problem: when I started looking up the color names (cream, ecru, beige, ivory, and so on), they all basically had the same definition - pale grayish yellow. That’s helpful! (You could hear the sarcasm in that, couldn’t you?) While I cannot promise is to give you names by which you can be certain you & others will be thinking of the same color, I do have some suggestions on how to select those which are flattering.
First, look for the undertone. While technically an off-white can be a super-light tint of any color, most of them tend to separate into those which are in essence a brown (like coffee with extra cream added) or those which are yellow.
Personally, I find the yellows hard to wear. I recommend them with yellow-blonde hair. For me, I like coffee.
There are also very light taupes, which make a good substitute for white or khaki trousers.
The other thing I would add is, even if you look okay in more than one range of off-whites, to stick to one in your wardrobe, thereby increasing your chances for serendipity. Believe it or not, the bermudas I picked up for a buck this week match the safari jacket my mom gave me for Christmas. What are the chances of that?
I hope this is helpful. Any insights or follow-up questions?
Taupe looks coffeeish to me (my monitor’s injured.) Is it the element of gray that qualifies something as taupe?
I mentally classify beiges/taupes/creams as coming in warm and cool tints like other colours. I would call cream a generally warm white whereas taupe (in my mind, the colour of a chocolate Frosty from Wendy’s) is a cool, less saturated brown.
Chrs - I see what you mean. Yes, the taupe is more grayish, that is what makes it taupe, but it also looks like coffee. Here I thought I had these nice illustrations, but they’re still a bit confusing.
Emily - the color of a frosty is a perfect description for taupe!
I was just planning ahead. Glad it worked:-D
BTW, this post was extremely helpful to me, especially the part about “a light tint of ANY color”!
I’m glad it helped!
BTW, I’m planning on wearing the “safari suit” to the semi-casual banquet.
[…] The Space Between My Peers attempts to make some sense out of creams, beiges, and off-whites in Coffee with Cream. […]
[…] The Space Between My Peers (yes, that’s me ) attempts to make some sense out of creams, beiges, and off-whites in Coffee with Cream. […]
The “safari suit” NFO helps. Thanks.
I love the first outfit.
Me too! The hair and everything …
Wow !!!! Thanks a lot !!! This is really great.