The Space Between My Peers

 I skipped posting for Teen-style Tuesday in order to spend time with my parents, who were in town to attend the annual Semi-Casual banquet (my older daughter was one of the special honorees this year).  Mom took this picture.

About my outfit:

• Mom bought me the safari style jacket for Christmas. 
• Same pants I wore last year. 
• Same shoes I wore the year before.

At the last minute, in order to more accurately repeat the contrast in my own coloring, thereby creating a more flattering ensemble, I selected the brown gingham check camp shirt. 

It’s also the humor in this outfit.  What’s so funny, you ask?  When I was small, back in the day when brown was the “in” color, my sister and I had gingham dresses.  Mine was brown.  Trouble was, I always thought that brown dress meant I was boring; which faulty thinking became known as the “brown dress syndrome”.  As an adult, though, I realized that my mom always liked brown, therefore choosing to dress me in it could not be bad. 

Wearing brown checks reminds me that I am way over the ”brown dress syndrome”, the whole thing was childish thinking in the first place.  What about you?  Have you uncovered any remnants of childish thinking in your own wardrobe choices? 

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Becky writes:

Rebecca, several of your posts on dressing in colors that are present in your personal coloring have puzzled me. For example, I have very fair that is somewhat yellowish (also dark blonde/light brown hair) and I look horrible in colors that contain too much yellow. It seems to me that I look best in cool colors that balance out the yellow of my skin.

Nobody looks good in yellow outside of Texas, do they?

But seriously, Becky, you bring up a good question. Your experience corresponds with the advice to Choose the Opposite Color that I blogged about awhile back. (I also notice that most of the commenters said the same thing you did, “horrible in yellow”.)

Here’s how eternalvoyageur answered:

Hmmm… I think that we have to pick what we want to highlight in our colouring (either by using these colours or contrasts) and what we prefer to conceal or balance out. read the rest of her answer …

I agree. Don’t emphasize anything you don’t want noticed (undereye circles, acne, birthmarks, etc) by matching it in color.

In one of my very first posts, on selecting jacket colors, I gave the following advice on wearing a color similar to your skin tone next to the face:

• Separate the garment from your face with a swath of contrasting fabric.
• Choose as an accent color: your eye color, white, black, or your lipstick color.

There is, of course, the danger of being washed out by not using enough contrast in your color scheme. To combat that possibility:

• use a darker or lighter version of the eye or hemoglobin color
• use the complementary color
• add a small amount of white, black, or a shiny metallic

Finally, finding flattering colors to wear next to the face can be as simple as identifying your hemoglobin and melanin colors, by-passing the overall skin tint. Hemoglobin is the oranges, reds, and purples present in, for example, the tips of your fingers. By melanin I mean the color of your freckles, that is, the browns in your skin.

In the end, I decided against the monochromatic “safari suit” for this evening’s semi-casual banquet, opting instead for a variation with greater contrast.

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Yay! I don’t have to really write this post - an explanation of the color terms white, off-white, cream and beige - which I had planned as a follow-up to my previous attack on the question, because Angie has written one which is very clear and easy to understand. As I understand her explanation: there are extreme whites, (palest gray) off-white, light yellows (creams), and beiges or tints of brown.

A bit of practical, Rebecca-style advice concerning that final category:

Selecting one family of browns to use in your wardrobe will make color-coordinating much easier. Simply put, choose any brown that is present in your coloring and then use all its tints and shades (white added or black added).

Recently, when thrifting with a friend, we got to experience how this works. She had a number of brown-range items in the cart: dark brown shoes, khaki pants, cream pants, tan purse, and mid-brown purse. When laid next to each other, everything blended except the tan purse, which looked green next to the other items. That made it easy to choose what to put back!

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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?

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I own a million pieces of turquoise jewelry, I love the stone. I however never know the type of clothing especially the tops to wear. My hair is ruby midnight with purple under tones. My eyes are dark blue and my skin naturally has a yellow undertone. When I changed my hair to this dark color friends and family said it looked beautiful on me and made my eyes really stand out. I figured this is the best place to ask this question because I read such great advise to the above question. Thank You to all of you who answered (Judi)

(Ruby midnight = rich auburn black)

My best advice is to wear solid tops in deep, intense colors: black, midnight or royal blue, purple. With dark blue eyes, blues - including turquoise - are natural.

I think what I’m suggesting is that the turquoise is naturally going to harmonize with and flatter your eye color, and a top in a dark color, when combined with the dark hair, will frame the face. It’s going to be a dramatic look!

Alternatively, turquoise is appearing in lots of great prints these days. Depending on your personal style idiom, either a funky kind of ethnic look or a more simply elegant backdrop seem natural to me with turquoise jewelry.

A third option with turquoise is to use its complement, which is orange or brown. White is my favorite hot-weather black substitute. And metallics always look elegant with turquoise.

Okay, readers, Judi was asking for your advice. What tops do you suggest with turquoise jewelry?

Just for fun, here’s some pictures of looks that might work:





Incidentally, while in Italy, we saw LOTS of cute metallic sporty shoes.

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What I would have worn to the opening performance of Little Mermaid last Friday night, had it been an option.

And then, if I had this dress, I would proceed to wear it to every possible function for the next - oh, I don’t know how many - years. Until it didn’t fit any more. After all, with a dress this awesome, who needs variety?

More gorgeously wearable plumness at Coutorture’s editorial, The Only Oscar We Care About. Or view the entire collection. Or read their New York Fashion Week Trend Recap (honestly, I just don’t have the visual stamina to do much on fashion week myself).

BTW, I’m seeing this purple everywhere, which I take as a good thing. It’s one of the only bright colors which actually looks decent on me. The fact that it looks good on but doesn’t fit my usual color scheme makes it a perfect candidate for a dress.

Update:  Or a swimsuit.  If you come across one, please leave a comment and let us know where you found it!

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Here’s more evidence that what I have thought concerning skin tones may not be correct (I’m so confused!):

We usually look our best - most vibrant and alive - wearing the color that is opposite our underlying skin tone. If the underlying skin tone is sallow (yellowish), choose colors that have red in them. If the underlying skin tone is ruddy (red or pink), choose colors that have yellow in them.

Of course it is true that hair and eye color further determine what colors make us look our best, but this does not change the red-yellow opposites rule.

It is interesting to note that almost everyone looks good in aqua-turquoise (a blue-green-white blend) and apricot-coral (a red-yellow-white blend).

Another intriguing fact is that few people look good in khaki and camel, both of which are devoid of red and yellow.

From Sweater Design in Plain English, by Maggie Righetti

Help me test some of this!

1. Can you identify whether your skin is sallow or ruddy?
2. If so, do you find the opposite-color advice works for you?
3. Anybody look hideous in aqua-turquoise or apricot-coral?
4. Anybody look fabulous in khaki or camel worn near the face?
5. If you couldn’t identify yellow or red in your complexion, would you characterize your skin as orange?

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Ack! - I have a ton of stuff I want to post about! I guess that’s a good thing.

Credit goes to Emily for creating this fresh spring palette, in response to a suggestion from Karen. Personally, I am loving the grey! Although I haven’t gone that direction in my wardrobe yet, it’s the gray (yes, I did that on purpose) which has always resonated with me; very crisp and clean. (Which reminds me of this article Vildy sent in about people who only wear one color. She and another person both commented that the grey/silver/pewter wardrobe was the only wearable one.)

Covering dark and light, warm and cool, clear and muted, this palette has it all. What would you have to add or change in order to wear it?

I might trade the cantaloupe for a candy pink, or else swap the ivory for white. I guess that moves it a little more toward the cool side, doesn’t it?

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Little things lurking in the back of the mind, percolating on the back burner, leading to the epiphany that says, “why didn’t I think of that before?“. And at the same time, “isn’t that how it’s always been?”

That’s how it was for me today, when my concept for my personal 2008 spring color palette gelled.

It’s no secret around here that I’m not a fan of black. Perhaps less well known is how positively fresh and delightful I find the combination of black, white, and pink. I have worn a variation of the outfit pictured here before, very successfully, I might add.

(How do you judge the success of an outfit? If I am comfortable and people relate to me in an open and friendly way, I consider the outfit a success. Compliments are frosting.)

I will use two variations of the same palette:

1. black, white and (any) pink.
2. (any) pink plus any analogous color (coral or peach or light orange, or a warm violet) alone or paired with a neutral.

In addition, I am having visions of the bright pink jacket in the first picture with a solid (as opposed to heather) light gray.

Why I should have thought of this before: my year-round palette relies on neutrals and pinks, with black and white used more as accents. Pulling out the other neutrals, the browns and grays, brightens the palette and dramatizes the colors, while maintaining the subtlety required by my soft coloring. Black and white together are still an accent, but balance each other in a way.

Now, on to the advisability of basing a mature person’s wardrobe on pink, a subject that occurred to me after Emily commented on the previous color palette post.

The psychology of pink:

• The most romantic color, pink, is more tranquilizing. Sports teams sometimes paint the locker rooms used by opposing teams bright pink so their opponents will lose energy.

• Pink induces feelings of calm, protection, warmth and nurture. This color can be used to lessen irritation and aggression as it is connected with feelings of love.

• Pure red is the simplest colour, with no subtlety. It is stimulating and lively, very friendly. At the same time, it can be perceived as demanding and aggressive.

I wonder if I relate to pink because I’m simple and friendly, without being demanding and aggressive. Beth?

What are your thoughts on a wardrobe based on pink? Do serious neutrals provide balance?

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From our recent discussion about what we’ll be wearing this spring, what jumped out to me this year is an emphasis on color. Normally, since my personal coloring is fairly subtle, I gravitate toward low intensity color combinations: two neutrals combined with a soft color or monochromatic. However, right this minute I am craving a bit more color; perhaps an analogous color scheme such as orange sherbet and candy pink or navy and turquoise.

This set of colors comes via wear palettes, who distills the palettes pictured in The Sartorialist’s photography. By viewing these two in bloglines I am able to view just the palettes first, without the outfit picture, which I love! If I were to build a spring wardrobe without pink, this could be it.

Vildy shares her spring wardrobe inspiration:

I’m thinking my spring wardrobe is centered around my new this year plaid coat (jacket length to me), vanilla background with black plaid plus threads of raspberry, copen blue, yellowish olive.

Karen also recently shared her palette she began working on this past fall:

brown and peacock or dusty turqoise blue, tan and olive. I also have a black/white/red/cream/gray theme going. But blue//brown/green are my signature colors, I know just the right shades that are wow for me and it is a time saver to pass over colors that I know aren’t going to work well for me.

Note the wisdom expressed in her final statement.

Further Spring 2008 color inspiration:

• Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring 2008 pdf
  
• Boden Hot Picks - Women’s
• Got a bright idea? Shop your shade and find colorful looks at gap.com
  

Well, I’m inspired! Perhaps I’ll take the camera into the “lab” and play. In the meantime, have you any inspired color combinations on your mind for this spring?

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