Using Zyla’s 8 Basic Colors
There was a fair amount of discussion in the comments on the previous post, and more that I wanted to bring up concerning David Zyla’s color system based on your own personal coloring. My opinions are as follows:
Orange: is either found in the hand, making it a romantic color, or in the eye.
Suggestion: it is probably safe to widen our range of reds beyond just the “pinched fingertip” color to include all the reds and oranges that harmonize with the palm.
Purple: one of the “dramatic” colors, the colors of the veins. Could also be present in the eye.
Suggestion: he does say to pick out several colors of the blood vessels in your wrist. But I personally don’t see these as “dramatic” colors, necessarily. Blues are “trustworthy” colors.
Zyla mentions in the book that mixing the colors according to his recipe results in an individualized color plan (my words). The concept of the formality of each neutral bears a little explanation here. I think when he says “the color of the ring around your iris is your most formal neutral”, he means not that it is the most formal color that you have in your coloring, but that it is the color that a man should use for his first business suit and a woman for her LBD. Admittedly, I am thinking of a couple of family members who have black as their second neutral, but not their first.
And Amy asks:
I never wear my “white”, I feel naked in it. Does that happen to you others? It’s too close to my skin color.
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The Color(s) of (Your) Style
At Amy’s suggestion, I have been reading The Color of Style: A Fashion Expert Helps You Find Colors that Attract Love, Enhance Your Power, Restore Your Energy, Make a Lasting Impression, and Show the World Who Y
He then goes on to make connections between coloring and personality, defining 24 archetypes. It’s entertaining. IMHO, his “must-haves” and “must avoids” are hit and miss. Throughout the book there are “take it” and “leave it” recommendations, but overall I recommend the book. It will make my collection.
My favorite “take it”: the color of the ring around your iris = your own personal “black”.
Mine is actually one of my all-time favorite colors: deep pewter gray. The hero’s is a lighter, bluer gray. What color is yours?
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Reverse Dying Black with Bleach
As you may or may not know, I am not a huge fan of wearing black. I am, however, a huge fan of really cheap, natural-fiber clothing that fits fabulously.
Enter Contemporary Dyecraft: Over 50 Tie-dye Projects for Scarves, Dresses, T-shirts and More
This concept has tremendous potential! For those on a budget, black clothing is abundantly available at thrift; for bleaching, who cares if it’s faded-out? If the look were perfect for one’s idiom and lifestyle, indeed, an entire wardrobe could be built around this one look.
Have you ever purposely used bleach to transform a garment?
dye craft books)
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Your Life Palette
Color Palettes
Lloyd Boston
I recommend drawing your life palette from your personal coloring, personality, and lifestyle. A suggestion: go to wear palettes and click on your eye color in the right sidebar. That will bring up all the color palettes containing your eye color. If you don’t find one that works for you, search your hemoglobin color; that is, your best red (hue, tint or shade).
If you live in New York or work in theatre, click on black. he hee.
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Color Temperature: Psychological and Relative
When discussing color “temperature”, are we all talking about the same thing? There are, in practice, two different ways of understanding color temperature; that is, warm versus cool colors. I will attempt to oversimplify the explanation and uses of each.
Psychological Color Temperature
This is what you may have learned in elementary school: red and yellow are warm, blue is cool, and so on.
Best use: to convey personality. Generally speaking, warm colors are energetic and eye-catching; cool colors are peaceful and soothing. Cool colors are also significantly more associated with professional clothing.
Relative Color Temperature
This is what color analysts are talking about when they mention “undertones” and talk about things like “a warm blue”. The easiest way for me to think of it is to think of each hue having two versions (of course, in reality there are infinite versions, as well as shades and tints): one closest to the hue to one side of it on the color wheel, the other closer to the hue on the other side. For example, purples are red-violet or blue-violet; yellows fall into green-yellows or orange-yellows.
Best use: complement your coloring. Within the color families appropriate for your personality and activities, some colors will be more flattering to your own personal coloring. Wear those.
Color theory is a complicated topic, and subject to fashion cycles as well. Wearing all cool versions of all cool colors, or all warm versions of all warm colors, is flattering to only those with the most extreme coloring (most have a combination or more middle-of-the-road coloring) and can wind up looking dated.
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Complementary Colors
Two fabulous uses for complementary colors:
1) Substitution. For example, instead of shopping for a blazer (or sweater or coat) the color of your hair, as I often suggest, try the complement (the color opposite on a color wheel). Keeping the same color value (light or dark) moderates the level of contrast.
Dark brown = navy blue
Auburn = teal
Yellow-blonde = lavender
Black = white
2) Contrast. Bring out the rosy color in your skin by wearing a color that is the complement of your hemoglobin (the reds, purples, and oranges visible in the skin and lips). For example, peach skin is flattered by blue and pink skin by green.
Two more tools for making your face the focal point of every outfit. Remember Rule Number 1?
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Combining Cool and Warm Colors
I’m beginning to suspect that not everyone is obsessed with all the minute and mathematical considerations involved in deciding what to want and wear. (What do you suppose … the eyes glazed over? the nervous laughter? no comments in my in-box?) So, in case anyone still reads this, this one’s for you: try combining cool colors with warm ones, rather than wearing all one or the other.
I realize this runs counter to the 1980s, Color Me Beautiful era, advice. But because most people have both cool and warm colors in their personal coloring, it works.
Some good cool/warm color combos:
- White with Brown (my current favorite)
- Charcoal Grey and Ivory
- Navy and Orange
- Black and Camel
- Red, White, and Blue
P.S. This post was originally written in 2005, in my first months of blogging. 
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What to Wear to the Office Christmas Party
The number one search term cluster leading googlers to this site is indicated by the title above. And the number one choice of most American women for the evening holiday party is the LBD, aka Little Boring Dress. So I challenged myself to produce a list of color alternatives. If I were Great, Grand Fashionplate, the gathering would look like a Christmas tree; each woman would be an ornament.
Color possibilities:
- white
- metallic
- one of many reds
- purple
- midnight blue
- forest green
- teal
- royal blue
- cobalt
On a scale of one to ten, identify your preference: blending in or standing out?
If your preference is strongly “blending in” AND you look good in black, by all means wear it. PLEASE — no cleavage and no thighs! Oh, and strapless only works if it stays solidly in place.
Click on picture for more info about any of the dresses pictured. The first one is only plus size. Most of them are on sale!
Btw, the hero caught me building this post and offered to buy the paisley one for me for Christmas.
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The Serendipity of Limiting Your Colors
Green is a great red alternative, when it comes to holiday dressing. Again this week I experienced the serendipity of the limited color palette.
The university I attend is on the quarter system; therefore, I am nearly finished. Yesterday I was able to hit Value Village for their Monday 99 cent tag sale, which worked out really well for dd, whose university is on the semester system. She is still in “crunch” mode, and in need of a costume for her acting class (for the Sally Field part in Steel Magnolias).
While shopping for her ’80s sweater, and whatever else I might happen to find, I found myself a dress. A green sweater dress, to be exact, something for which I’ve been half-heartedly looking for a couple of years. (If I had the budget to just decide what I want and go buy it, I could have bought this cotton/silk/cashmere blend dress at Banana Republic in Fall of ‘08.) Finding a sweater dress for under $25 when one does not do acrylic falls nearly into the realm of the impossible. I spent $10.
Here, though, is the serendipity part: when I got home I pulled out a box in my closet containing a green belt (pictured, albeit not well, with shorts and blazer for a spring semi-casual event) and a pair of green & red paisley pumps. They match each other, but nothing else in my wardrobe. That is, until now. ha ha! Unbelievably, the belt is the exact same color as the dress. Not only that, but I have exactly ONE silk scarf (not outerwear type) left from about twenty years ago, and it also has the exact same green in it.
Rejoice with me! Or not.
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Wearing Head to Toe Black
It’s the week before Labor Day. Twice in the previous two days I have taken note of a woman, blithely going about her business, dressed completely in black from the neck down including black backpack purse and flowy, ankle-length skirt. In both cases, after wondering all kinds of things - is she a nun? test-driving her halloween costume? - I determined that this was just a woman dressed in her regular clothes, that just happened to be all black.
Allow me to just say clearly: being completely covered in black in late August/early September, at least in The Great Northwest, is an eye-catching look. Not in a good way.
