With thoughts of cool and warm colors on my brain today, this magazine cover arrested my attention. Subtly elegant, note the effect of the composition: the models, in warm versions of “balanced” colors, stand out as in living color against the cool gray background.
Vanity Fair [2-year subscription]
Vanity Fair [1-year subscription]
What do I mean by “balanced” colors? Well, in my mind, I have always thought of red and green as colors which could be either warm or cool depending on the exact shade, or they could be warm/cool balanced. Other colors, such as blue or orange, are always either cool or warm. I mean, what’s a cool orange, right? One you just took out of the refrigerator … (bad joke!)
So just to test my theory, I looked at the Color Theory page of The Science of Dress, where I found no support for my mental meanderings, but instead found the following.
So, let us continue………….here is how it works:
| If you have a warm undertone in your skin, you will have a cool undertone in your hair. Ash-blonde hair is also cool. |
If you have a balanced undertone in your skin, you will have a warm/ cool balanced under- tone in your skin. |
If you have a cool undertone in your skin, you will have a warm undertone in your hair. |
After this, she goes on to show a beautiful, real-life model illustrating each combination. For both the cool hair/warm skin combo and the warm hair/cool skin combo she recommends using the hair color to set the color tones used in the wardrobe. For the balanced example she recommends using wardrobe colors which are either balanced or a combination of cool and warm.
So, after all this, here’s what I’m wondering: how many of us have always thought we must be either cool or warm, but are in actuality more balanced?
I know this: I have a strong preference for mixed color compositions, like the magazine cover here (which I think would also look good on a chocolate brown background, but then slightly cooler tints of color might be better). My daughter with the auburn hair has fair skin with alot of blue showing through, almost a purplish pink or magenta blush (like when her ears get pink); could be a warm hair/cool skin combo. My other daughter, who has always looked fabulous in cool colors such as magenta and navy, recently dyed her hair auburn and – guess what? – it looked great!
So what about you? Could this really answer some long-held confusion? Next week, some simpler topics!
Hmmm… I have trouble distinguishing between a warm shade and a cool shade of the same colour. Could you give some examples ?
And this skin-hair theory compltely knocks down the 4 seasons of Colour Me Beautiful. Which kind of makes sense to me, because I have cool pinkish skin and warm brown hair & eyes, and so I’ve had pages on forums with people discussing whether I was a winter or an autumn.
And I hope that you pursue this topic further, hopefully I will begin to understand it all !
And I was thinking, maybe putting our photos in colorful frames like on that Colour Theory Page would be a good way to understand our colouring.
I sometimes have trouble too. Often they are very subtle. The color oval page at Science of Dress is helpful, http://www.ireneeonline.com/color_ovals.htm.
You know what I’ve been thinking about this topic? Why wouldn’t God make people with all varieties of combinations: warm hair and warm skin, cool and cool, warm and cool, balanced, and so on. So maybe Color Me Beautiful works for a bunch of people and this system works for a bunch of people. ?? Makes sense to me. As I understand it, this system would have you base your wardrobe on the warmer, deeper shades which support your hair color. Are those the colors you like?
I do think your idea about putting our photos in different color frames would be helpful. 🙂
Actually from comparing my photos in various colours, I know that I look good in warm as well as cool colours, so long as they are strong and saturated. My favs are red and turwuoise. I think that the warm red supports my warm hair & eyes, while the turquoise dos the same by providing a contrast. Does that make sense ? The only colours I look truly horrible in (aside from washed-ot shades) is yellow and pink.
Now I’ve got it… in CMB yellow shades are warm, and pink is cool… so in fact the systems agree, but differ in termonology.
PS you need to remove the fullstop after the link (or rather from the URL). Otherwise the link doesn’t want to open.
Rebecca – So glad I came across this post when catching up on my reading. It was quite helpful in my own efforts on my blog. The hard part is translating all that good info you presented into our daily lives and routine. Thanks for getting the ball rolling. – Jean (a fan)
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Hi!! I LOVE your blog and the insights, ideas you share!
Thanks!!
Very inspirational and fun!