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!
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.
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.
As an example: I like my dark brown hair, and by wearing dark brown trousers or shoes instead of black, I bring out the colour of my hair. I bring out the chesnut of my eyes by wearing something lush green.
I do however have rosacea which makes my complexion look pinkish. I don’t want to highlight that, so I don’t wear pink (or I’ll look all pink). However, I wear red, becaus it makes my skin look not-so-flushed, and blue.
Becky – I can see what you’re saying, and thanks for bringing it up. ev has brought up some helpful points. I also posted a long time ago (and had just about forgotten about it) on how to wear a color that is similar to your skin color: https://betweenmypeers.com/2006/02/21/return-of-the-salty-jacket/. I’ll probably try to re-post that soon, because there are probably others thinking the same thing as you but just not saying anything.
There is more to this issue, too, that I am just puzzling out. Maybe looking for the colors present in the skin is about looking for the subtle hues present (the melanin and hemoglobin), rather than the main color created by all of them together (which works with ev’s example).
Another example: last night my hero was wearing a dark burgundy shirt. It brought out a pink/red in his coloring that one would never notice if he weren’t wearing the shirt (and was very flattering). Alternatively, he looks good in a medium warm brown also, because it’s the same as his melanin color (freckles). No color “system” would put those two colors on the same person.
And I do think contrast is important, I just haven’t been able to quantify how it works well enough to explain it. Here’s my previous attempt: https://betweenmypeers.com/2007/09/10/using-contrast-with-the-personal-color-palette/
Thanks again, both of you, for contributing to the discussion! 🙂
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Be sure to notice how the lipsticks in Raging Rouge’s color essay on “…Pink” demonstrates the change in perceived skin color. (I’d give a link if I was blog literate; but there is one in your next post:-)
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