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.
Hmm… I went to the wear palettes, and while it’s an interesting site (and I could get lost there for a good while), I’m not sure that I’m really hit by any of the palettes that I’ve seen so far.
I did recently read “The Color of Style” by David Zyla. I’m wondering if you’ve read it, and what you thought. I found it very insightful, but haven’t successfully determined all my colors – they seem to be brown, brown, and brown. I really like the idea of limiting my wardrobe to just a few colors – even maybe just one. I just don’t know which color that would be yet 🙂
I haven’t read that, but I will definitely look for it. Now that I’m settling into summer, it’s a wonderful time for me to catch up on some reading and that book sounds like one I will be very interested in. I can see posting a review. 🙂
I also feel like my coloring is brown, brown, brown; although less now that my hair is more silver. All brown clothing with all brown coloring, though, would take alot of skill to pull off.
Monochromatic is probably a good look on you (my guess); how does it work for your personality? I find I prefer either two neutrals plus a cheerful color or an analogous color harmony. I think that is based in personality: degrees of contrast, warmth, sophistication, etc.
It’s so exciting! There’s so much yet to figure out! Keep me posted.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my comment! While I usually test a “Fall” in season type color things, I don’t look that great in orange (too yellow-ish). Zyla labels me an “Antique Winter”, if I remember right, which seemed to me a lot more accurate. A lot of winter colors look good on me (my hair and eyes are pretty dark, and my skin is fair), but I definitely don’t look good in high-contrasts (or black or white). Zyla suggested tone-on-tone prints, which I really like but have a hard time finding 🙂
I do like monochromatic — when I feel “put together”, I’m usually in matching top and slacks (dark blue or brown usually), with a different color cardigan or vest. (Either a different shade of brown, or something bright).
I don’t really understand the connection between color, what we wear and our personality yet. I know they’re connected, but I haven’t even really learned what I like. I don’t like to stand out too much, I guess 🙂
I really like your blog, by the way. Even though I don’t think I’ve commented before, I’ve read pretty much every single back post over the past few months. The whole world of even caring about what I wear or how I look is new to me (i”m a late-bloomer, ha! 34, with five kids, a computer geek).
Again, thanks for responding to my comment 🙂
I think you’ll enjoy the Zyla book. He has 24 seasonal/fashion/personality types.
Here’s color analysis that’lll make your head spin:
“I want to be very clear about this point because it’s so important.
Your eye colour in no way determines which Season you fit into. Any Season can have any eye colour.”
http://12blueprints.com/
I had a lot of luck analyzing what I was wearing/liking using this:
http://dashingeccentric.blogspot.com/2011/04/intro-to-my-outfit-analysis-checklist.html
I added the idea of Movement to it for myself – since whether some parts of my outfit move or are dead still makes some difference to me. Anyway, I found out I was currently partial to
mixing prints. Some kind of floral with some kind of geometric or animal. Or sometimes animal with geometric. I’ve been liking this so much that I have to figure out what to do with my solid colored stuff. 🙂
Also, I’ve been wearing shorter skirts. Haven’t had any shorts for years and I always suffer with chafing in the steamy summers here. Pants work better than powder or body glide. But pants are hotter. Finally made myself get some shorts. They’re shorter than bermuda, full-ish.
So since I was walking around the streets in shorts i figured I could walk around in skirts
at about the same length. Very successful so far. Get loads of compliments on what I wear.
Get “carded” when I ask for senior bus fare. Get told I “never get old.” Now enjoying my 2d or 3d adolescence. 🙂
I am enjoying the Zyla book very much. Planning on buying it. 🙂 Not crazy about his “must-haves” though; I have found a few where I was confident that I had identified the archetype correctly, but that person would never wear what he suggests.
The Understanding Your Color book looks very intriguing as well. Have you read it?
I like the idea of movement for you as well. Somehow I think of you as very dynamic. 🙂 And why not wear skirts in the summer? Very practical, and from the sounds of it, very flattering as well. LOL… I am still wearing short dresses over long shorts. But it hasn’t really gotten hot here yet.
Also, I think we are going into a real cycle of print mixing. Maybe you can embroider or dye your solid color stuff. 😉 Or just tuck it away till next time. Or sell it …
I am enjoying my new sewing machine and trying to make myself tailor some of my stuff so it is more custom for me. Also wanting to do some “up-cycling” this summer, if I can find the time. Also hoping to find the time to build a duct tape dress form. lol, and I’ve been watching Project Runway on Hulu – thankfully, I’ve almost watched them all!
No, I haven’t read Understanding Your Color. Is that the one by the color analyst who came
to a tragic end -murdered by someone in the extended family? And her daughter is
distributing the book? I’m figuring it’s pricey. I would enjoy reading it but I guess that’ll be a distant someday.
I got a kick out of the idea of me embroidering my clothes! I can embroider but I can’t
imagine spending all that time and it gets awfully boho. Clothes are a general idea to me
so I’m a Lumper (vs. a detailed Splitter). I just want to communicate the big picture. I’m not
very perfectionist about clothing at all. The woman who wrote Retail Recovery blog has
a new blog, Want and Worth. Now, she’s a perfectionist. I feel different to her about
100% of the time and read it to illuminate my own contrasting feelings.
http://want-and-worth.blogspot.com/
Here is an interesting post from Angie of You Look Fab, in case you didn’t see it.
http://youlookfab.com/2011/03/07/my-recent-style-epiphany/
I also have been on the cusp of wanting fewer items in an outfit. I remember that you
used to be uncomfortable with scarves/necklaces and I think you naturally don’t wear
too many pieces in an outfit.l
Speaking of space between my peers, I’m thinking of clothing as placing one smack in the middle of one’s cohort – a blending in – but also to set oneself apart a bit in a niche within
that. I think it explains in part why I have felt so unexpectedly comfortable in a shorter skirt.
I can’t define exactly what I’m striving for but dressing mainstream youngish makes me
feel invisible in a good way. And then the components – the prints, etc – are of my choosing
and make me feel visible in a good way. I know that I like for my clothing items to be immediately recognizable shapes – no Japanese style burqa effects with oddly flapping material. I don’t want onlookers to be puzzling over what-the-heck is that thing she’s wearing. Also, even though the majority of my clothing is thrifted I loathe a retro look, so I just use it to achieve a personalized current/on trend look.
Reflecting a bit more on visible/invisible: I got mugged in broad daylight last fall – around the
corner from where I live. How did they choose me? They could have gone after the friend I was with who had just split off from me. I was wearing a longish beige London Fog trench, loafers, a leather looking bucket bag. Very staid and grown up. I notice that when I dress
in the same silhouette as young people do, plus with joyful and eyecatching color, I feel
safe. Why is that? Well, lots of folks comment to me and go out of their way to say Hi, grownups and children, young and old. Who, really, would pick a “pretty girl” to go mug?
I think there’s some profound truth to this.
I think what I am wearing today would make you smile: sleeveless top in bright pastel violet (hope I named that fairly accurately) with above-the-knee pink/hot pink/apricoit swishy/crisp small to medium scale paisley skirt. Just like what you described above, a “pretty girl”, although not necessarily a current silhouette. Around here, all the young ladies are wearing sleeveless pants. Not me. 😉
But I’ve been thinking about you the last couple of days, as I’ve been kinda reeling, absorbing the comment “your eye color in no way determines … Season”. Btw, that website is where I found the book “Understanding Your Color”. Not certain about the relationships between the author and promoter or any of that. I’m sure it is expensive. Maybe I can get a directed study to do it this next year, then it would be a school book. 🙂
Anyway, back to seasons. Somehow, taking the idea from David Zyla that the seasons correspond with personalities AND the idea that only skin color counts, I have had my own epiphany: I am a Spring. lol. Although, sadly, the joke’s on me How might my life be different if I had lived in those colors for the past however-many years? Oh well! No regrets, just a little grieving while moving into the new understanding.
I love that “what to wear” gives us so many interesting things to think about and to talk about!
A Spring! Hot pink, apricot, pastel violet, swishy, crisp… no wonder you feel pretty! 😀
I’ll bet your hero likes it, too.
I realize this is years later (I’m the same as Amy, btw), but wearpalettes seems to no longer be? Do you know if they’re somewhere else? (The blogspot site says they’ve moved, but the link is not where they are). Also, I’m currently thinking about paint colors for house decorating, and wondering to what extent these Zyla principals apply there. Any thoughts on that? 🙂
Hi Amy! Sorry I missed this, but I have some thoughts about it, and they actually just came up in conjunction with my weekend adventures with color: my bedroom is kind of a taupey brown and the curtains are aubergine (which is a good color for me). I was wondering if the muted ness alters the way things look on me enough to create problems. My bathroom is alot better, it is a light neutral gray and light coral pink.
I think I am due for some repainting and will be taking the Zyla colors into consideration. Ideally, one’s bedroom would be the essence color, don’t you think? The room I plan on using for color analysis will probably be a neutral gray.
I don’t know what happened to wear palettes, unfortunately. I have been looking into apps, but haven’t spent alot of time on it, or figured anything out yet.
Ttys! 🙂