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?
Interesting. Wouldn’t there be a lot of overlap? At least I would judge the darkest color in my iris (“energy”) and my darkest hair color (“Neutral #2) to be about the same medium brown–and I don’t even have the same color of hair and eyes. And when do you get to wear orange or purple? 🙂 (I wear orange constantly, but I don’t think it would fall under any of those.)
The ring around my iris is a deep gray-green, though, and that’s definitely a staple color for me, although I tend to think of chocolate brown as my more formal option. (But that’s a bit darker than anything in my coloring.)
That is fascinating! I’m not good with naming colors, but it’s a deep, ripe blueberry. Thanks!
I find it really hard to distinguish those personal colors, especially to do with
the eyes. I think the ring around my eyes is a kind of smoky or grayed indigo.
I don’t know how I feel about my black being denim. Denim power suit, anyone?
Thanks for the review and the link (especially the link to his site — I hadn’t found it)! My “black” is a smoky charcoal gray. When I first read the book, I was completely amazed at the difference between black and charcoal on myself. I’m still hoping to make a “Little Charcoal Dress”, and see if it actually can bridge the gap between casual and formal the way that black is purported to.
Thanks for his website — I couldn’t remember all the colors and their purposes, and my library seems to have lost his book (I’ll probably go ahead and buy it).
I never wear my “white”, I feel naked in it. Does that happen to you others? It’s too close to my skin color. But I do feel beautiful in it. Maybe I should get lingerie in it.
And my “red” – the red I usually wear, and feel comfortable in, is much darker, not as bright as the color when I pinch my fingertip. (It’s more of a brick, browned red) Maybe I should explore other reds!
Also, my veins have several distinct colors, a blue, an indigo, and a more “peacock” shade. I think I can wear all three reasonably well.
The color I’m wishing that I could wear and isn’t in his eight is any shade of green. Green is one of my favorite colors, even though I’m not sure of what greens, if any, really look great on me. I suppose this could be why — I don’t have green in my natural coloring. Any suggestions for adding in other colors?
My “tranquil” color is almost orange (a darkish gold), In fact, four, maybe five (the fifth being my “white”, of his eight colors for me are varying shades of brown. I wonder if I can wear almost any brown, or if I need to be particular that it matches something in my coloring.. Hmm….
Thanks for the discussion!
There is alot of interesting stuff here, so some of the conversation I am going to throw into a new post along with my opinions/comments. In the meantime:
Your Majesty: I am not sure about there being alot of overlap, but Amy’s final comment provides a good insight, I think. When I had the hero look very closely at my eyes, he called the darkest color “root beer”; my eyebrows are much darker and less bright; I think the darkest color in my hair, honestly, is black, but for now I am calling the neutral 2 “espresso”.
The other thing I think is interesting is whether or not the colors show up in the expected “order”, so to speak. You alluded to what I am trying to get at in your last comment. For example, although the hero’s ring is grey, and that is absolutely what color suit he would wear, his hair is black (and white, now, lol). So he wears black shoes and belt, but he really dislikes black, or even navy, formal clothing. I suspect a personality link there, so in some ways I think trying David Zyla’s system may provide some good insights.
Janel – 🙂 That makes me happy!
Vildy – lol. No, definitely skip on the denim power suit. Although if anyone could do it, you could! It really is hard to define the colors in the eyes (although now that I have my new glasses I should give it another try). I always thought my eyes were brown with more or less green showing up from time to time. The hero disputes there being any green, he only saw “root beer” and a deep yellow, either khaki or “yellow pear”. However, the green I thought I saw, basically O.D., is definitely a color I would choose as tranquil, even if it is down my list of colors I actually wear.
I don’t put too much stock into the “energy” and “tranquil” ideas. Love to hear from anyone who does!
Amy – I love your idea of making a dress! I have such a hard time finding anything in my gray, I wonder if I could even find fabric. And I think lingerie in your “white” is a great idea! Honestly, I have not completely decided on what my “white” or essence color is, although one of my possibilities is, like you, a brown. The odd thing I’m finding is that my “khaki” is white (of course!), a soft pearly white; but my emotional reaction to wearing white is more dramatic than casual.
So, there is no green in your eyes? A couple of thoughts: one, get paint chips or something in the eight colors and then lay them with various greens to find one or more that harmonize. Probably an old-world map color? The other thought is just to lay your hand against various greens. I have noticed some success using that technique. Good colors harmonize the colors in my hand (kinda like he describes finding your essence color) and bad colors make my hand look blotchy.
More later! On to write a follow up post. 🙂
Wow, great follow-up comment. My khaki might be a silvery-white too, if it weren’t covered up with henna. I don’t remember where else to look for the lightest hair 🙂 And no, there’s nothing but various shades, all quite warm, of brown in my eyes. The lightest is kind of a burnt sienna, or a honey-oak type shade.
The charcoal of my eye-ring is actually reasonably popular right now – I have a cardigan in it, and I think I can find fabric, but haven’t looked yet. Too many projects 🙂
If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d take some real nice pictures and write a blog post on it myself. Maybe someday 🙂
No pressure from me to take pictures! lol. That’s the thing I detest the most about blogging.
I am sure there must be a green that blends with you. You can probably do the same kind of thing to find your lightest hair color too: find a khaki that blends with your other colors. And I’d leave the silvery-white until it is part of your overall look, at least 50% of your hair color. 😉
More later Amy! Have a wonderful weekend!
Pingback: The Space Between My Peers » Scanning for Color