Do you ever wonder why a cute, trendy outfit looks different on you compared to someone else? Well, that’s likely because you’re not “wearing your colors”!! You can pair colors together with clothes and makeup that blend well against your complexion! Of course, wear whatever you want! However, using a color season palette can guide you toward colors you can wear that best suit your skin’s complexion and hair color. Depending on where you live, your color season may change due to the season in nature, for example: in the winter time your complexion may lighten, in comparison to your skin in the summertime, which will most likely tan from the sun. Considering this, you can transition into a different color season palette accordingly. I’ll get into the different color seasons and explain what they mean later.
Dressing according to your particular color season will create balance & harmony between you and what you put on. You do not want your clothes wearing you. YOU want to wear YOUR clothes!!! We actually want to see you…BEFORE we see your incredible outfit! Remember, your beautiful face first, then the outfit. Nonetheless, we can wear whatever we want to. Color Analysis should really be used as a guide and not a rule book to how you want to dress—it’s all subjective!
Now, you’re probably wondering… where did this concept come from? In the 80’s, color consultant and author, Carole Jackson, wrote the book, ‘Color Me Beautiful’. This book theorizes that a variety of colors categorized into different seasons will flatter every individual based on their natural features (Jackson, 1981).
You can hire a color consultant if you’re interested in elevating your look and figuring out what “your colors” are. If you’d like to get an in-person consultation, the color analyzing/image consulting industry is a popular & booming market, so, you should be able to find a color analysis business and book an appointment either in your city, online, or even perform a self-test at home! I’ll explain more below and also share links to color analysts and YouTube videos for reference.
So, let’s start with the basics…
Hues— are the undertones… warm, cool, and neutral
A hack/helpful tip for self-testing at home is to take the time to assess which type of jewelry looks best on you! Take out a piece of gold and silver jewelry, then compare and contrast them against your skin as you look in a mirror or take pictures! The general “rule of thumb” is, warm undertones look best in gold, cool undertones look best in silver, and neutral undertones look best in both gold and silver. Doing this easy, at-home test can assist you in getting started.
Now onto the foundations…
The Four Color Seasons include— Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. There are two warm seasons and two cool seasons. Spring & autumn are the warm seasons, and summer & winter are the cool seasons. Another factor to take into consideration is, muted vs bright coloring. Muted coloring is very grey looking and blended, and bright coloring means there is high saturation (intensity) and contrast. Three different types of contrast exist: Low contrast, Mid contrast, and High Contrast. Low Contrast means that hair and skin complexion are closer in color (i.e., having a honey toned skin and honey toned hair, or very fair skin with light blonde hair). Mid Contrast means your natural hair color is not too dark or too light. For mid contrast girlies, silver jewelry may make you look fair/pale, however gold makes you look more alive!! Lastly, having a High contrast means that your hair and skin color are on two opposite ends of depth (i.e., having very fair skin with very dark hair, or deep brown skin with very dark black hair). Keep in mind that dying your natural hair can change what color season you fall into!
In addition, each color season has 3 subcategories…
| The Season | Category I | Category II | Category III |
| Spring | Warm/True Spring (warm + bright) | Bright Spring (warm + bright) | Light Spring (light + warm) |
| Summer | Soft Summer (muted & cool) | Cool/True Summer (cool and muted) | Light Summer (light & cool) |
| Autumn | Soft Autumn (muted and warm) | True Autumn (warm & muted) | Dark Autumn (dark & warm) |
| Winter | Bright Winter (dark & cool) | Cool/True Winter (cool & bright) | Dark Winter (bright & cool) |
You can head over to www.dream-wardrobe.com to see some visuals and get an idea of what these seasons look like. Also, Style with Danielle on YouTube for understanding color seasons for women of color (links down below).
Now have fun learning about your color season and exploring what’s out there!! Again, color wardrobe analysis is subjective. We can wear whatever colors and outfits we want, whenever we want. This is simply a cool & chic guide to follow if you’re into wearing your “best colors”! Please visit the references from this blog post (listed down below) to learn more about this subject and to possibly discover some bomb outfits and makeup ideas! Again, if you are a woman of color, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend watching the videos linked below, created by Style with Danielle on Youtube, to get help in deciding which color season you fall into based on your beautiful shade of melanin!!! If you have any questions please let me know; Enjoy! <3 —From Fille to Femme
References
Jackson, Carole (1981)
“Color Me Beautiful: Discover your natural beauty through the colors that make you look great and feel fabulous” by Carole Jackson
March 12, 1981
“You Sure Those are YOUR Colors?| Quick Color Season Analysis”
YouTube
Style with Danielle
Apr 16 2023
www.youtube.com/@StylewithDanielle (https://youtu.be/rk45gR7EkYg?si=phar0010pjbRVnOe)
”Wear These Colors & Your Credit Score Gone Go UP”
YouTube
Style with Danielle
May 28 2023
www.youtube.com/@StylewithDanielle (https://youtu.be/7MSSXtpFXmY?si=o9ZqlIWSeJ3GCDfz)
(Online color analysis service for those interested):
www.youtube.com/@cocoastyling
