Trust me there are colors that can bring out your eyes; colors that make your jawline disappear into your neck; colors that give you a healthy glow; colors that your mother repeatedly said give you the look of an old dishcloth and she didn’t know why you were throwing yourself away like that. If you are looking around for the color to bring out your best, we have surprise in-stored for you.
An individual’s dressing sense speaks volumes of his character and personality. For e.g. If you are going for a job interview or trying to close a sale or get some business, it’s very important that people judge you favorably. And your clothes will make a difference. An overall appearance can be powerful – or powerfully misleading – and our reactions are subjective. It’s a fact that, a color plays a strong visual effect on your overall image.
‘Colors change things about people,’ says Polly Holman, an associate lecturer specializing in personal fashion styling at the London College of Fashion. ‘Colors that really suit you work with your natural color palette to make your skin look healthier, your features more defined and your eyes bigger on the other hand if a color isn’t working on you, a color that is too dark will throw black up on to the face. This tends to widen and drop the jawline. Similarly, a color that is too light will throw white up on to your face and make you look washed out.
Essentials:
- Your Physical Features: The darker the eyes, hair and skin, the stronger the color you can wear. The lighter your natural color pattern, the paler and closer to pastels you should go.
- Temperature of Colors: This is another significant aspect, yellow-based won’t suit you if you have a lot of pink to your skin, but will if you are more golden-toned. Pinky skins, blue eyes and ashier hair tend to look better in blue-based colors.
- The fabric Used: A color on a very smooth fabric will be bright. The same color on a texture will look softer. In the case of knitwear, for example, a color on lambswool will look softer than merino wool, and on cashmere it will be softer still. A color on a cotton shirt will look bolder than on a silk shirt.
- Be prepared to Buy off Season: Colors in fashion are cyclical, so there will be seasons that you are able to find a ton of choices in your color palette and others where you might find little in your colors. Be ready to buy the fabrics you want whenever you see them, whether they are in season or not.
| The Blink Test: Stand in front of the mirror in your wildly colorful (or not) outfit and, blink. On opening your eyes, if you see the color before you see yourself, then the color is wearing you, If you see yourself first then you’re wearing the color, then it means the color suits you. |
Why develop a Personal Color Pallete?
| Symptoms | Solution |
| Your clothes don’t always make you feel vibrant. | It’s hard not to feel blah in a deep, dark sweater when candied pastels light up your face. |
| You feel disconnected and trapped by fashion trends. | With a strong sense of your own colors, you won’t have to wait for fashion seasons to bring your favorite colors to you. |
| Your clothes don’t seem to go well together. | You will increase the versatility of your wardrobe. When all your creations are in your color range, you can combine your clothes in ways that you never could before. |
| You find yourself buying fabric because it’s “close enough” to what you really want. | A personal palette will boost your creativity. Working within the limits of a color palette, you will look for novel solutions when you cannot find the right color in a given fabric. For example, when you can’t find the right shade of denim, you might reach for bleach, dye, or choose a vivid printed twill. |
With a paint matching app, a couple of online resources, and free paint chips from a home improvement store, you can put together a collection of colors easily.