RSSYour Perfect Colors
June 24, 2008
V.1 of this article was written 8 months ago. I’ve changed it a little because I used a picture that didn’t belong to me. Back then, I didn’t understand copyright regulations on the internet. I took the picture down of course. I took down the entire article. It was a chance to think about what I wrote again. I am more certain than ever that what is written below is correct.
Why all the black?
How did black become such a uniform? It seems to be everyone’s go-to color, especially if you live in a larger city.
Maybe black was an extrapolation of men’s business suit colors and a color in which women hoped to be seen as serious contenders in the business world, not weakened or distracted by typically female concerns like color or clothing. Maybe it just feels strange to wear color when everyone around you is dressed in black.
Linked to source.
Teenagers all wear black and it seems to work, but that’s not the group we’re talking to here. On them, it’s an anti-establishment statement and a desire to express seriousness, to the point of drama. Teenagers can dye their hair purple and wear silver eye shadow and look about the same. Is this a demographic that gets taken all that seriously in the clothing arena anyway?
Color Me Beautiful
Back in 1981, Carole Jackson wrote a great book called Color Me Beautiful. This is an amazing book. The information contained on those pages is still right on.
Color Me Beautiful
Go to a bookstore. The secondhand stores almost always have several copies of the book; buy two for you and one for a friend. Tear the color charts out of one of your books (the colors are very well reproduced) and carry them around. Take the ones for the seasons other than yours with you as well. It’s often easier to understand how a color looks by comparing it to a similar one.
On the book’s website, they offer a portable booklet of the appropriate color swatches in fabric. This may be more practical than carrying around 4 torn pages from a book. The reason I don’t do this is that I find it very useful to have all the charts for comparison. I know the system well and yet I still consult all four color layouts often when I shop.
Still 100% correct
Yes, the makeup is dated, the clothes are dated, but the idea is still great and the color swatches are excellent. The color reproduction in the book is especially impressive, and some of the colors in each category are unexpected but exactly right. You may disagree with some of your color recommendations but you’ll still learn a whole lot about what colors you look good in.
By knowing where you fit, you’ll be so much more confident about trying colors you might never have considered. Once you get it figured out, you will be lit from within. I know how exaggerated and cliché that sounds, but it is the truth. You can look good in a blouse, but if the color isn’t good on you, you can’t look “Wow”.
Every woman should own this book
You want to look amazing every day, right? If this is the day that opportunity knocks, you want the confidence to answer the door. It might not be back tomorrow.
Maybe you already know your colors instinctively, but I look around and see many women who either don’t know or don’t care. That shirt on the hanger might be a gorgeous shirt, but if the color is not for you, all it looks like is a so-so shirt, and you look like you were up all night. You wouldn’t buy a shirt that doesn’t fit, would you? Forget it. Leave it at the store. It was made for someone else.
Venture away from basic (boring) black. On most of us, black makes us look tired and older. Speaking only for myself, I don’t need any help with that. Looking radiant is better than looking good.
Figure out your basic undertone
Most of us have heard of the 4 Season grouping system, where every woman can be classified as a Spring, Summer, Winter, or Fall based on her coloring. Basically, there are 2 warm seasons (Spring and Fall) where the skin has yellow-gold undertones and 2 cool seasons (Summer and Winter) with pink-blue undertones.
The Summers are not simply pale versions of the Winters, though both have the same undertones, and the Spring colors are not simply watered down versions of the Autumn colors. Still, it is fairly close. Color Me Beautiful will teach you in no time how the color seasons work.
If you belong to the yellow/warm group, you should wear warm colors with a golden/peach/orange overlay, sunlit or toasty colors. The pink/cool group should choose colors that are truly pinkish, dry and frosty colors that are not warmed up at all.
Understand the intensity of your coloring
Once you know if you have pink or yellow undertones, you need to figure out how strong your coloring is, or how diluted. Think about Ellen DeGeneres – there is not a big difference in the strength of her eye/hair/skin color. The Summers and Springs have that soft, fair coloring with no strong contrasts.
Now think about Catherine Zeta-Jones. Big difference in hair and skin color, right? Pale pink skin, dark hair. The same is true of Renee Zellwegger (soft color contrast) and Penelope Cruz (much stronger contrast). Winters and Autumns are the groups with the strong color intensity.
There is some overlap among all the groups except between the pink and yellows; you really need to learn how that distinction applies to you and stick within its guidelines. Most women can wear all the colors of their own season as well as some of the colors in the related one, that is, the other pink season or the other yellow season.
You still need to buy the book.
Colors is complicated
Surprisingly, Winter wears much paler colors than Summer. Winter’s color contrast is at the extreme end of the range, so the color intensity has to be as well, therefore very light or very deep. Medium rose is too medium for Winter. It has to be icy pale or very strong.
This is why Winter is the only group that can wear black or white and look fine. Mind you, I find that a strong Autumn can also look great in a rich, warm black. You’re right – there’s no such thing as a rich, warm black. Black is black. Once we’re talking about warm, the color is that of strong black coffee. It’s very close to black, though, and it looks great.
You still need to read the book to undertstand which shade of grey is right for you or to understand what a warm blue looks like. But it’s an easy and interesting read.
Try new things. Never fear change.
Change is always for the better. You never have to be perfect. You never have to reach your ultimate goal with your first step. Just expand your borders a little bit more each day. Ask friends for advice.
Don’t buy into the marketing ploy that every woman should own a ‘little black dress’. Experiment with colors you might never have noticed before. Your eye will quickly learn to pick out your most flattering colors. Every single day, broaden your experience a little more. Change and growth can’t happen inside your comfort area.
[Edit April 22/09: A week ago, I finally became a color analyst myself. While I think Ms. Jackson's book is deserving of the popularity it achieved in the 1980's, the color analysis world has gotten much bigger for me. It now encompasses several different systems, each with its particular strengths. Though the information in this article is not wrong, my opinions on a few issues are broader today. Since this blog is in part a record of my journey, I leave the article in the original form for nostalgic reasons.]
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10 Responses to “Your Perfect Colors”
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I wear black because it’s easy. I started wearing it after my second son was born; it hid breastmilk stains so well! Then, after he got older, I wore it because I had a lot of it. Now, I wear it because it’s impossible to screw it up. I can get dressed in the dark if I have to, but as long as one outfit component is black, I probably don’t look horrible.
…Now if you want to talk about looking good, rather than just not looking horrible… Perhaps I should buy this book!
I had my colors “done” when the concept was first introduced. I was told I was a summer. I can’t stand the summer colors! I remember looking through the swatches and thinking I’d rather go naked.
Since then, I have colored my hair and, based on your advice, returned to the book’s website. I’ve concluded I might be a spring (or is it wishful thinking? LOL). Anyway, is the system in the book based almost totally on hair color, like the website? So if you change your hair color, you change your season? Does the book have advice on choosing the correct seasonal hair color? Am I getting too picky?
@ M ,
Great (and funny) comment. I would have thought black would show milk stains rather than hide them.
I’m sure you don’t ever look horrible. Hey, maybe you’re a winter and black is your color! I wear it myself (I’m an Autumn), just not next to my face.
The book is dated but still great. As Phyl’s comment shows, some women are very very difficult to figure out, at least for me.
@ Phyl,
Now, I’m not a color consultant, but when I try to figure out a woman’s colors, I have to take the hair right out of the equation. Maybe that’s because so many women have hair colored a shade that isn’t quite right and it’s very distracting.
I find actresses with very yellow hair, like Scarlett Johansson or Charlize Theron, Cate Blanchett, well, there’s thousands of them – really hard to sort out.
The website doesn’t hold a candle to the book, IMHO. There’s far more guidance and tips in the book, and gorgeous color charts. Your season never changes no matter what you do to your hair. I’d venture to say that your season is the same for your entire life. And, yes, there is hair color advice in the book but the first thing is to know your season.
Spring vs. summer is the one I find hardest because both have soft coloring so the undertones don’t stand out strongly. You might need to ask a friend for help or compare your skin color to a few of your friends’ ( try using the palm of your hand, it shows up well there).
Based on this article, I bought two copies of the original book for $2.75 (Amazon new & used) each in preparation for my best friend visiting over the fourth of july weekend. I thought it would be fun.
It was more than fun! Carole Jackson is a genius! We stayed up till 2:00 am the first night reading the book and then went shopping at a Coldwater Creek 70% off sale the next day, taking the book with us. I think it’s the first shopping trip I’ve ever been on that I didn’t end up taking something back. BTW, my friend’s a summer, and I’m a spring. I thought I was a summer until we collaborated. I highly recommend doing this with a friend who has a good eye for color. She’s probably already your best shopping buddy.
I just received Carole’s 1987 makeup book, and it’s just as good.
THANK YOU!
BTW, Carole wrote CMB in 1979. When you look at the pictures in the book, they’re so classic, that you could look the same today.
Kathy,
So glad you find Carole’s books as great as I do! They really are your best shopping tool, and they’re just as correct today as they were then. The makeup and clothes we wear are different but the color advice is exact. It is fun to figure it out, and surprisingly difficult on some women. You absolutely do need to do it with a friend or two.
Now I didn’t care for the makeup book as much. The color swatches are smaller and the photography not quite as good, though still illustrates the point. Really, the original CMB book has all your makeup colors in it already. She hit the nail on the head so well in the original book that by the time she did makeup and men’s colors, there was no way to outdo the first version.
Do you find that you now start REALLY noticing what others are wearing? I sure do.
I read the book when it was new. I had already learned on my own that black was not for me. My first expensive purchase was a Ports International classic cord shirt dress, I liked it in the window, went in and tried it on and the colour (navy) made me glow….It took six months saving to buy the $110.00 dress (I earned $ 65.00 a week), but when I had it I made sure that everything else in my wardrobe went with it. I could wear it as an indoor coat, over a dress, I could wear it with the bottom fastened and a shirt under it, I could wear it as a dress for day buttoned up or for evening with nicer shoes and buttons open quite low. I always felt fabulous in it. Reading this book showed me that I was a summer and what else would look good on me. BUT my own personal wardrobe rule even 35 years later is “It has to be navy or go with navy or I won’t buy it”. Navy has many shades the one that fades into purplish is not so good, the shae that fades into greenish is a little better but not the ultimate, the most flattering is the shade of navy that fades to blue and I cherish a suit I have in what I call “faded navy” as it’s original correct colour…..it goes with everything and I still wear it in spite of it being size 18-20 when I am now only 12 or less. Yes, I had alterations, but most of my fat clothes I was more than hapy to be rid of. I control my desire for excess shoes the same way….I will buy any shoes that fit my 7 1/2 Wide IF they are navy. When I travel I can take anything in my wardrobe because every piece goes with my navy walking shoes, or my navy day shoes, or my navy eveing shoes. No separate bag for the shoes to go with just one outfit.
Hi, Roseleen,
Do you find the whole palette actually goes together well? All the colors mix and match surprisingly.
Both in clothes and in makeup, I think a woman (or man) needs to get this figured out. You can call it a season, or a strong/soft warm/cool combination, or gold/peach and rose/red. It doesn’t matter. There’s a certain amount of overlap and forgiveness, but sometimes the color is just plain wrong. Me in icy pink for instance. Very wrong. My winter brother in his pea green shirt – not so great. My children maintain that moldy green is my best color. Trust your kids to tell it like it is and not get too worried about your feelings.
I bought the book & went onto Carole’s website to order the purse size fabric swatches. This is where I got confused. I was quite satisfied that I was a “Summer” ’til the site says Summer’s have no red in their hair – I do. What do I do?
Any help would be lovely.
Thank you,
Debby
Hey, Debby,
When you decided you were a Summer, did you have anyone helping you? Many of us can’t really be objective about what colors suit us best and having someone else to compare with really helps. I think there was a time when color consultants were not hard to find. Having said that, I know a number of women (and men) who were assigned a season only to find out that it wasn’t correct.
For me, the distinction between Summer and Spring is the hardest to make. How sure are you that you’re a Summer? Was the decision easy to make or did you have trouble choosing between 2? Some women are very difficult. Did you cover your hair when you did the color testing?
I would agree that I can’t think of many Summers with red in their hair. Still, when I read the book, I’m amazed at how broad the verbal descriptions of the 4 seasons are. It sounds like it includes everybody, and then there are always the exceptions. I know Winters that you could say have red in their hair, but there’s not a lot and it’s not orange or gold whatsoever.
Number 1 on my list of things I’d like to know is whether Carole Jackson is still affiliated with the website. The site is such a watered-down version of the book that I wonder if the rights have been sold. Did you actually see her name on the site? I don’t think I ever have, nor any mention of the book, nor any attempt to really teach women how the systems work.