Personal style is an act, of embracing oneself through the understanding of who you are externally
and internally. By dressing authentically with an appreciation of your own aesthetics
in hand with your beauty, you may enhance physical attributes through self-expression
within fit, complexion, balance, proportion, and harmony. This video will focus on the
harmony component, specifically of color, to aid in cultivating the mind and training
the eye for visuals through a complete guide to seasonal color analysis from the history,
principles, and vocabulary. Seasonal color analysis is a resourceful tool in your styling
arsenal as you can determine which hues are the most flattering to harmonize with oneself
or contrast with intent to highlight personal attributes.
With this, you will receive the foundation to formulate your wardrobe in terms of colors
that are best suited to you as well as how to style colors not traditionally found within
a personal palette. This is not to be an experience to limit, but rather to hone and explore.
This resource will give you the fundamentals needed on a personalised level so that you
may create your coveted image of fashion and develop your sense of style in an embracive
manner through the utilization of seasonal colors. As time passes, light reflects in
the landscape, and the seasons provide fresh visuals in the sentiment, essence, and vision
of the season's spirit, these hues express the beauty of nature. We possess this same
natural coloring inside and out.
This was introduced by Philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He breathed life into
the romantic notions of color through his poetic outlook of the hues nature possesses
innately in relation to personal perceptions. Though at this point in time there was not
yet exploration of this concept in direct relation to clothing and complexion, but laid
the groundwork for the understanding we have today through the creation of color psychology
in the 1800s. Goethe believed color was rooted in perception alongside elements of light
to the interaction with darkness. Into the early 1900s, Swiss expressionist
painter and professor Johannes Itten defined the connections colors have to distinct emotions
that carry weight as well as strategies for harmonizing colors through combination in
a manner that appeals to the eye and resonates with the heart. With his findings, the art
world evolved as his work shed light on the interactions of color in relation to complexion
which resulted in seasonal color palettes inspired by the world around us and reflected
in ourselves. In the last 1900s, color theorist Suzanne
Caygill paired Goethe’s color psychology to Itten’s season theory, hence the theory
of “Quality of Color '' came to be for application which created the clear, muted, rich, and
sharp qualities that resonate with pigmentation found in eyes, skin, and hair. She explored
the relationship between one’s complexion to personality and style within color palettes
correlating to seasonal periods. Later during this time, psychologist Carole Jackson published
“Color Me Beautiful” with a focus on simplifying the process for individual use rather than
a broad spectrum so that people everyday could style garments that not only displayed personality,
but embraced the physical self while curating a coveted aesthetic.
To begin we will look at the principles of color starting with hue which is the spectrum
defines how cool or warm a specific color is.
Our degree of hues indicate our temperature and tones
The more yellow the warmer, red is neutral, and blues are cooler. Value, this is the measure
of quantity by which light reflects off a color on a spectrum of light to dark. Those
with true dark features have naturally dark hair and eyes with rich and deep coloring.
Those with true light have light hair and eyes, traditionally with fair hair as children.
With this you discover your personal depth to see how deep a color should be to suit
overall coloring today. Alongside value comes contrast which refers to the degree of disparity
in value levels between multiple colors.
Though traditionally when seasons are thought of there are four distinct categories, but
flow theory of color analysis allows for a dimensional analysis by which the seasons
flow into one another through the color dimension of chroma which refers to the brilliance and
intensity.
The intensity is defined by the degree of the shade, tone, or tint. Shade is the deepening
or darkening, tone is an added grey that retains the general value, but in a duller manner,
and tint is the increasing the light value through adding white. The chroma spectrum
indicates the saturation to determine muted/soft or bright/clear levels for oneself. If clear,
skin appears vitric and eyes gleam starkly, there will be high contrast of the hair, eyes
and skin.
If muted, skin is gentle, eyes are softer or dusky, and hair is demure in color. In
order to understand our season of belonging, we must observe and acknowledge our natural
principles. With an understanding of hue, we can interpret our tones. The undertone
of the skin is the temperature our skin possesses due to chemistry of pigments that results
in your overall hue. Skin holding hints of blues, pinks, or blush are cool in undertone
as peachy, yellow, or golds are warm in undertone. Though it is impossible to be a true neutral
as this is a spectrum unique to each individual, some may appear neutral to the naked eye because
of how we perceive color and light.
One’s undertone is often dictated by natural hair and eye color. Brunettes, jet black,
or blondes of ashy, blueish, or auburn nature with blue or green eyes tend to be cool. Red,
brunettes, raven, or strawberry blondes with golden, bright, or copper hues with hazel
or brown eyes are warm. An overlap of these traits combined will result in a more neutral
complexion with a warm or cool essence on the spectrum. The hue spectrum defines how
cool or warm a specific color is in the purest dimension of the color that we experience
with one’s natural eye. The more yellow the warmer, red is neutral, and blues are
cooler. The cool undertone will fall under Summer and Winter, while a warm undertone
will be under Autumn and spring for that specific feature. It is important to not rely on just
skin, eyes, or hair separately, but to recognize each as there are cases where not all features
are within the same season.
Our true tone is the combination of our undertone and overtone, some people are both warm and
cool while others may have a mix of neutral or differing tones over and under.
The overtone is the coloring of the external appearance in regards to eyes, hair and skin
through the combinations of features and levels that translate onto the value scale from light
to dark resulting in fair or deep features that are distinctive to us. For example, one
may have a blue tint, but the undertone has a yellow variable. When shopping for garments,
the colors best suited to you are not purely to be chosen by the overtone, but are a result
of the undertone and the interaction between the over and undertone. This spectrum is dimension
in relation to value and temperature. Think of this like a lens on a pair of glasses,
the natural eye is neutral but then with a yellow tint the world looks warmer and deeper,
yet the eye remains neutral. This is the same way the undertone remains present. The warmer
tones appear yellow, neutrals are reddish, and cool holds a blue tint.
CHROMA Just as skin and hair hold an undertone, eyes
contain one as well. Brighter, intense, or lighter are warm as muted, gentle, and opaque
are cooler. Those with low chroma have more neutral and unified features that appear equal
in value to the naked eye. Their hair, eyes, and skin hold a less and equally saturated
appeal as if the overtone color were toned or tinted by their undertone. Those with high
chroma have intense, contrasting features that are as if the overtone color were shaded
or deeped. Winter and spring are brighter and clear as Summer and Autumn are often muted
and soft.
Within each respective season, there are three sub-seasons which allows for a color to have
variations in tone, value, and intensity, hence creating the space to create a truly
personal color palette that isn’t restrained by the traditional colors of the season. It
is beneficial to note the nature of other seasonal color palettes in order to better
recognize our own or to understand how it will interact with ourselves if we want to
sport a color outside of our season.
True summer, the main seasonal category of Summer which overall is cool, light, and muted
by holding more blues with hints of yellow through toned variations, is Cool plus Muted,
Light Summer is Light plus Cool, and Soft Summer is Muted plus Cool. The winter mirrors
this with a purely blue base holding tinted variations that carry a lightness, but possess
an additional degree of shading which results in a deepening that carries the spirit of
the cold within a cool, deep, and clear palette. True winter is Cool plus Bright, Bright Winter
is Bright plus Cool, and Dark Winter is Dark plus Cool. Autumn contains a more yellow base
with a blue essence that are balanced with shaded and toned variations resulting in warm
and muted for true, soft Autumn is Muted plus Warm, and Dark Autumn is Dark plus Warm resulting
in a warm, deep, and muted overall palette. The spring has a purely yellow base as a result
of tinted variations, hence true Spring is warm plus bright, Bright Spring is bright
plus warm, and light spring is light plus warm.
This concludes the introduction to the personal color palette guide, in the next segment we
will be doing self examination tests as well as a breakdown of the palettes to see which
season we truly belong and what each has to offer. If you have any questions about the
history, principles, or vocabulary please leave them down below so that we can cover
those topics more in depth.
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