Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
In today's video, we'll discuss how you can choose the best colors for your skin tone
no matter if you have a lighter, a medium, or a darker skin tone.
First of all, we talked about what skin tone is and what it means, we discuss how you can
figure out in different ways what your skin tone is, and last but not least, what kind
of colors and contrast levels you should choose so outfits you put together look really favorable.
First up, I'm a firm believer in the concept of wearing colors you truly like because if
there's a favorite color you have and you wear it, you wear it with confidence and it
shows.
Now that being said, you probably noticed that some colors look more pleasing than others
when you wear them, however, most men don't know why it's that way and how they can change
it but even if you' have a favorite color that naturally is not suited to your skin
tone, you can still wear it, you may just have to move it to a different location in
your outfit.
Alan Flusser, one of the best-selling menswear authors of all time reminds us that the goal
of color is to make a person look to your face and not to distract from it.
By the way, a classic jacket, the shirt collar, as well as the tie create triangles that are
supposed to emphasize your face but more about those things in a different video.
During the heydays of classic men's clothing in the 1930s in the US, Men's magazines and
trade magazines such as Esquire or apparel arts would actually have little tables with
colors and patterns as well as skin tones for men so they could easily figure out what
would work for them and what would flatter them.
Of course, these stories also helped to introduce new colors for the season and to simply expand
the range of colors men would be comfortable wearing.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, men's magazines don't have an emphasis on colors
or skin tones and so it leaves most men in the dark, therefore, we decided to create
a helpful video for you and first of all, let's figure out what skin tone really means.
To put it simply, skin tone is the natural color of your skin.
Now that sounds very obvious however, the color can change constantly depending whether
it is the winter or the summer.
Now the term skin tone also refers to the undertone of your skin, not just the skin
color.
Often, they're used interchangeably but they're slightly different.
So basically, there are two ways to think about skin tone and dressing.
One is the lightness and darkness of your skin, the other one is the undertone.
Ao whether your skin is light, medium, or dark color, it's pretty easy to figure out.
Personally, I'm more in the medium spectrum because my mom is from Germany, she's from
the lighter spectrum and my dad is from Brazil and he's on a darker medium spectrum.
Now it's a little more difficult to determine your undertone; basically, there are three
skin undertones.
That is warm, neutral, or cool.
Warm means there is a greenish-yellowish or peachy undertone.
Cool means your skin has a bluish undertone and neutral undertone means you can't really
discern if there's a greenish bluish golden or yellowish undertone and there's simply
nothing present that you can make out, that's okay, it exists, it's simply a neutral skin
undertone.
Now, determining your skin undertone is not a hard science but there are different ways
to determine that.
First of all, look at your underarms.
If you look closely, you can see that I have a greenish and yellowish undertone.
Just look at the veins, there's blue but there's green there's yellow which means I'm a warm
undertone.
Now if that test doesn't help you, you can just take a white piece of paper, hold it
next your face, and take a look in the mirror.
Just quickly look at it and think what does my skin tone look like?
Is it yellow? is it green? or is it blue? or is it none of the above?
The important thing is you have to do it with a mirror outside in daylight or with lamps
that are adjusted for daylight in a color temperature because traditionally, most interior
lamps are warmer and fall in a yellow spectrum so even though you might be a cooler tone,
in a mirror you will look like you're a warm tone and that would be wrong and lead to the
wrong outfit combinations.Last but not the least, you could also look at your skin type
and history you have with sunburn.
If you're out in the Sun without sunscreen, do you get burned very easily or very slowly?
If your skin is prone to burning and it doesn't tan, you're a cool undertone.
On the other hand, if you don't need sunscreen and you tan very easily, you're definitely
a warm undertone.
Naturally, it's best to always wear sunscreen no matter if you're a cool or a warm skin
type simply because you want to avoid skin cancer.
So now stop the video and figure out what skin tone you are.
Again, the best way to do that is under natural daylight because the interior light from bulbs
in the house can change the results and how they're perceived.
So by now you should have determined your skin undertone.
Now that you have that, how do we actually find the best color for it?
Basically, it again comes down to two things.
So first let's talk about the colors for different skin undertones.
If you're a warm skin undertone just like I am, you can really wear earth colors very
well and it will always look good on you.
By that, I mean colors of brown, green, warm red, mustard yellow, and anything that is
quite warm and natural.
Likewise, neutrals like beige and cream that are softer will really work for you.
In terms of the metal color, gold is the way to go.
Now gold is always flattering and I'm wearing gold today because obviously, this is a video
about how to choose the best colors for your skin tone at the same time, I still wear silver
and platinum jewelry simply because I like it and for different outfits it works better
in my opinion.
So don't let those colors that work well for you dictate what you wear and not wear but
much rather look at them in a way that they help you bring out the best in your person
and the way you look.
Instead, try to incorporate those colors more into your outfit whether it's in your accessories,
or in your jackets, maybe in your shirt, or in your shoes, and that way, you'll just achieve
an overall better result.
It doesn't mean you can never wear a navy blue suit because that would be obviously
not appropriate for many occasions.
On the other hand, if you have a cool undertone, look at shades of blue, purple, and green,
they will work really well for you especially if you choose pastels.
So think about a pastel blue, pastel green, maybe pastel pink, or pastel lavender, those
are really great colors.
In terms of metals, silver or platinum would likely work better for you and so when in
doubt, go with that metal color.
Now, if you're neither a warm nor a cool skin tone, you get the best of both worlds meaning
you can wear basically all the colors and it will still work for you, isn't that great?
Now does it mean you can wear anything?
No, because you also to consider the contrast levels but I'll talk about that later.
No matter what skin type you are, there are three colors that are considered to be universally
flattering.
They include eggplant which is kind of really dark purple, a true red which is not burgundy
but lighter and brighter, as well as green.
Now, in classic menswear showing up in a teal suit with red shoes and an eggplant tie will
really not be your best choice and instead, it pays to use those colors and incorporate
them into your accessories.
First up, think about socks.
You can have red socks or you can have teal socks with a purple stripe that almost looks
like eggplant or you can have red and blue tones or red and brown that comes out like
an eggplant color and those are really good ways to incorporate those colors, make your
outfit unique yet flattering.
Now when it comes to colors, you may have heard of the concept of washed out colors.
Just think about a washed pair of denim that used to be really dark blue but you've washed
it so much that now it's just a faint blue color and it just doesn't look new anymore
and you don't want to wear it.
The same concept can be transitioned to humans and your face.
The idea is that if you have the wrong colors next to your face it makes your skin colors
look washed out in a negative way.
If I wear a light blue shirt with a light gray jacket, my skin tone looks very different
than if I wear a cream or off white shirt with a dark brown jacket.
Just look at those two, doesn't it look different?
Lighting conditions are all the same.
As I mentioned before, apart from color, it's also important to look at the contrast.
For most people, it pays not to go extreme with the contrast but it's important to maintain
some element of it.
What I mean by that, for example, if you have a lighter skin tone, it pays to go with a
lower contrast.
So don't wear a black jacket with a white shirt because that's just too strong.
Instead, maybe go with a light blue shirt and a medium gray suit that will flatter your
skintone much more.
Now if you're a medium skin tone just like I am, you still want to avoid these really
high contrast outfits of black and white or Navy and white.
Even though Navy and a lighter shade of white can work for you.
On the other hand, you also don't want to go with pastel tones that are too close to
your skin tone because not enough contrast is not flattering either.
Apart from that, you can play a lot with contrast.
I can, for example, wear a white shirt with maybe a charcoal suit or a gray flannel suit
that will still look good at the same time, I can wear a light blue shirt with it and
it's less of a contrast but it still works for me.
Now overall, if you have darker skin tones, you can really wear high contrast outfits.
Navy suits, white shirts, that's something that really works for you but definitely avoid
pairing a light blue shirt with a light gray suit because it makes you look washed out.
So now that you know all those theoretical points about skin tone, skin undertone, the
colors you have to wear, cool, medium, and warm, how do you actually break it down and
select clothes that work for you?
The first thing you want to do is to identify the color ranges that work for you.
Again, you don't have to just choose colors from that spectrum but it pays to look at
those colors that work for you and then maybe choose variations of it.
For example, if green is one of those colors, you can think of paler greens maybe for shirts,
maybe for socks, maybe you can incorporate darker greens into your tie and to your pocket
square.
When putting together an outfit, color choices are most impactful with the colors that are
closest to your face and your skin.
So that means shirt, tie, and jacket.
Now obviously it can be tough if white and stark contrasts don't work for you yet in
a business wardrobe, white is really the number-one requirement.
In those cases, you can still wear white shirts.
Just make sure you wear them with a necktie that covers up part of the shirt and maybe
go with a jacket that has a higher button stance or maybe a double-breasted jacket that
covers more of the shirt front so you see less of it and therefore, it works in your
favor.
If you're into hats, they're also right next to your face so make sure you get the colors
right.
For example with my skin tone, a brown hat or a navy hat will look better than a black
hat or a gray hat.
That being said, if the occasion calls for it, I still wear a black hat or a gray hat
because it may work well with my suit and you can play with it and use it as a guideline
not as an absolute.
If you want wear colors that fall outside of your color spectrum, try to keep them away
from your face and you can go with your pants, maybe your cufflinks, your socks, your pocket
square.
Personally, for example, I would not wear a khaki jacket because it would be not contrasting
enough with my skin tone so I wear khaki slacks all the time but never as a jacket or suit.
Also, I would stir most people away from wearing all neutral outfits; they can work if for
example you have very fair white or blond hair very light skin tone in that case, you
want a low contrast outfits with neutrals but if you're outside of that range, most
of the time, an all neutral outfit in just maybe different shades of gray will ultimately
not be as flattering.
So if you have gray hair and lighter skin, you can go with let's say a medium gray jacket,
a light blue shirt, but then you can have maybe a contrasting blue tie and I don't mean
navy blue because that would be too much but a somewhat lighter shade that still pops out
from underneath your shirt and has some contrast with a jacket.
Finally to conclude, keep in mind that you can still wear the colors that you like.
Don't let skin tones and undertones dictate the only colors you wear and keep in mind
that contrast is always key.
That being said, there's a contrast element between your skin color and tone and your
clothing items as well as contrast between your clothing items.
I think most people will look better if there's some element of contrast with darker tones,
you want stronger contrasts.
With medium, medium contrast.
With lighter skin tones, you want lighter contrasts.
In today's video I am wearing a combination that is ideal for someone like myself who
has a warm skin undertone and somewhat of a medium olivey color first of all it consists
of a charcoal Brown suit which is a darker Brown suit yet an earthy tone it provides
enough contrast with my light blue shirt but it's not as stark as it would be with let's
say a white shirt the shirt is very summery and has brief pale horizontal stripes which
creates another element of visual interest it also features French cuffs and so I'm wearing
them with gold cufflinks with a tiger's eye from Fort Belvedere which you can find at
our shop here the gold metal color works well with my skin tone and so does the brown at
the same time it contrasts shirt and ties together with a suit and my tan shoes which
are a form of brown just a lot lighter and more contrasting to my brown suit slacks my
socks are sadow striped in a lighter brown and blue so it ties together the shoe with
a pants as well as the shirt my necktie on the other hand is contrasting but it contains
green as well as eggplant purple which is again one of those Universal colors that everyone
can wear it's a tie from Fort Belvedere made out of shantung silk with an underlying contrasting
yarn so it looks slightly different depending on how you look at it and the shantung knobs
give it more 3-dimensional texture you can check it out in our shop here just like the
pocket square which picks up the colors of yellow and green yet they're a little different
they are muted it it's a fine silk it's a little more shiny and it has elements of bronze
on it which tie in to the brown of the suit as well as my tan shoes and the cufflinks
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