Within the range of your personal best colors, two stand out as your very, very best -- your hair color and what we call your skin intensifier.
1. Your hair color almost always points to your Key Neutral – your personal “basic black” – the anchor color for your wardrobe basics like trousers, classic skirts, jackets and tops. It’s the ideal choice for your winter coat, the garment that needs to blend with everything else in your closet. And it is your most basic color for accessories like shoes, handbags and belts.
I know this idea of a non-black “black” can be a lot to wrap your head around, so let’s look at some examples.
Remember Christina from last week’s color examples? See her below with black – no point of connection there. Then see her with a chocolate brown similar to her hair – what an impactful, individualized look! Picture her in chocolate pants and turtleneck topped with a brick red jacket. Or a chocolate brown suit with teal shell. Or a rich green pantsuit, camel sweater and chocolate accessorieslike the ones pictured (www.Zappos.com). Brown really is her “black”.
Shary has even less connection with black. But a warm rusty brown like her hair color functions as an ideal neutral in her wardrobe and blends with all the accent colors that are best for her. Accessories like these shoes and bag from Zappos.com would be basics for Shary.
Marcy is a slightly different situation. Her pale hair color works fine for basic garments and accessories in warm weather. But in the fall and winter she’ll probably prefer to use the lowlight – the darkest shade mixed through her hair – as an alternative neutral for a heavier look. These lighter hair colors look wonderful in accessories with a pearlized or metallic leather finish.
What pieces do you own in you Key Neutral hair color?
Look for prints and patterned clothes that contain a bit of your hair color too. Can you spot the strong connection between hair color and its repetition in the prints shown on each of the models? The effect is even stronger when the shapes in the print echo the shapes in the model’s hairstyle. Much more about print selection in lesson #10.
A scarf or two in prints that include your hair color are great first steps in re-working your wardrobe into a new, more flattering color direction. If you're not sure what to select you can email me a photo of you and a photo of your Color Fan and I'll email you suggested scarves from my inventory.
2. Any color is intensified – made more rich and bright – by surrounding it with its complement or color wheel opposite shade. All human skin – light and dark – comes from within the yellow-red range of the color wheel, just muted to appear more neutral.
Across the wheel from yellow-reds you’ll find the blue-greens. So for each woman, her unique shade of aqua/turquoise/teal makes her skin look especially healthy and glowing. That makes it possibly her most flattering accent shade. See the examples on our models below.
If you have strawberry blonde, red or auburn hair, your teal emhasizes that too. And if it repeats your blue eyes - WOW!
This week look for something tea/turquoise in your wardrobe and check out its impact on your own coloring...
