How To Match Clothes To Colours of your complexion, eyes and lipstick

 



 I went to a colours session in Singapore. The company might have been Color Me Beautiful. 

After paying the booking fee, probably through the American women's association attached to the American Club, or the British Club, or the Australian Club, I recall a group of ladies sitting around a table with the trainer. I now understand that a company from the Americas trained trainers who had a franchise. She got us to hold up scarves of our own and hers, against our faces, and asked everybody to say which colours suited which person.

We also held the colours against our hands, the backs of our hands, our forearms and our inside wrists. I suited bright colours, summer colours. Royal blue, Fuschia, emerald green, magenta, bright, shiny. I think that the spring colours were gentle pastels, pale pink, baby blue, lavendar. The autumn colours were heavily dark but matt and muted, muddy, earthy, russet rusty brown, olive green, beige. The winter colours were pale and palid, or dark, black, navy, chocolate, charcoal grey.

At the end of the session we could buy a set of cards showing all the colours in our set. 

It was no great surprise to me that the colour which suited me best was a vibrant royal blue. I had always been dressed in this colour as a child by my mother. I was so fed up with it that, as a teenager and adult, for years I never wore it. (The same antipathy applied to my school uniform's dark green.)

Redheads

At the University College of London I shared a bedroom with a redhead. She wore pink lipstick. I was really surprised that she did not opt for orange or orangey-red to match her hair. She told me that redheads don't always wear the same colours. She wore pink to go with her blue eyes. She said that redheads with green eyes wore orange. Those with grey eyes wore pale orange.



I loved red hair. But when I tried on red wigs, red hair did not suit my complexion.

At that time I had mousy brown hair. Then came the fashion for white or blonde streaks. I made a mistake. I did not get the sausages around the streaks tight enough and instead of brown with blonde streaks I ended up a messy mottled colour so I used the rest of the bottle to go completely blonde to try that before possibly going back to brown with a brown hair dye. That required another shopping trip. Besides, you were not supposed to redye hair within a month. So meanwhile I went all blonde.

As a brunette I had worn purple a lot, and brown. However, as a blonde, red was wonderfully vibrant. Purple just made my hair look a brassy yellow. 

I could have walked around shopping malls and clothes shops with a colour chart. But it was easier just to hold my hand against the fabric of two adjeacent items hanging up and see which one looked best. Or which one made me smile when I put it on.

If a garment does not suit your colours, the addition of contrasting accessories can make all the difference.

I am now buying hats in assorted colours to finish my outfits.


Red[edit]

Main articles: Red and Shades of red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light, consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625–750 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colors.

Rose[edit]

Main articles: Rose (color) and Shades of rose

Spring Green[edit]

Main articles: Spring green and Shades of spring green

White[edit]

Main articles: White and Shades of white

White is a balanced combination of all the colors of the visible light spectrum, or of a pair of complementary colors, or of three or more colors, such as additive primary colors. It is a neutral or achromatic (without color) color, like black and gray.

Yellow[edit]

Main articles: Yellow and Shades of yellow

Yellow is the color of light with wavelengths predominately in the range of roughly 570–580 nm. In the HSV color space, it has a hue of around 60°. It is considered one of the subtractive primary colors.

See also[edit]

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_analysis_(art)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colors_by_shade

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer, photographer and speaker.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to repair a torn Mark & Spencer slip and make the hem wider, Post 294

Image
What is this? My repair.  I have a lovely shiny, smart black slip, from Marks & Spencers. It has a slit with pretty lace edging.  But it is slightly tight. It tore from the top of the slit, diagonally.  I looked for another slip. The ones I found onlin were twice the price and not in a satiny fabric. I wore it torn. I repaired it several times. It tore again.  I gave up. I wore it torn. Nobody sees. My husband saw. He complained. What could I do? It is useless to keep stitching it. It just tears again. I needed a new solution. I thought of adding a godet, a triangle of black fabric. I did not have anything to match. tht doesn't matter a godet is often a contrasting material. But that's when you have several godets and they look deliberate. I hunted in my sewing box. Boxes. All I had was teeny scraps of cloth in unsuitable fabrics. And ribbons. I thought about what I could do with the ribbons. They were not wide enough. But I could sew one each side of the slit. t...
Read more

Blue H & M Dress, dress of the day 393

Image
  Angela Lansbury wearing a blue background dress from H &M. Photo by Trevor Sharot. The Blue H & M Dress Blue background dress has a white pattern. Blues are hard to match. But I had a white blouse, so I wore this. On the internet and on Facebook you can see lots of videos of how to tie a scarf, but mine is simply hanging, which partly obscures the cleavage.  Cleavage cover I had a choice. To insert a dickey or false front, also called a removable or detachable collar. I have one or two which are plain white.  The alternative which saves hunting for a matching dickey without distracting collar colours and embrodiery, is simply to add a fastening. I decided that a snap or press stud fastener in small size is qhich to fasten and unlikely to pull apart (as opposed to hook and eye. I like velcro but it can scratch your skin, so the press stud was the right andwer. You have to get the two sides exactly measured up from the point of the V neck otherwide you end up with...
Read more

Period Pants from Marks & Spencer & More, post 345

Image
Period pants from Savida. Pants, UK. In the USA they would be called underpants. They come in two colours, black or dark blue with a mottled effect. They are triple layer. Could be useful for hiking and travelling. Or when you have a cough.  A pack of three full briefs for fifteen pounds. I then googled period pants and found lots of results.  Marks Marks & Spencer do a pack of three containing three different colours, black, white and pink, for sixteen pounds.  They also do different absorbencies. The options range though light, heavy, and extra heavy. And more styles, such as pantaloon style, like short tight shorts coming half way down your thighs. You can also buy leakproof swimwear with the brand name WUKA. Wikipedia has useful worldwide reviews of practices. Wiki picture. Useful search words (alphabetically):  A-D absorbent, absorbency adult diapers briefs,  cloth menstrual pads diapers E-K full briefs,  heavy absorbency,  heavy flow,  i...
Read more