WHY SOME COLOURS LOOK BETTER ON YOU THAN OTHERS
By Anuschka Rees
If you’ve ever gotten dressed and ready to go out with friends, or shared clothes with someone, you know that the same colour can look striking on one person but off on another. The same exact shade can make one person look fresh and glowy—like they’ve just spent a week at a luxe Mediterranean wellness resort—but completely wash out another.
Have you ever wondered why that is? Why does your friend’s charcoal coat look so chic on her but all shades of dull on you? Why can some people pull off bright crimson lipstick on a Tuesday, while others look borderline clownlike after a second layer of tinted lip balm?
The answer is: colour theory. Or, more specifically, colour harmony.
Colour theory is the art and science of colours—their properties, how they can be mixed, and how we perceive them. Colour harmony is a key field within colour theory that explores why to the human eye certain shades look better together than others. The principles of colour theory and colour harmony are used by artists, designers, and other creatives around the world. Illustrators use them to select a palette for their artwork, filmmakers to calibrate the mood of their scenes, and art directors to create eye- catching ads for their clients.
Colour theory
Colour theory is the study of colour: its attributes, how we perceive it, and how to measure and utilise it. It encompasses a range of fields, including colour harmony, colour mixing, colour symbolism, and colour psychology.
Do not mistake the principles of colour harmony for societal beauty standards. They were not created by corporations and are not inherently rooted in sexist gender roles. Like many other design principles, such as symmetry and balance, they were often discovered by artists who studied natural phenomena to figure out what makes them so aesthetically pleasing—and how to re-create that effect in their work.
Chances are, you are already using aspects of colour theory in your everyday life. When you pick up flowers from the farmers’ market, for example, and try to imagine which ones will look best on your kitchen counters. When you dial up the saturation and contrast of your pics before posting them on social media or sending them to someone. When you use peach-hued concealer to correct circles under your eyes, and even when you’re adjusting the brightness level of your computer screen. All involve principles of colour theory (how colours work) and colour harmony (how two or more shades look next to each other).
We use those same principles to figure out which shades best accentuate your unique colour essence. What you do with this information is up to you: Self-expression and personal taste always trump colour harmony. Explore the world of colour and experiment just like artists do—colour theory is just one of many creative tools in their tool belt.
Colour harmony
Colour harmony is a field within colour theory that explores why certain shade combinations will be visually appealing to the human eye.
What is colour analysis?
Colour analysis is a framework that shows people which shades best harmonise with their skin tone, hair, and eyes. It was popularised in the 1980s by the mega-bestseller Colour Me Beautiful, written by stylist and image consultant Carole Jackson. The book introduced four types: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, and recommended a different palette for each. Whether Carole Jackson really was the first to come up with the system has been the subject of debate. Some credit Hollywood stylist Suzanne Caygill, who is said to have created custom palettes for her clients that were named after seasons starting in the 1950s.
But the idea that one’s complexion, hair, and eyes have an influence on the colours that suit them precedes Caygill too: In 1928, for example, a little booklet titled Charts of Becoming Colours featuring “correct and fashionable colours” was all the rage. Artists also began using seasons to characterise palettes long before Colour Me Beautiful hit the scene. Derived from the hues of landscapes (in the Northern Hemisphere), fall (Autumn) tends to be associated with warm and earthy colours and winter with icy, cool shades.
Spring is characterised by delicate shades of blossoming flowers, and summer by either vibrant brights or the softer pastels of a hazy summer’s day.
As a millennial, I was not around for the original craze surrounding colour analysis, but my mum—a fashion-conscious twentysomething at the time—was part of the generation whose entire approach to fashion and beauty was shaped by terms and concepts from Colour Me Beautiful.
I had heard my mum use seasons as adjectives before (“that’s a Winter blue”), but it wasn’t until I found myself in a major preteen crisis that I came to understand what she was talking about. It was the early aughts and, for a few months, no self- respecting eighth grader would come to school without black eyeliner and flat- ironed hair. I had the hair part down but could not understand why all of my friends looked so incredibly cool with their kohl-rimmed eyes while I looked like a ghost child with Sharpie on her face. One day—after I requested to dig into her stash of makeup since my liners “weren’t working”—my mum said, “Well, of course black’s not going to suit you, you’re a Spring type.” She eventually handed me a worn paperback that had loose pages poking out and notes scribbled all over the margins. And so I was introduced to the great big world of seasonal colour analysis.
Since the 1980s, a lot has happened in that world: Colour Me Beautiful expanded its framework from four to twelve seasons, and social media introduced millions of people to colour analysis. That renewed popularity has muddied the waters quite a bit. The sheer wealth of often conflicting information can make the whole concept seem incredibly complex, when, in reality, it’s quite simple.
Why is there so much conflicting information in the first place? Because colour analysis originated at a time when expert knowledge (and expert status) was still very much king, and people were used to trusting professional advice. A product of its time, Colour Me Beautiful is prescriptive without ever revealing its formula: Readers are told how to find their season and which colours to wear, but Carole Jackson never explains why that palette supposedly suits them—or, really, much else. Without a clear formula or framework for readers to refer back to, it’s no wonder that over time people have filled in the gaps themselves with a mix of misconceptions, outdated fashion rules, and general style advice.
Now, it’s not at all a bad thing that concepts develop over time or even branch out into something completely different. Some colour analysts work with sixteen, twenty-four, or even thirty-six seasons.
Some take into account your style, your personality, or your aura. As long as you know what the advice you are getting is based on, no system of colour analysis is more or less valid than another.
Key ideas of modern colour analysis
Colour harmony is universal and independent of trends, cultural norms, and personal taste.
A core premise of colour harmony is that your body already comes with a pre- installed colour palette that is innately harmonious and aesthetic. Your skin tone, hair colour, and eye colour perfectly harmonise with one another. Why? Because your natural colouring came into existence organically and so, like most things in nature, already follows the universal principles of colour harmony. Carole Jackson put it like this: “Nature is the most brilliant designer of all!”
A consequence of this premise is that colour harmony is not corrective. We are not trying to improve, balance out, or fix anything. At no point will I tell you what to wear to get closer to any sort of ideal, because there is no one ideal. We all have a unique colour essence that we can choose to lean in to, embrace, and accentuate.
Shades that honour that essence will look radiant and effortless on you. People will notice your face before they notice your outfit. Of course, it’s entirely possible that sometimes you may not want that. Sometimes you may not want to look harmonious—you want to make a statement.
TRUE OR FALSE? When you get older, you should stop wearing bold colours.
Says who? It’s true that most people’s colouring changes over time, and your best colours at thirty-five may not be exactly the same as your best colours at seventy-five. It’s also true that most people will favour slightly more muted and less intense tones as they age. However, depending on your baseline, a “slightly more muted” shade could mean a saturated flamingo pink or a vivid French blue. Whether you shine in bold brights or in a gentler palette depends on your unique colour essence—age is irrelevant.
TRUE OR FALSE? You should only wear colours that are recommended for your type.
False! You should only wear colours that you want to wear. In Personal Colour, you’ll learn which tones harmonise with your colouring, and which may clash a little. But what you do with that information is up to you. Colour harmony is not mandatory.
TRUE OR FALSE? Black, white, grey, tan: You can’t go wrong with neutrals.
Many people consider neutrals a “safe” choice, but almost all neutrals are actually quite extreme from a colour standpoint and ironically harder to pull off than many other colours.
This is an edited extract from Personal Colour by Anuschka Rees published by Hardie Grant Books.
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ISSUE 08