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Friday, January 23, 2004
The magic of color
Imagine how bland life would be without color! Colors create such an impact on our lives that we literally come to life with radiance and self-confidence when we wear the right colors.
Notice how we assign definite associations with certain colors, too. Like black with sexiness, red with boldness, white with purity, light blue with coolness, pink with femininity, and purple with drama. Thus, we very often find ourselves dressing up in the color that matches our mood.
Fashion designers, too, think in terms of color and texture when choosing fabrics for a collection. Color unifies together the theme of their collection, creating the mood and effect that they want to project.
In my business, at the beginning of each year, clients ask me all too often, “What’s the color of the year?” like they were actually going to plan their year’s wardrobe around it.
Evidently, we have been bombarded with dictates from the fashion industry on what’s hot and hip, as it promotes certain colors every year, that we tend to lose our personal color sense. We end up buying colors for reasons that have nothing to do with how we look in them. Yet, people just love color and are eager to have lots of it in their lives.
However, not all colors suit us. There are special colors that we look terrific in as there are others that leave us feeling like wall flowers. Knowing which of the colors gives us the cutting edge spells the dramatic difference between stunning and boring.
With each of us having different and unique skin tones, not to mention different personalities and lifestyles, how do we know which colors make us look fabulous and which ones to avoid?
People take formal classes and devote entire semesters to study color and its application to clothing but for the rest of us, the best step in finding our optimum colors is really just an honest-to-goodness self-evaluation….and listening.
I once stepped into a dinner party wearing a halter tunic top and a narrow, above-the-knee skirt, all in aqua blue. A guest couldn’t help herself and approached me to compliment me about how great I looked in aqua! People do it all the time, complimenting, flattering and passing general feel-good comments to one another like, “Oh, how sexy you are!” or “My, you look nice!” but for someone to be specific in her awe and admiration, you know she meant it. These are the ones you listen to.
You can bet that since then, I`ve forever been partial to aqua!
What colors make you feel great each time you wear them? Which evoke positive comments from friends? Which brought you compliments? In a closetful of clothes, which do you find wearing often? Which colors are left unworn?
Try draping fabrics on yourself and checking in the mirror. Which colors bring out the glow in you….which ones make you look drab? This for me has been the best test. Since the tone of our skin is the most important factor in determining the colors that look best on us, colors have to be applied and compared directly on our skin to test their effect on us.
When young girls come to me for their prom dresses, they usually don’t have any idea of what color to wear. So I ask them to pick the colors they like from the shelf. We both stand in front of the mirror, and I start to drape the colors on her body one by one, asking her to see which ones make her face glow. At the end of the exercise, she will have picked her choice…to which I can’t help but agree.
(January 23, 2004 issue)
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