Determining what colors look best on you can be a useful tool to help build your wardrobe and make you appear to your best advantage. With so many shades and hues available, it can be very difficult to determine your best colors. Understanding you skin tone and complexion can be extremely helpful in knowing which colors to wear to make yourself look good.
You may have heard people refer to themselves by color seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall. This method of determining color palettes was originally used by artists, but made its way into the beauty and fashion industry through color analysis pioneers such as Suzanne Caygill and Carol Jackson. Jackson’s 1980 book, Color Me Beautiful, became a widely-accepted resource guide for determining your season and which colors will look best on you by your complexion and skin tone.
According to color analysis, all people have either a warm or cool skin tone. Warm skin is characterized by yellow or peach undertones, and a tendency toward warmer hair colors like golden brown or honey blond. Cool skin tones have a pink undertone, and tend toward ash blond or brown and black hair. It is possible to have characteristics of both genres, in which case you will have much more choice in which colors to wear to look your best.
Warm skinned people are further broken down into spring and autumn, while cool-skinned people are either summer or winter. Springs and autumns look best in gold-toned colors: bright greens and pinks or corals for springs, heady greens, oranges and deep yellows for autumns. Summers use clear, blue or silver-toned colors like cherry red and violet, while winters use blue-toned pastels and icy colors, like navy, powder pink, and cool gray.
Jewelry can help show you which colors will look best by examining the appearance of your skin next to it. If you have warm undertones, gold jewelry will make your skin look warm and rich, while silver jewelry may seem to contrast or just not enhance your natural tones. Studying this effect can tell you whether to look for gold or silver toned colors when shopping for clothing.
There are exceptions to every rule, and color analysis is certainly not without fault. No matter what season you are, choose colors in your wardrobe that make you happy and comfortable. Coordinating your wardrobe with a color palette can certainly make your fashion life more organized, however, as you will have a variety of choices that match each other in tone. If you are conscious of your color palette, you will also be able to avoid shopping for fad or trend clothing that will be useless in a year. Knowing which colors to wear will help you on your way to a classic and timeless wardrobe, but never be afraid to show your personal style and break the rules from time to time.
