I decided to have a professional color analysis done. I have been wanting to do this for a while. Last year was not so great for me fashion/wardrobe-wise, with a lot of mistakes and blah choices, so I thought a color analysis might shake things up a bit. The stylist I chose has been doing color analysis and personal styling for over 30 years. And, because she is based in greater Boston and we did this IRL, we we had a great conversation about the local B&M shopping scene over the years. It has gone SO far downhill In this color system, I’m more cool than warm in coloring (but a hint of warm), with low contrast. I agree with this. My own preferences are for mostly darkish neutrals and a smattering of mostly darkish soft/muted color, with mostly low-contrast outfits, and I wear both cool and warm tones.

Overall Observations on the Palette

This is a custom palette of colors that are “best” for me. The upper left swatches are hair and eye color. There are a LOT of bright-to-me colors in the palette, with no warm tones or very dark ones. No super brights including optic white. LOTS of variety. The photo looks just a tiny bit warmer than the colors do IRL to my eye.

The greys, blues, and ivory/cream/white colors are mostly a
slam dunk, I wear them already. I do wear a little dark brown and dark red or burgundy. The metallics include both silver and a soft gold - I almost always go with gold especially for jewelry. There is a hidden gem here of a dark gunmetal color which I do love but don’t see much of. The teals and teal-adjacent colors are ones I’d like to try. The pinks and most of the greens do not appeal to me. Olive, camel, and toffee are not in the palette. I do like these colors (esp olive green) and will keep wearing them. I tend to prefer cooler versions, but not always like camel. Black and other darks are not in the palette, although some darker greys, blues, greens are. I “get” that black might look harsh on me, but I really like it, get complements, and have a huge amount of it. Not giving it up! I do tend more and more to add lighter colors near my face when wearing black.

Practical Matters

When I look at what colors are available at retail, they will always be a subset of what's in the palette, depending on season and color trends etc. When I find clothes that fit me, are flattering, in fabrics and colors I like, they are often (usually?) not going to be in my color palette although something might be close :-).

Glad I Did it; Where to go from here

It was fascinating and fun, and I’m not taking it too seriously. I'm not intending to try to follow this palette exactly. This process has helped me solidify what colors I really LIKE to wear, even though some of it goes against this color analysis. Sometimes when you try something new it ends up confirming that you prefer your “old favorite".

I’ve become a bit obsessed with the cool vs warm thing, and am going to try to give that a rest and think more about color in general.

Having a small number of colors in my wardrobe continues to feel right to me, it makes outfit generation and shopping easier

I’m not changing my preferences but I will perhaps have a more discerning eye for color, and I do have some new colors I might like to try.

Maybe I'll give myself a "wear only colors in the new palette" challenge for February, but I'd definitely need an exception for black.

All comments and suggestions welcome as always!