Curious- is brown *really* that hard to wear? - YouLookFab Forum

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Curious- is brown really that hard to wear?

Ele

(website)

Mac's recent colour thread has me thinking. I was a little surprised by all the people who said that they could give up brown, because it looks horrible on them. I can think of very few people in my life who don't look great in brown. With the possible exception of my Mum (who has quite cool colouring), my whole family can wear it, as can my bf, my bff, and most of my friends too.

I've always thought of brown as sort of like pink- when you find the right shade for you, it's almost ridiculously flattering to the skintone, "warming it up" like little else can.

So, am I just hanging around with a whole bunch of similar-looking people? Is brown really that hard to wear, or do we all just think that because we're conditioned to think it's an "ugly" colour?

Dressing

42 replies

Latest reply was from Sara

Sally

Veteran

I thought chocolate brown was like black ...a good neutral colour but easier to wear than black. It is definitely a colour I wear. I have a gorgeous brown dress that I absolutely love. Mind you, it is a colour I dont see a lot of people wearing.

Itari

(website)

I guess that the trick is that cool-coloured people generally look worse in brown than in grey or black. My redhead sister looks beautiful in chocolate or caramel brown, while I look sallow and washed out; the only shade of brown I can wear without looking like a corpse is very dark and desaturated.
Brown is basically dark orange - and with orange being completely warm, it's very hard to get a shade of brown that suits cool-toned people. It's probably worse with very fair complexion - I can't imagine Gwyneth Paltrow or Elin Nordegren looking really good in any shade of brown. Beige, yes, but not really brown.

April

Veteran

Well, brown is orange with blue added, so the warmth or coolness of browns is much more variable than that of oranges.

I would think people who don't look good in a lighter, warner brown might be able to wear a deeper, cooler brown very well.

Sveta

(website)

Veteran

Ele, I LOVE brown! It is a very versatile color IMO and goes almost with any other color - much more so than black (I always think of black as a star and brown as a team player).
However I think some people just do not suit brown due to their cool coloring - the same way other people do not suit black due to warm coloring.
I also wonder if some people just consider brown boring or dull because of some pre-consieved notions and don't give it a chance in their wardrobe?
Just think about it - no other neutral color has as many delicious food associations as brown: chocolate, toffee, caramel, caffe latte, cocoa, cappuccino...list goes on!
How can it be dull?

Maya

Veteran

There are many numerous shades of brown and i'm positive as a slightly warm skinned person it would look quite excellent on me. But it doesn't fit in with my style and just isn't an attractive color to me. It just doesn't have the same urban look and feel as black, white, and gray. I did not include it on my list because I'm open to it if the right piece ever comes along, but I certainly don't go out of my way for it.

Queen Mum

Veteran

i love to wear brown too.. I treat it like black but it's less harsh against my skin.

Traci

Veteran

I'll have to try to snap a picture of myself in one of my chocolate brown closet orphans so you can see just how much of a zombie I look in that color. Olive green does it to me too, so it must be a warmth issue. I can manage them by adding in something raspberry colored near my face. Black and charcoal my not light up my face, but they don't drain it of all life either.

Dusty

(website)

I don't think it's hard to wear for everybody, but I have yet to find a shade that doesn't make me look like someone forgot to bury me. I think it can be very pretty (and quite dramatic in the right combinations - like with pink or Tiffany blue) just not on me.

Boof

I have always loved brown but feel like it gets no YLF love. I tend to look better in warmer colors, so browns work for me. Maybe I'm way off base, and I look like like a corpse.

Lana

I love brown. I only have a few black items of clothing and go out of my way to find brown instead. It can be a little frustrating to look worse in black and white than brown and cream because it's much harder to find those colors.

Lisa

Veteran

I am extremely pale and while I love the richness of brown, it does not do me any favors. Light, dark, it doesn't seem to matter. I put brown in the earthy tone department and I know earth tones do not flatter me well. I'm sure there are many shades of brown with cool and warm undertones, but I have never found a brown that works for me. I always look washed out.

Sarah

(website)

Veteran

Ele, I'm a recent brown convert. I like black still, but I wore black exclusively last fall, and there is just something about a nice, rich, brown. There's a depth that black just can't touch.
I'm excited about pairing brown with fall colors, as well as grey and black. I will say that I prefer brown as an accessory or outerwear as opposed to actual apparel.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Ele, I do think brown is hard to wear. People can look tired and pale in brown - just like some can look tired and pale in black. Unless you are a VERY strong Autumn like Jean (who looks killer in all sorts of brown), I am weary of it for myself and clients. You have to get the shade just so and match it up with the right support acts.

Personally I will wear a bright brown (like a bright chestnut) - but not fast.

crazyone

Veteran

I understand brown being hard to wear as clothing, esp near the face (though so is black, though that doesn't prevent people from wearing it); what I don't understand is the aversion to wearing it in shoes...often brown shoes can look a lot less harsh and stark than black shoes, and cognac/chestnut is an amazing, amazing shade.

Vix

Veteran

I am another brown convert, and think darker browns can look very sophisticated paired with black, greys, and other deep tones as well as be a great "base" for colors.

I think it can be hard to find the right brown (espresso, rose browns, and rose beige are pretty much it for pale, cool-toned me) but mine get as much if not more use than all the black in my closet. And that's sayin' something, ha.

Mac

Veteran

Well, I've clearly got a pro-brown bias but I think almost anyone can wear the right shade of brown. There are so many shades to choose amongst!

Louise

Veteran

I struggle with brown. I have chocolate brown booties which I love and a tan leather jacket and handbag but that's it I don't think I own any brown clothing x

Ele

(website)

So it seems that us YLF-ers are pretty evenly split between those who wear brown and love it and those who look like "someone forgot to bury us" in it (love that, Dusty). But Angie insists it's hard to wear- does that mean some of us are walking around looking like corpses? I tend to think I'm a pretty good judge of what colours look good, both for myself and others, but this has me second-guessing myself.

I can't imagine that brown is that much harder to wear than black, but like crazyone says, millions of people wear black every day! I'm still curious about whether this this due to preconceptions about brown's attractiveness, or simply that it isn't as widely available/fashionable.

Obviously, none of this really matters at all- I think I'm just in an overthinking mood today!

Steph

Veteran

I think that wearing brown is far easier for people with warm coloring than with cool coloring. I actually don't think it is a color limited to people who are deep autumns, but really suits almost anyone who falls in the warm coloring spectrum (whether they be a "spring" or an "autumn" in the traditional seasonal color analysis world, or any variations on those seasons in the more sophisticated personal color analyses that currently exist). I'm pretty pale but have warm undertones and I think I pull of brown well.

I have actually been doing a lot of reading on color analysis lately (I know Magda has as well), and if you look at this chart (which contains only a few of the ideal colors for each category), it shows that brown really does work on most warms, and some cools: http://www.thechicfashionista......lysis.html (You have to go about halfway down the page to see the chart.)

Steph

Veteran

Ele, I just saw your post, and I wanted to say that as I have been doing all of this reading on personal color analysis, most experts feel that black is actually one of the most difficult to wear colors, and that winters are the only people who truly look great in it. I do think that black can be pretty harsh with a lot of different coloring, but many people can also pull it off. As a general rule, I think that people who are warmer in tone have more trouble with black than brown. I think black is just so ubiquitous that everyone wears it without applying the same level of critique they would pretty much any other color.

Sveta

(website)

Veteran

But Ele, Angie also says that black is hard to wear too and I agree completely!
Also brown has so many variations -warm/cool, light/dark, saturated/muted... Dark chocolate brown maybe not the best against my face ( still better than black though) but put me in caramel or chestnut brown color and it is a different story!
Unfortunately there is no such flexibility with black - it is always..well, black.
Yes so many people wear black - but do all of them look really good in it? It is considered "safe" and "slimming" in public opinion so many people just default to it automatically...:-(

Kristen

(website)

Veteran

I adore brown in so many different shades, but especially the warmer and richer the better for me. And yes, I do love my warm colors!

Cookie

This is an interesting conversation. I have not thought about this but now I realize I do not have much brown in my closet. I do have brown shoes and boots and some brown in prints but no solid brown clothing. Some of the designers showed a lot of brown in their collections this year. I wonder if this color will show up more on store racks?

Kate

Veteran

I hated brown when I was young, and it wasn't until I was well into high school that my mom (who is a winter, and never wears brown) convinced me it really was a great color for me. Now I've mostly purged cool neutrals (black, gray, and pure white) from my wardrobe, though I do have some pants and shoes I haven't parted with yet since they're so far away from my face. But yes, I love brown and wear it often, so long as it's a warm brown.

I'm still stocking up on browns, and have found that a lot of the browns in stores right now are actually cool browns. There are a lot of almost black browns out there, which are too dark and cool for me to wear well by my face, or to mix with my other warm neutrals. There are a lot of grayed or heathered browns on the market too, which are too cool and powdery for me to wear. I'm assuming that the really dark browns would work better for people with "winter" coloring and the "summers" could pull off the gray-ish browns. I'm curious if anyone can confirm or deny this.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Ele, you might like to re-read my comment. I think you read it too fast.

Traci

Veteran

Here you go.

One pic of me in brown:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/5.....843876025/

The next pic of me, same make up, same lighting, same background wall, in a berry hue.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/5.....otostream/
sorry for the poor, iphone self pictures, but you get the idea.

RoseandJoan

Veteran

I love brown but personally find it hard to wear. I'm very drawn to bitter chocolate brown which I sport through my accessories, it also helps that I really adore steel blue and love the combination of the two colours together.

Ele

(website)

Oh no, Angie- I always pay the utmost attention to everything you say!

I think I get what you were saying- that both brown and black are difficult shades to pull off if you don't have the colouring for it- and I said a similar thing in my next comment. (Steph, Sveta and a couple others mentioned it, too.) I guess I was just pondering why, given that both shades are far from universally flattering, black is so popular while brown remains an acquired taste. Just curious whether it was a perceived "fashion factor" or due to availability, or maybe people just think brown is ugly. Basically, just thinking out loud here.

Well, I must be some kind of colour freak of nature. I have the most neutral, muted, monochromatic colouring you can imagine, not clearly cool or warm, but I can wear both black and brown easily. I get the impression that it's usually one or the other, and only if you lean to an extreme (winter/autumn)?

Mac

Veteran

I have a few theories as to why I think black is so much more popular than brown. #1. Many women are taught that black is slimming. #2. Black has a more official roles than brown: eg. "The little black dress," "Mourning black," etc. #3. There are a lot fewer variations of black than brown, so it's less confusing to the average shopper. For a woman who wants to buy boots to match her black sweater at home, it's not so hard. But in trying to "match" browns, it gets trickier. Now, I've learned that it's important for my clothing colours to "work together" rather than MATCH, but when I was younger and less confident in my choices, I definitely tried to match my shoes to my purse to my belt... and I have to say it was a lot easier with black than with brown.

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