Garment color different in store lighting vs. natural lighting

Chris987

I found a fabulous short puffer coat yesterday at Marshalls, super quality, synthetic fill (not a requirement but nice-to-have) and lots of great details. BCBMaxazria, on clearance for $40. Great fit. In the store it looked like a neutral camel color that looked good with my hair and skin tones.

When I got it home, in natural light near a window, it turned into a slightly cool taupe, which is an awful color on me and one I never wear.

It's going back.

There was no way to go out into natural light near a mirror without paying for it first - could find some natural light near the store front door but no mirrors. The same issue would exist in a mall store. I usually do pretty well with color but this one was a total fail. I do know the lighting in stores tends to be a bit warm, but knowing that does not always help in a practical way. Maybe I just need to chalk this up to the occasional fail that will happen, and be happy I can return it.

Has anyone found a good way of assessing garment color in stores? Would love to hear your thoughts.

3 days ago

Shopping

19 replies

Latest reply was from Chris987

Sisi

Veteran

I understand you. I always ask the SA to go near the door or even out.
I have always been allowed to do so (but I am in Italy, maybe things are a little different here). You can check the fit in the mirror inside and then the color near the door. I also do this with lipsticks!

3 days ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Yes, Chris! This happens. It's very hard to get natural light in stores. There is going to be an inaccurate colour assessment from time to time. Some stores are worse than others though. Usually, I've found, it's seldom bad enough to have to return the item because of the colour.

I'll take it a step further. Bad light at home when you assess your outfit, colour combinations, or the colour of something new!

Countless clients, friends, and family members have their full length mirrors is dark, dingy, or very reflective places. It's not ideal

3 days ago

Roberta

Veteran

Years ago, a work friend stood in her office and said, "I swear these pants were green in my closet!"

I wonder if shining the flashlight from your phone on the garment would make a difference? And, to go off on a tangent, the color question is also difficult when you're buying something online. I just received a sweater from Poshmark that I thought would be a lovely acidic green, but when I opened it it was more of a mint, which I'm not crazy about.

3 days ago

Dee

Veteran

Not helpful for your particular situation Chris987 but when I went to a Muji store in London, they had 3 light settings you could use in the fitting room, there was office, evening and outdoor. I thought wouldn’t it be great if other stores offered this as well.

3 days ago

Chris987

Veteran

Thanks Sisi. In Marshall's, TJMAxx, and similar discount stores (here in he US) there are basically no SAs available to help any more. All the staff is either doing checkout/payment, or running the fitting room .... no one to ask to get closer to the door!

Good point Angie about placement of mirrors at home. The one I use is quite close to a couple of bright windows so I get pretty close to "natural light".

Roberta, hmm had not thought of using the light on my phone. Maybe I'll try it. With online orders I EXPECT this sort of thing and am used to it but in store I have higher expectations! Maybe sill of me.

On the subject of colors... there can also be a human error factor. A few weeks ago I ordered a sweater from Dillards in a color called "espresso". (Find below). Should be some sort of dark brown, right? It was burgundy, and I'm NOT color blind!! I think that must have been some sort of human error. I did not want another burgundy sweater so back it went. It even happens with cars ... my car is a light cool blue, but Subaru has named that color "warm khaki grey". I get a lot of complements on the color and have a good laugh explaining the name of the color to people. Another human error I think.

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3 days ago

Chris987

Veteran

Dee that's a great idea but I can't see it happening in any of the retail stores I usually visit ... budgets too limited etc.

3 days ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Dee, that sounds really posh! And kind of fun to play with!

Chris, I am sorry this happened. I typically do what Sisi has done and ask permission to go outside to assess the colour if I am unsure.

But it's not foolproof even then because you usually don't have a mirror close enough to the window, so especially if it is a new colour for you, you can't always tell if it is going to look okay. Or work with other things in the closet. I think this is harder with some neutrals like greys, camels/beiges, etc. where they can skew warm or cool and only one of those options will suit the wearer.

3 days ago

cat2

Veteran

You are fortunate you have clear light at home. We have a murky tract house with a shady back yard.

3 days ago

RobinF

Veteran

That's frustrating! Online too, I have issues with that sometimes.

When it comes to color descriptions, I think sometimes people actually see colors differently. Back some time ago, Facebook had this quiz thing where you had to say what the color was and people had different answers. DH and I actually differ sometimes on what color things are. Weird.

3 days ago

kkards

Veteran

Color, it’s so hard.

wondering if you have an iPhone, if the natural light setting would have worked.(Assuming android phones have something similar, but no familiarity with them).

I have a similar color story as the burgundy sweater. The Nikes in the find are called obsidian. They looked navy in store, they looked navy on line, but obsidian is black. (See Pantone swatch), but nope these are navy. I guess Nike just uses their own color palette

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3 days ago

Runcarla

Veteran

I’ll wear or bring a garment with me if I’m trying to match or co-ordinate with another item. To get a true fix on the colour, I’ll do like the folks who mention moving to a window or actually going outside of the store (after checking with an SA). I’ve returned items too, when a colour hasn’t been as expected. I’ve also been tickled to find out something brought home is a perfect match with something else in my closet!

Like RobinF and her DH, my DH and I see colours differently and like kkards I picked up a pair of loafers that I thought were black in the store - that turned out to be navy blue! I find some navy’s so dark (like my wool jacket) they are almost black!

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3 days ago

karen23

Active Member

Wow. I can't imagine someone in a store allowing a customer to go outside with something! It is just not like that here.

I do find that on my phone, colors appear different than on my monitor here. With regard to at least one fabric store, the colors are more accurate on my phone.

I don't know how this relates to online clothes shopping, because the in-person selection here is not good, and a lot of brands I hear about I don't see in the stores, let alone in 14 and 16. I want to find more good places to shop in the Chicago area & make another trip down there. I'd like to be able to try some clothes on, find out if/how some of these brands fit. (I know, wild daydream.) Otherwise, there's a chance my entire wardrobe will be DIY, Kohl's, Farm & Fleet & occasional stuff from the Columbia outlet store. (Yeah, it could be worse. Imagine the alternative being Walmart!)

3 days ago

JAileen

Veteran

It wasn’t clothes, but I was allowed to take an expensive pair of binoculars outside before buying them. I needed to look at things far away to determine if they worked for me. We were outside for twenty or thirty minutes. This was at a small local hunting store.

Re color: I wonder if you had one of those books with colors, and could compare the garment to known colors that you liked.

3 days ago

pirouette

Veteran

I have been allowed take the shops hand held mirror outside to check the colour of a foundation the assistant had put on me. I find clothes slightly different as with security tags the assistants can’t let you take potential purchases outside.

3 days ago

Lisa

Veteran

I struggle with colors and online shopping the most. Too often the colors online are just not the same in person, especially the level of saturation.

Sometimes in stores I can't tell if something looks ok or not in the dressing room mirror, so I take a photo of myself wearing the item in question. When I see the photo it helps me see if the color brightens my face or not and if the fit is ok or not. I don't know why my phone gives me a different viewpoint and it's not fool proof but sometimes that photo has been really helpful for fit and color decisions when I'm in the dressing room.

2 days ago

karen23

Active Member

Maybe the phone has settings that correct for the different lighting?

2 days ago

Chris987

Veteran

Suz, good point about the tan/camel colors perhaps being especially prone to skewing warm/cool very much dependent on lighting. I've seen that too.

cat2, that must make it even more difficult!

RobinF it's definitely true that people see color differently, I believe it's a scientific reality.

kkards ... interesting story about navy vs. black. I've always stayed away from dark navy because my eyes and brain "want it to be black". I've stopped fighting it

runcarla yes bringing a garment with you to match is a great idea. I wasn't trying to match this coat with anything specific so that would not have worked.

karen23, in this particular store there wasn't anyone i could even ask for permission to take the coat outside!! I don't think I have the mental energy to play around with color settings on my phone to see a way around this.

JAileen I suppose I could carry my color palette I had done last year with me, but it would not have helped in this case ... the difference was too subtle.

Exactly Pirouette!

Lisa that's a great point ... I often take photos with my phone in dressing rooms but it's more that the silhouette looks different than IRL ... I've never found it all that helpful when it comes to color.

2 days ago

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

Not usually but probably because the thrift stores where I shop are small enough to always have a window handy. Dressing room lighting is typically atrocious.

1 day ago

Chris987

Veteran

Lucky you Jaime!

I think my takeaways from this discussion are 1) confirming that yes this happens sometimes and 2) tan/beige colors may be particularly prone to this issue and since my own needs there are so very specific (must be warm, not cool) I need to just be very aware and careful.

4 hours ago

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