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Your seasonal colour

Eirlys

I am not sure how to find if this subject has been discussed although I feel sure it has! I refer to one's seasonal colour. I am a Spring, light and bright. I have started wearing brighter colours in "my" shade and am rather surprised to find people commenting favourably, so there must be something in the theory.

I checked out the Kettlewell website (UK) this evening and have ordered a tunic and an Infinity scarf. The former is in a print right out of my comfort zone. Whether I like it when it arrives or have the courage to wear it, remains to be seen.

Do you subscribe to the "colour me beautiful" theory?

General

64 replies

Latest reply was from Helena

Synne

Veteran

I have always been drawn to the colours that turned out to belong to my season. I have intuitively felt that they where the most flattering on me, without having the style vocabulary to express it. I have always shunned black, dark navy, bright white, "dirty" muddy earth tones. So everything made perfect sense when I discovered I am a Soft Summer. Or was. Until I colored my hair a different shade. I now believe I am more of a Soft Autumn. And all that has flewn out the window.

Seasonal colour theory is interesting, but I keep it more of an afterthought than very strict rules. Maybe I should incorporate this more in my dressing... hm..

Helena

Veteran

Eirlys, I love all that colour stuff! In the four seasons, I am a winter (cool tone, dark hair, fair skin). When they started making more complicated seasons (like cool winter, soft summer, etc.), I am classified differently every time I look or ask - cool summer, cool winter, soft summer, dark winter ... who knows?

So I stick to the simpler system, and even simpler, just stick with colours that are cool-toned and moderate (not crazy-bright, not too muddy or washed out) - this seems to suit my colouring and my style preferences. Black, navy, blue, pink, deep green, reds from merlot to deep burgundy - these are my favourites.

I think light and bright sounds wonderful for you, and it's great that you are getting some nice compliments. But, how do the colours FEEL to you? That's the most important thing. Looking forward to seeing your Kettlewell purchases!

Cardiff girl

Veteran

I have been colour coded in the past and am a light spring,l enjoyed the experience .Its good to have another’s opinion on what colours suit but I am not a slave to it and will wear colours outside my colour chart if I want. Overall I do look better in lighter ,brighter colours than I do in very dark ones .l am glad that you’re enjoying your new found love of colour.

Joy

Veteran

No. Even the color specialists can’t decide a season for me. It can be a frustrating experience. I have been told that I am every season. Your coloring also changes in time and the season is probably not the same. Go with your gut feeling as to what you feel looks best.

The Cat

Veteran

I am a Cool Winter. By the way, I have heard that CMB (and the like) have stopped talking about Springs, Summers, Autumns and Winters. Don't know if that is true. However, those descriptions (in particular those including the terms light/deep, bright/muted, and warm/cool) can still be helpful to many.

Isabel

Veteran

I don't follow it strictly. But I found it very helpful years ago when Angie said something on here about everyone being able to wear most colors depending on saturation , tone, etc. I didn't really understand that. So i looked into color theory a bit and CMB. I went so far as to order the color swatches collection. It ended up being so useful and really crystallizing the colors that I love and that look good on me close to my face. Most of my color comes from scarves since I started a wardrobe color palette a few years ago.

Good luck with your new pieces , I hope you love them.

Marilyn

Veteran

I do! And I think it's a valid theory. I had my colours done way back in the 80's and was told I'm a Summer. I do think the colours in my swatch packet are my best colours. They were then and 30+ years later they still are. I don't wear all of them and I do occasionally veer outside of my palette but I think it's a good way to approach choosing flattering colours to build your wardrobe. Colour analysis has expanded way beyond the four seasons and it's quite a bit more complicated now. I THINK I'm a Soft Summer in the new sub groups they do. I look best in cool mid tones that are muted. Pale colours (except winter white) wash me out and brights are very harsh against my skin.

slim cat

Veteran

I think I'm Cool Summer and light cool tones work well for me. I can try colors outside my best ones but always go back to what works for me (they are the ones that make me happy ).

Gigi

Veteran

I subscribe a bit to the CMB way of thinking, though it isn't 100% perfect for me. I've never had my colors typed, but I'm pretty sure I'm a Dark Autumn. When I feel like adding a new color to my wardrobe, I will sometimes check out the Dark Autumn colors for inspiration.

Having said that, I do think there is more going on than what is taken into account with CMB. As others have noted, things like how saturated a color is can be important. And I am almost exactly neutral in my coloring (which is a mix of warm and cool), so I believe I actually fall in between a Dark Autumn and a Dark Winter. I also have an olive undertone for my skin, despite my being pale, which I think complicates the analysis.

I think the biggest issue I run into with trying on colors is that they can be in so many different undertones. Red in particular is a tricky one for me. Red can run cool, with a blue undertone, or warm, with a yellow undertone. I am always trying on red things, because red is one of my colors, but to date I have only a couple of red items that are the proper shade.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Sooo glad you are experimenting with fun and vibrant colours, Eirlys, and hope to see how these items work out for you!

I think the colour systems can be useful to many as long as people don't get too hung up or picky about it. As Angie points out, colours change in relationship to one another so you have to take that into account as well.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure I'm some kind of Summer (according to that system) and wearing the Cool Summer palette comes naturally to me. I've always preferred those colours. As Marilyn said, I don't wear all the colours (no yellows of any kind except as accessories or as part of a pattern, for instance). But my key neutrals and colours are drawn from that swatch.

StyleDetective

Yes, I do. I'm a True Winter. I suppose I was lucky in that the winter palette is easily my favourite - I love the intensity and the drama. Before I was draped I was terrified I was going to be a soft summer/autumn and ordered to forgo all my crazy colours.

If I could have chosen for myself, I probably would have chosen Bright Winter and happily spent my days in shocking fuschia and acid yellow. Before I was draped I actually thought I was a summer of some kind because I thought winter lipstick shades looked a bit off on me - turns out I was just gravitating towards all the gorgeous BW shades and passing over the TW ones.

For me it's been very helpful, particularly for hair and makeup. Hairdressers were always wanting to 'warm me up' with red and caramel and my draping explained why that always looked so horrible on me. I've gone back to my natural black-brown and it's so much more flattering. Same for makeup - people always wanted me to look more blended, more neutral or more bronzed. I think I look way better embracing my natural paleness and contrast.

Most of my clothing now is decidedly winter - I'm devoted, but I'm not a slave to it. I like tan and cognac accessories and I enjoy mixing these warmer shades with my cool bright clothes

Kaelyn

Veteran

I don't really subscribe to it actively, but I'm definitely a winter, though I'm not sure exactly which kind. My natural hair color is very dark brown that is often mistaken for black, I have very fair skin, and I have moss green eyes (some people call them green, some people call them hazel, and they look gold in certain lighting). I liked the theory as a starting point for figuring out WHY I feel good in the colors I like, but it doesn't rule my decisions. I gravitated naturally toward a winter palette before I learned about any of this.

Style Fan

Veteran

I love playing with colours. I have always been attracted to warm earthy colours. In the 80s I read 'Colour Me Beautiful' and decided I was an Autumn. I did all my friends and family as well.
I have been analyzed professionally three times. The first time the analyst said I was a spring because I had blonde hair. Not true! The third time the analyst said I was a warm autumn and the colour swatches were perfect for me.
I wear autumn colours and feel the best in them. I don't stick to the swatches but just look for warm earthy colours.

nemosmom

Veteran

I guess you could say I loosely subscribe to it. Like, Torontogirl, I get confused when the categories expand beyond basic four seasons. Soft Autumn? Dark Autumn? Warm Spring?!?! I just go with what I feel I look best in.

I have bright copper hair with warm gold and dark auburn through it, light green eyes, and pale skin that is olivey. I look best in warm colors, although I can pull off some jewel tones, depending on what I put them with (see Suz's comment above). I do need SOME color near my face - I tend to look sickly if I have too much black, grey, or coolness near my face, so I try to remember to wear them with a colorful scarf or keep them to my lower half.

nuancedream

Veteran

I love experimenting with color. When Color Me Beautiful first appeared in the 1980s, I was incorrectly classified as a "Winter." Despite my pleading with the color consultant that jewel tones, most shades of pink, and black looked ghastly on me, she insisted african american women have cool skintones. My natural hair color is brown (red at birth) with warm gold. I have brown eyes and a golden undertone to my skin. After that, I learned to trust my own eye and gut feeling because I look and feel my best in warm, earthy tones and those colors predominate in my wardrobe.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Like Style Fan I read the original Colour Me Beautiful book, in 1984. I decided I was a Spring. It was pretty easy, I looked better in warm colours and those ones were both what I liked best and what I got complimented on the most.
This has essentially remained true. I have expanded out a bit especially as the hair has greyed because that cools me down a bit. So I can wear both silver and gold happily.
I bought an updated book from the CMB people in the past decade. Now they have categories like Clear and Warm which seems to suit me best, it is closest to the old Spring.
I found a copy of the old book at a B and B we stayed at about 7 years ago. The examples are very dated-looking now, the clothes and makeup so 80s!

rachylou

Veteran

I have the vague impression I’m a cool winter. But the thing is, I take these pills that they say turn you ‘blue.’ I feel this may be sorta true in that I feel my skin tone has become greyish... so I feel a little off sometimes in cool winter colours.

Kari

Veteran

I don’t - I never found it especially helpful. I know what shades and undertones look good on me and I’m very lucky that they are my favorite colors - forest and emerald green, cobalt blue and teal, burgundy, magenta. Cool, blue-red undertoned, saturated, not “sour”. For example, the difference between a blue-grey “slate” color like my grey leather jacket I posted recently after my repair, vs. taupe or a more pink/peach undertoned grey. I found the color wheel a more helpful concept (and one that made more practical sense to me - I’m not an artist but many folks in my family are/were.)

Helena

Veteran

Nuancedream, I think you nailed it as to where the original system in particular went completely wrong. Somehow "humans" divide into four groups but everyone of African and Asian descent, as well as basically every Caucasian brunette, only went into one?!? Made no sense. I think newer iterations do a better job (but of course when you have a good sense of your colours, you don't need it anyway!)

MsMaven

Veteran

Like Joy, I've been classified in several seasons, everything except winter. As the color systems advanced, I finally settled on soft autumn, but I don't pay much attention to it.

As I've gotten older and let my hair go natural I wear only colors I like and feel good in. That includes black. I always get compliments in black, no matter what the theories are. I don't like brown anymore, hate rust, no longer wear yellow, but I've taken on lots of blues and greens I used to avoid.

The scheme does work well for some people who definitely fall into a category. DH for example, is clearly a summer. He likes the system because it makes it easier for him to shop for clothes.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

When I was younger I was sure I was winter. I still tend to go for winter colors now that I am grey and paler, but I am less sure which season I am. I just play it by ear/eye!

Barbara Diane

Veteran

It was such a gift when I had my colors analyzed. Previously I had no idea that certain colors looked better on people than others, that colors had undertones, saturation levels, etc. And that print size, spacing, background color, etc. made a difference. Being hard to fit and with no knowledge of any of this, my wardrobe was all over the place and did not work well together. Realize I also had none of the knowledge I learned here either.

I had a friend who replied, when I told her about it “my mom told me to put my hand on the fabric of the garment to see how the color looked. Wow, that would have helped.

Bijou

Veteran

My colour analysis has never formally been done, but I was told by a friend (who also was a Colour Me Beautiful consultant) that I was basically the definition of Summer colouring. I think this is true as when I Google Summer - I get pictures of actresses like Naomi Watts who has similar colouring to me.

I can wear cool, light and delicate colours that often wash others out. My colouring is so light, it really acts as a blank canvas for colour. Muddy earth tones are terrible on me and totally overwhelm my colouring making me fade into oblivion. If I don't want attention, I know to keep the colour to a minimum, sometimes to appear professional, this is a good strategy, otherwise colour is my friend.

Kari

Veteran

Here’s one example of where Color Me Beautiful doesn’t make sense to me. The colors they are using for illustration on Reese are not only lighted very differently but in one example she has a VERY strong tan, so of course colors are going to look different- and I disagree about which color looks better. I’m also very suspicious of gimmicks that seem to exist to sell me something.

https://www.colormebeautiful.c.....ignup.html

nuancedream

Veteran

Kari, I agree with you about Reese Witherspoon's picture. The lighting and her tan in one example have a huge influence on which color looks better. That's why I trust my own eye as to which colors or combination of colors may be more flattering on me.

Kari

Veteran

Or according to this methodology: I’m cool and not dark (very very blue undertoned skin, natural hair color is a light brown, eyes green/gray shade of blue) so I should be a summer, but I look awful in pastels that are part of that palette.

https://www.colormepretty.co/c.....-analysis/

ETA: Nuancedream, very much agree.

Helena

Veteran

The thing that always confuses me is that, on that chart from Kari's link, my hair and eyes colour is on both the summer and winter charts ... So this is why is just stick with cool, because it seems undetermined after that anyway! Never mind the warm tones that come out of my hair in the sun haha ... So yes, at the end of the day we definitely need to use our own eyes to make the final determination!

Jenni NZ

Veteran

I like Kari’s second link, I found that very easy to follow. May not apply to everyone.

Runcarla

Veteran

No matter what I consider, my hair and eye colour is always classified as autumn! Yet, I’ve never been a big fan of that palette.

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