Back in the eighties, I was a huge devotee of Carole Jackson’s book, “Colour Me Beautiful”, and getting your colours done.
Of course, being a poor tertiary student at the time I couldn’t actually afford to get my colours done, but “Colour Me Beautiful” quickly became my bible.
What Season Are You?
It was pretty sure I was a “summer” – with my fair skin, dark blonde hair, and blue eyes, the cool summer colour palette was my new best friend. These were the colours that I thought made me glow without any makeup required – pastels, winter white, soft navy, greens and blues.
Since then I have mostly stayed within my summer colour palette when shopping for clothes. I even made sure my wedding rings were in white rather than yellow gold!
Despite the fact that it’s not one of my colours (and is best worn by “winters”), black has been my one exception. It’s so darn handy when it comes to mixing and matching, I just couldn’t imagine a wardrobe populated without black basics, particularly in winter! Navy (the recommended alternative) just isn’t the same. Besides, as I’ve grown older (and rounder!) I’ve discovered that black is very figure flattering too.
Sometimes You Have to Break the Colour Rules!
So mostly I stuck to my colour rules … then something happened which upset my theories of what did, and didn’t, look good on me!
It was when I was gifted this sheer jacket from Vivid International*, that my ideas of colour were turned upside down. Nobody was more surprised than me, when it actually suited me – a fact that was quickly confirmed by all the “likes” and compliments, when I shared pics on social media!
How can this be?
According to everything I’ve learned about my summer colour palette, yellow and orange are a no-no for me. This didn’t bother me at all, as I wasn’t particularly keen on them anyway – it seems we are instinctively drawn to our “colours”. The only time it can be a bit limiting is in Autumn, when these warm colour families tend to be in style and all that’s available in the stores.
Yet here I am wearing black and orange – and looking radiant (if I do say so myself!).
It’s a puzzle to be sure.
How about you – were you an enthusiast of getting your colours done? Have you ever been surprised to find that you looked great in a colour you previously avoided?!
UPDATE: In early 2019 I had my colours done properly and SHUT THE FRONT DOOR, turns out I am an AUTUMN colour palette!
It took me a while to get my head around my official “diagnosis” but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. You can read about the colour workshop I attended here, and how I have gradually been changing my look over the last few months in this post: Next Steps in My Colour Journey.