Style Fashion Guides
Are You Colour Compatible?
Are you wearing the right colours? Fifteen years ago, you would have replied by brandishing your personal colour chart! If you hadn't been to visit a colour consultant, the chances are your best friend had. But if you'd been diagnosed a 'summer', could you risk wearing a little orange? What if you had a romantic urge for more pink but it had been banished from your chart? Fortunately, the colour gurus are more flexible nowadays, allowing that oh-so-delicate mix of our roaring personalities and colours to suit.
Beginner's basics
The original idea was a simple one - that we all fall into one of four colour spectrums: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In essence, this meant that you could only wear colours that belonged to one palette. These would enhance your natural colouring and give that much needed lift to your face. Colours in the other groups threatened to do the reverse. However, it was not an exact science. If you visited two different colour specialists, you could end up with conflicting advice. And in the bigger picture, did it really matter if you were an all-year-round kinda gal?
Widening the spectrum
Nowadays, image consultants like Color Me Beautiful are more laid-back about the whole process. The rigid four season palettes have fallen away to allow a more flexible colour coding system. Those original four seasons are now incorporated into dominant colouring types - Light/Deep, Warm/Cool and Soft/Clear - therefore gaining 12 separate categories.
The director of Color Me Beautiful, Veronique Henderson, says: "Things are not as dictatorial as they used to be. You can wear any colour you want, but should perhaps add earrings or a necklace in the right category of colour to soften the effect." Henderson's company has extended its brief beyond that of colour alone to include other factors. For example, the shape of clothes is as important as their colour. Personality is also a dominant factor: "It's no good putting a wildly romantic person into a sharp tailored suit" adds Veronique.
Consultations with Color Me Beautiful cost from £70, last around an hour and a half and include make-up advice.
Personal stamp
Image consultants now stress personal branding and core values. We are all a 'product' and our clothes, apparently, the 'packaging'. But in our eagerness to think more laterally about our image, have we abandoned the importance of wearing colours that really benefit us?
The original idea was a simple one - that we all fall into one of four colour spectrums: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In essence, this meant that you could only wear colours that belonged to one palette. These would enhance your natural colouring and give that much needed lift to your face. Colours in the other groups threatened to do the reverse. However, it was not an exact science. If you visited two different colour specialists, you could end up with conflicting advice. And in the bigger picture, did it really matter if you were an all-year-round kinda gal?
Widening the spectrum
Nowadays, image consultants like Color Me Beautiful are more laid-back about the whole process. The rigid four season palettes have fallen away to allow a more flexible colour coding system. Those original four seasons are now incorporated into dominant colouring types - Light/Deep, Warm/Cool and Soft/Clear - therefore gaining 12 separate categories.
The director of Color Me Beautiful, Veronique Henderson, says: "Things are not as dictatorial as they used to be. You can wear any colour you want, but should perhaps add earrings or a necklace in the right category of colour to soften the effect." Henderson's company has extended its brief beyond that of colour alone to include other factors. For example, the shape of clothes is as important as their colour. Personality is also a dominant factor: "It's no good putting a wildly romantic person into a sharp tailored suit" adds Veronique.
Consultations with Color Me Beautiful cost from £70, last around an hour and a half and include make-up advice.
Personal stamp
Image consultants now stress personal branding and core values. We are all a 'product' and our clothes, apparently, the 'packaging'. But in our eagerness to think more laterally about our image, have we abandoned the importance of wearing colours that really benefit us?
