Why I became a Seasonal Colour Stylist
WHAT got me interested in the idea of colour analysis was having it myself. I became very sick 6 years ago with CFS/ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), and when you have to give up work and are effectively house-bound you obviously feel very unwell, but you tend to dress unwell too. Shapeless clothes, dark colours that reflect how you feel about yourself. Getting well again included the process of finding out who I was now that I could not work or contribute to society in any meaningful way. It also involved using mind/body techniques to become strong, resilient and happy. One of these was learning which colours suited me best, because as I got better I instinctively felt I wanted to wear lighter, brighter colours and uplifting colours to reflect a new positive outlook, but I didn’t know where to start with that.
Someone I followed on Instagram who had the same health condition used colour as a psychological tool, and was also a colour consultant, and so that’s where I found out about colour analysis. What I found was that understanding the colours that suit you best and make you feel your best can have a meaningful impact on how you feel about yourself. They take the emphasis off being critical about your appearance, or perhaps comparing yourself to others, because what suits me with my warm Spring skin tone will not suit someone else with a cool skin tone, and there’s a bit of a magic that happens when you see your face light up in the right colours for you, and you go ‘ah, okay, I see’. I was just wearing the wrong things. I don’t actually have those huge dark circles under my eyes all the time, just when I don’t wear my colour palette. It’s the same for the paint colours you use in your home. If you have a cool skin tone - which would be the Summer or Winter seasons in colour analysis - you should be picking cool paint tones for your environment, so that the colour reflected back onto your skin complements you and makes you feel really good in your space.
Knowing your best colours also solves a number of shopping issues we all tend to have. The shops will be mostly full of bright whites, dark navy, black and grey for example - especially at this time of year. These are seen as universal colours. However there is a small proportion of the population that these colours suit (the cool seasons and in particular the Winter season who looks fabulous in dark, dramatic, high contrast colours). If you have a warm skin tone, like myself and a huge number of women in this country, none of these colours will be flattering to you. There are great neutrals for you, for example warm tan, ivory, camel or bright navy, but you will have to go looking for them. So a lot of us won’t feel happy in something we have bought on the high street, but we won’t be able to pinpoint why. Similarly we can see someone else in a fabulous outfit, which we think we may look great in also - for example the likes of Kim Kardashian looks fabulous in black, white or dark jewel colours, as she is a Winter season - but that outfit won’t work for someone with a warm skin tone and they may buy the outfit, but never feel great in it, and never want to wear it. Or may just feel there’s something wrong with them because they don’t look great in it. So for me, it’s a way of only buying what really suits you, saving you money and disappointment, and takes away that ‘why don’t I feel good in this?’ feeling.
It also saves you so much time in the shops, because you can quickly zone in on your colours and ignore the rest. It takes me about 5 minutes to scout round a store now, curating picks I know will work rather than going for pieces that might look great in a magazine, but aren’t right for me. If you’re going to make a large investment in clothing too - for example - a coat or jacket or special dress - something you know you will want to keep in your wardrobe for ever, as more of us do now that we are very conscious of rejecting fast-fashion, you want to make sure it’s the most flattering choice for you.
Finding your season of colours can be a bit of a revelation or a shock. When you spend your twenties and thirties in black, white, grey and red, and then discover like I did that you are a Spring, and that you suit the most joyous, bright, happy, clear colours, it can throw you off for a little while. It challenges what you thought about yourself, and how you see yourself. Eventually when you come to terms with it, this becomes a comfort, and reinforces a positive self-image. The more you delve into your colour palette the more you fall in love with it, and feel kinship with that season’s identify. The seasons by the way, are a simple way of grouping types of colour together. For example Spring is, as I’ve said, light, bright and joyous. Summer is beautifully muted, pastel, pretty and feminine, a little bit of grey or white mixed into true colours. Warm Autumn is full of the glorious colours that we’re seeing on the trees right now, along with queenly teal blues and all those beautifully fashionable rusts. And then Winter is either devastatingly icy, or deeply regal and cool with its jewel palette of jade, ruby, deep pink and sapphire. I recently analysed someone who thought she was a cool season, and also favoured neutrals. I thought after her analysis as a warm season she might just stick with her warm neutrals and play it safe, but she has really gone for it, bought a beautiful bright yellow sweater, and her eyes light up when she talks about the greens and pinks she wants to buy. She now owns that identity and it’s really encouraging to see, and it’s lovely to be a part of bringing that to people.
Obviously my heart lies with helping those who have had their own experiences of chronic illness, helping them feel better about themselves whether they can achieve full, good health or feel happier with where they are at right now. But so any of us struggle with our identify after significant changes in our lives, whether that’s having children, or getting divorced or losing a job or starting a new career and having to come up with a brand identify that suits them and that they feel expresses who they are. At all these points in their lives, they have to re-imagine how they see themselves and how they feel about themselves. And if I can help anyone on that journey, then that’s a real privilege.
Colourfully, Jenny