Color Theory

The book was a huge success but by the 90’s the popularity faded. There are some who think the whole thing was just a fad, that people can where whatever color they want to and look great; that people shouldn’t be ‘confined’ to a limited number of colors in their ‘palette’.

Pretty Your World couldn’t disagree more!

Sure, you CAN wear whatever color you want to. But if you want to look YOUR BEST, you’ll want to wear colors that harmonize with your natural coloring. It’s really that simple.

Color Analysis is NOT A FAD! In fact, it’s scientific, based on the 1898 color theory by artist and professor Albert Munsell. Click here for more information about his theory. Its effects are profound. And it can simplify your life by eliminating bad shopping choices in clothes, makeup, hair color and even jewelry and accessories. Think of the time and money that can be saved!

However, there was only one drawback to the 80’s color craze and that was the 4 Season Color Theory (Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn) was not complete. It only focused on two aspects: whether a person was Warm or Cool, and whether they were light or dark. A Dark Cool person would be a Winter. A Light Cool person would be a Summer. While this analysis worked perfectly for a quarter of the population, there were many more that it didn’t work as well for. For example, it was found that some people can wear both warm and cool colors and look great. (Discovering in high school that as a Warm Autumn I ‘owned’ brown as a color, it really perplexed me when my friend, who was clearly a winter, could also wear dark brown and look great. It wasn’t fair. But I found out later it was because she was a Deep Winter, who could wear the deeper colors of the Autumn palette).

Eventually the 4 Season theory was later refined and developed into the more complete and more accurate 12 Season Color Theory. I’m a big believer in this system. I’ve seen other color systems that are based on the 12 seasons but they put a different name on it. And some systems I’ve seen make no sense to me at all. I hunted around to find a company which produced color swatches based on the 12 palette system (the search took me to Australia, actually). I think they are the best swatches you can buy.

Here is a the 12 Season Color Theory in a nutshell:

Each person will have 1 of 6 dominate “characteristics” in their coloring which is the primary determining factor in analyzing them: they are

Deep...Dark and rich. Think Cher or Kim Kardashian

Light...Light and delicate. Think Gwenyth Paltrow or Heather Locklear

Soft...Soft & muted. Think Sarah Jessica Parker or Jennifer Aniston

Clear...Clear & bright. Think Courteney Cox or a young Liz Taylor

Warm...No cool undertones. Think Reba McIntyre or Sarah Ferguson

Cool...No warm undertones. Think Christy Brinkley or Liz Hurley

To illustrate:

If you have deep coloring, then the second determining factor is whether you look better in warm colors or cool colors. If cool colors flatter you best, then you are determined to be a “Deep Winter.” However, the most important factor is that you are “Deep” so wearing what was considered a traditional “winter” color that is light in color won’t work for you. In fact, you can wear some of the deep colors of Autumn as well. Deep Chocolates or Deep Forest Green will look great on you, for example.

You are either a

Deep Winter or Autumn

Light Spring or Summer

Clear Winter or Spring

Soft Summer or Autumn

Warm Autumn or Spring

Cool Winter or Summer So essentially, each of the original 4 seasons were split into 3 more defined and more accurate seasons.

Flow Color System

The 12 seasons system that I follow can also be called the “Flow Seasonal Theory”. In this, the traditional 4 seasons- Winter, Summer, Autumn, Spring-will flow into one another. At the points where they overlap, this creates a new season. For example, the Deep Autumn is really a blend of Autumn and Winter. This person has the warmth of the typical Autumn season, but the intensity of a Winter.

Let’s look at the Winter season, for example. From the chart you can see that a Winter that flows into a summer is a Cool Winter; into an Autumn is Deep Winter; into a Spring is Clear Winter.

Where the seasons overlap, you will find some shared colors. The Clear Spring and Clear Winter will share some colors like Emerald Green and black (the only Spring that contains black in its palette!) The Cool Winter and Cool Summer will share colors like Violet and Deep Rose.

I like this chart because it shows why someone, as an example, who is a Soft Summer might look good in an Olive color (traditionally an Autumn color), because they are a blend of Summer and Autumn. Some of those ‘traditional’ autumn colors might pop up the Soft Summer. The same goes for all the seasons. Notice that where seasons blend, you will find the colors to be more neutral than strictly warm or cool. Unless your dominant characteristic is Cool or Warm, the remaining seasons are a blend of both warm and cool. So that’s why it’s important to not begin your analysis looking for only warm or cool (unless it’s the most obvious trait). You need to look for the 6 dominant characteristics first: Light, Dark, Warm, Cool, Soft, Clear. Then when you figure out the secondary characteristic, you will find your season.

Click here to see more details about each season as well as some celebrities examples of the color theory, starting with the Winter Palettes...

Want to know for sure what your Season is? Get analyzed by a professional analyst now...