Color Triple Play
By Bridgette Raes
So many women I have spoken to complain that they don’t know how to wear color. As a result, our safe standby is to wear color with black pants. While this combination certainly has merit, if we can become well versed in combining color, we can use our wardrobe more effectively.
I like to call it the Color Triple Play, which is combining three colors into your wardrobe, to make your outfit a bit more unique and interesting.
The first color in this Triple Play is your neutral or base shade, the second color is your pop color and the third is your accent color. Learning how to combine colors effectively is always a challenge at first, but if you work this out you too can score with this effective Triple Play solution.
Step One: Choose Your Base
When I get dressed, I always start with my pants. I know that there are some people who start with other pieces first, but this is what I have found that works best.
Base colors are your neutral shades for your pants. I have given some examples of neutral base shades in the past and I’ll do it again now. But before I do, let me say that your base neutral shades should be what you’re comfortable wearing on your butt. Just as we look for good face colors, good butt colors are just as important. Darker neutral shades always look best on the bottom, because too much color on the bottom can be distracting. They will cause people to look away from your face. In most cases you always want the attention to always go to your face, so that is why we surround the face with more uplifting complimenting colors. In addition, we tend to carry our weight on the bottom so by wearing a less obvious color on the bottom, we will ensure that we will look slimmer.
Some base neutral suggestions – black, olive, brown, tan, camel, khaki, deep reds, burgundy/plum shades, navy and deep blues, grays and charcoals.
Of course, for spring you can explore some other base colors which are a bit more colorful and playful.
Step Two: Choose Your Pop
Pop colors are good face colors – ones that you would want near your face and that should compliment your coloring. Most of us know what looks good near our face, but if you are ever in question, think about the colors that get the most compliments. This is a much broader palette to choose from, therefore it will be hard for me to make suggestions.
Instead, for your pop colors I am listing some colors that are going to be popular for the 2005 spring season: turquoise, cobalt blue, smoky blues, purples and mauves, eggplant, grape, mint green, pink, rose, peach, orange, coral, lime, fuchsia, pale gold and copper.
Always choose your pop color after selecting your base color. This is where we get bogged down. We don’t know what to do with a color besides partner it with black pants. So to help pull you out of the basic black standby, here are some strategies you can try to become better with color combining.
Color and you
So many women I have spoken to complain that they don’t know how to wear color. As a result, our safe standby is to wear color with black pants. While this combination certainly has merit, if we can become well versed in combining color, we can use our wardrobe more effectively.
I like to call it the Color Triple Play, which is combining three colors into your wardrobe, to make your outfit a bit more unique and interesting.
The first color in this Triple Play is your neutral or base shade, the second color is your pop color and the third is your accent color. Learning how to combine colors effectively is always a challenge at first, but if you work this out you too can score with this effective Triple Play solution.
Step One: Choose Your Base
When I get dressed, I always start with my pants. I know that there are some people who start with other pieces first, but this is what I have found that works best.
Base colors are your neutral shades for your pants. I have given some examples of neutral base shades in the past and I’ll do it again now. But before I do, let me say that your base neutral shades should be what you’re comfortable wearing on your butt. Just as we look for good face colors, good butt colors are just as important. Darker neutral shades always look best on the bottom, because too much color on the bottom can be distracting. They will cause people to look away from your face. In most cases you always want the attention to always go to your face, so that is why we surround the face with more uplifting complimenting colors. In addition, we tend to carry our weight on the bottom so by wearing a less obvious color on the bottom, we will ensure that we will look slimmer.
Some base neutral suggestions – black, olive, brown, tan, camel, khaki, deep reds, burgundy/plum shades, navy and deep blues, grays and charcoals.
Of course, for spring you can explore some other base colors which are a bit more colorful and playful.
Step Two: Choose Your Pop
Pop colors are good face colors – ones that you would want near your face and that should compliment your coloring. Most of us know what looks good near our face, but if you are ever in question, think about the colors that get the most compliments. This is a much broader palette to choose from, therefore it will be hard for me to make suggestions.
Instead, for your pop colors I am listing some colors that are going to be popular for the 2005 spring season: turquoise, cobalt blue, smoky blues, purples and mauves, eggplant, grape, mint green, pink, rose, peach, orange, coral, lime, fuchsia, pale gold and copper.
Always choose your pop color after selecting your base color. This is where we get bogged down. We don’t know what to do with a color besides partner it with black pants. So to help pull you out of the basic black standby, here are some strategies you can try to become better with color combining.
- In most cases, any color that you wear with black can be worn with other neutral shades, in particular, different shades of brown. If you have that great red, bright green or lavender top that you always seem to wear with black bottoms, try those colors against a pair of pants from the brown family. One thing you can do the next time you go shopping is take some of your favorite tops with you and try them on with some pants in shades other than black. This way you won’t be spending money without knowing whether it will work or not.
- Go to your local store and grab some paint chips in a variety of colors. These chips are free. I do this for my clients all the time. When you choose your paint chips, choose some colors that you really love or think you look good wearing. Be sure to grab base and accent colors. When you get home, cut up the paint chips and group them by color: make a pile of blues , a pile of reds, etc. After you have divided up your chips by color, start making combinations. You may notice that a great sunshine yellow goes well with a camel shade; that a lime green goes with dark brown, or that lavender looks beautiful with a grey shade. The reason I suggest using paint chips to play with color combinations is because it is an inexpensive risk-free way to start learning how to play with color.
Once you have found color combinations that you love, paste these combinations on a board or in a small binder and take them with you when you go shopping, or leave them in your closet for inspiration.
Step Three: Choose Your Accent
- Remember that color chip exercise? Well, now it is time to take it a step further. After creating some great two color combinations, find a third color that will accent or compliment your combination. When adding this third accent color, cut a tiny strip off of the color chip so that it represents the color only as an accent.
- Before you buy accessories, always think about what the dominant colors are in your wardrobe. For example, I wear a lot of tans, browns and olive base colors and my pop colors are mainly salmon, light purples, greens, and tans. Therefore, when I go shopping for my accessories, I only think of buying accessory colors that will compliment the colors I have in my wardrobe. It is rare that you will find me purchasing accessories in red or blue. I mainly choose bright green accessories, natural shades, oranges and corals.
Look outside of fashion for color
Color and you
I found this wonderful article written by Elizabeth Harper that talks about the psychology of color. I have spoken about this before but I thought she did such a great job exploring this further that I wanted to direct your attention to it. Click here for the link:
http://healing.about.com/cs/colortherapy/a/uc_color0306.htm
(c) 2005 Bridgette Raes Style Group
posted by Unknown @ 5:07 PM
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