The Elements of Style
February 8, 2010 12:52 PM Subscribe
Yet another StyleFilter question: helping a non-white young adult learn to dress herself.
I've browsed the fashion tag a lot on Ask Metafilter, but I still want more resources for teaching myself about personal aesthetics. This comment about buying neutrals is the sort of discussion I want.
The reason that I allude to race is that in my experience, "What's your season?" color guides and such tend to gloss over darker skin tones and hair colors. My hair is black and my skin is light brown, but is that all I really need to know when picking out a blouse? I look tired in blue-gray sweaters and my yellow flats look weirdly close to my skin color. What other insights (specific to my own appearance) like this can I gain while minimizing hours and hours of unproductive trial and error?
I've browsed the fashion tag a lot on Ask Metafilter, but I still want more resources for teaching myself about personal aesthetics. This comment about buying neutrals is the sort of discussion I want.
The reason that I allude to race is that in my experience, "What's your season?" color guides and such tend to gloss over darker skin tones and hair colors. My hair is black and my skin is light brown, but is that all I really need to know when picking out a blouse? I look tired in blue-gray sweaters and my yellow flats look weirdly close to my skin color. What other insights (specific to my own appearance) like this can I gain while minimizing hours and hours of unproductive trial and error?
Response by poster: I don't think your chicfashionista link works. The reviews make it sound like that's what I want, but at the same time, it looks like it would be dated...
Any other suggestions?
posted by tantivy at 1:42 PM on February 8, 2010
Any other suggestions?
posted by tantivy at 1:42 PM on February 8, 2010
Best answer: Sounds like you're having a problem with contrast. In a lot of ways, you're lucky, and in a lot of ways you aren't. Unfortunately, in the US, a lot of clothing is made in a color palette optimized for white people, so you're going to have to learn how to pick and choose among your options. Luckily, however, you have options that aren't so easy for us pale people to pull off with aplomb, because your base neutral is different.
So here's where it seems like you're having some trouble: when you group colors together, every color in that group changes our perception of the colors around it. This goes for inanimate objects like houses, paintings, forests and the couch, as well as things like people.
Let's take me as an example. I have very very pale skin with a slight yellow cast, almost black hair, and very dark brown eyes. I have very little saturation of color. As such, if I wear something with a medium level of color, like a greeny brown, or a light blue, or a dark purple, you can easily see the color in them, compared to my skin tone. But if I wear neutrals, like an ivory dress, or grey pants and a black sweater, or god forbid anything classified as "beige", I melt into the background and look like a zombie. Wearing anything yellow-green picks out the yellow cast to my skin and can make me look jaundiced, unless it's a bright, cheerful, highly saturated, warm yellow, in which case the contrast is high enough that I can get away with it.
As I've learned my preferences and how to dress myself, I've learned that if I don't want to be in the spotlight, wear all brown, and if I want to stand out, wear blue and magenta, and because I LOVE bright colors, screw classiness and subtlety and wear whatever the heck I want and pretend I'm a kindergarten art teacher. And if I want to wear white, it has to be properly white-white, or else it will blend with my skin and wash me out, and I'll be a zombie bride.
Let's pretend I know what you look like, now. You have warm highly saturated skin with a yellow cast and medium level brightness, black hair, and I'm assuming, dark brown eyes. If you have any non-brown hue to your eyes, pick that color out and wear an intensified color in your jewelry to emphasize it. The reason that blue-grey sweaters make you look tired is that, in brightness (light vs dark) and saturation (the amount of color), they are close to your base neutral. If I were to wear the same sweater, it would look a whole lot more blue, until you stood next to me! Your yellow flats look close to your skin color probably because they are. Yellow is the brightest color to begin with, and on top of that, you probably have something less saturated, and less pure yellow, than you realize. Compared to your very colorful skin it's going to clash.
"What's your season" color guides are dated BS that should go in the trash along with people dictating no white after labor day and girdles before breakfast. You need to look for things that will contrast with your skin tone, things that will emphasize the aspects of your body you are proud of, and things that make you personally happy. You can wear pure white, pure black, dark browns, and cool greys with no problem. You can also wear ivory and light taupe colors because they are different enough from your skin tone, but stay away from the particularly yellow ivories because those will pick out the yellow in your skin (we're not so different, you and me.) Either try things that are super colorful, like rich violets, emerald greens, hot oranges, and so-on, or are really starkly color-less. You can pair these up so you're not an explosion of color. You can tone the contrast down by wearing a third item that's a similar brightness to your medium skin, like a belt, shoes, or shirt under your sweater, that's not in the same hue family as your skin (medium blues, greens, purple, reds).
Do you see what I'm talking about? It's about contrast. When you want to stand out, go for high-contrast. When you want to look classy but not stand out, treat your skin like the accent color. When you want to look professional, choose one color that makes you happy and pair it with black, white, or cool grey. Because your skin is darker and more colorful than what a lot of commercial clothes are made for (grumblerumble) you have to look for the ones that are not going to blend with your darker, more colorful skin.
Wow this comment is long. I don't mean to pretend like I know everything about this subject, I've just had color theory pounded into my head year after year after year.
posted by Mizu at 1:58 PM on February 8, 2010 [11 favorites]
So here's where it seems like you're having some trouble: when you group colors together, every color in that group changes our perception of the colors around it. This goes for inanimate objects like houses, paintings, forests and the couch, as well as things like people.
Let's take me as an example. I have very very pale skin with a slight yellow cast, almost black hair, and very dark brown eyes. I have very little saturation of color. As such, if I wear something with a medium level of color, like a greeny brown, or a light blue, or a dark purple, you can easily see the color in them, compared to my skin tone. But if I wear neutrals, like an ivory dress, or grey pants and a black sweater, or god forbid anything classified as "beige", I melt into the background and look like a zombie. Wearing anything yellow-green picks out the yellow cast to my skin and can make me look jaundiced, unless it's a bright, cheerful, highly saturated, warm yellow, in which case the contrast is high enough that I can get away with it.
As I've learned my preferences and how to dress myself, I've learned that if I don't want to be in the spotlight, wear all brown, and if I want to stand out, wear blue and magenta, and because I LOVE bright colors, screw classiness and subtlety and wear whatever the heck I want and pretend I'm a kindergarten art teacher. And if I want to wear white, it has to be properly white-white, or else it will blend with my skin and wash me out, and I'll be a zombie bride.
Let's pretend I know what you look like, now. You have warm highly saturated skin with a yellow cast and medium level brightness, black hair, and I'm assuming, dark brown eyes. If you have any non-brown hue to your eyes, pick that color out and wear an intensified color in your jewelry to emphasize it. The reason that blue-grey sweaters make you look tired is that, in brightness (light vs dark) and saturation (the amount of color), they are close to your base neutral. If I were to wear the same sweater, it would look a whole lot more blue, until you stood next to me! Your yellow flats look close to your skin color probably because they are. Yellow is the brightest color to begin with, and on top of that, you probably have something less saturated, and less pure yellow, than you realize. Compared to your very colorful skin it's going to clash.
"What's your season" color guides are dated BS that should go in the trash along with people dictating no white after labor day and girdles before breakfast. You need to look for things that will contrast with your skin tone, things that will emphasize the aspects of your body you are proud of, and things that make you personally happy. You can wear pure white, pure black, dark browns, and cool greys with no problem. You can also wear ivory and light taupe colors because they are different enough from your skin tone, but stay away from the particularly yellow ivories because those will pick out the yellow in your skin (we're not so different, you and me.) Either try things that are super colorful, like rich violets, emerald greens, hot oranges, and so-on, or are really starkly color-less. You can pair these up so you're not an explosion of color. You can tone the contrast down by wearing a third item that's a similar brightness to your medium skin, like a belt, shoes, or shirt under your sweater, that's not in the same hue family as your skin (medium blues, greens, purple, reds).
Do you see what I'm talking about? It's about contrast. When you want to stand out, go for high-contrast. When you want to look classy but not stand out, treat your skin like the accent color. When you want to look professional, choose one color that makes you happy and pair it with black, white, or cool grey. Because your skin is darker and more colorful than what a lot of commercial clothes are made for (grumblerumble) you have to look for the ones that are not going to blend with your darker, more colorful skin.
Wow this comment is long. I don't mean to pretend like I know everything about this subject, I've just had color theory pounded into my head year after year after year.
posted by Mizu at 1:58 PM on February 8, 2010 [11 favorites]
"When you want to look classy but not stand out, treat your skin like the accent color. When you want to look professional, choose one color that makes you happy and pair it with black, white, or cool grey."
Agreed. Also, consider jewel tones - purples, magenta, emerald green, sapphire blue. All my friends with light brown skin look amazing in these colors, and I am forever jealous.
posted by blackcatcuriouser at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2010
Agreed. Also, consider jewel tones - purples, magenta, emerald green, sapphire blue. All my friends with light brown skin look amazing in these colors, and I am forever jealous.
posted by blackcatcuriouser at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2010
Response by poster: I haven't ever used the word "contrast" outside of fiddling with Photoshop, but it seems more obvious after you've explained it so well! I think I also understand why my various roommates (much rosier complexion, light eyes) have had a hard time helping me shop.
Any advice on where to learn more about color theory? I really like reading books straight through, but I guess blogs would be helpful too.
posted by tantivy at 2:55 PM on February 8, 2010
Any advice on where to learn more about color theory? I really like reading books straight through, but I guess blogs would be helpful too.
posted by tantivy at 2:55 PM on February 8, 2010
Color theory books can be pretty expensive, because they cost approximately eighty billion zillion dollars to print.
-I own this one, mostly because it was cheap at my local little shop. It's useful to me, but the palettes and groupings are kind of dated, and it's a pantone love-fest, which I have philosophical problems with.
-Clear and straightforward, and probably a good start if you're beginning to think about these things, but not particularly sophisticated, and aimed at printwork. Bonus - cheap!
-Johannes Itten is basically the guru of choice for color theory. He gets a little spiritual, which you can safely ignore, but I found this one engrossing.
-I got to play with this book back when I was in school. As a visual, color-oriented person, it was so engrossing that I forgot to eat lunch.
-This one was the only required text in my old painting class, I found it highly readable.
posted by Mizu at 3:27 PM on February 8, 2010 [2 favorites]
-I own this one, mostly because it was cheap at my local little shop. It's useful to me, but the palettes and groupings are kind of dated, and it's a pantone love-fest, which I have philosophical problems with.
-Clear and straightforward, and probably a good start if you're beginning to think about these things, but not particularly sophisticated, and aimed at printwork. Bonus - cheap!
-Johannes Itten is basically the guru of choice for color theory. He gets a little spiritual, which you can safely ignore, but I found this one engrossing.
-I got to play with this book back when I was in school. As a visual, color-oriented person, it was so engrossing that I forgot to eat lunch.
-This one was the only required text in my old painting class, I found it highly readable.
posted by Mizu at 3:27 PM on February 8, 2010 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Find your "celebrity doppelganger" and see what she does. Find pictures of a light-skinned celebrity with your complexion (eg, Alicia Keys, Veronica Webb, Halle Berry) and note what works on them and what doesn't. Performers constantly change their style, so you're likely to find a range of looks to weigh for yourself.
posted by TG_Plackenfatz at 4:27 PM on February 8, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by TG_Plackenfatz at 4:27 PM on February 8, 2010 [3 favorites]
Depending on where you live, you may want to consider traveling to find some great clothes. I live in the Pacific Northwest where we are the epicenter of bland clothing--tan, beige, brown, and black. When I go to Miami or LA (where, I might add, there are many more people who have your coloring) the choices of colors and types of clothes makes me think I landed on a beautiful new planet. Plus there are lots of women with great style to give you ideas about what to wear.
posted by MsKim at 5:00 PM on February 8, 2010
posted by MsKim at 5:00 PM on February 8, 2010
Best answer: Geography also impacts which neutrals are suitable. I live in Southern California where a black/grey palette looks too heavy. When I see a woman in head to toe black here, I think she must work at the Lancôme counter. Black is still part of the wardrobe, but it's an accent not the top-to-bottom color.
Since blue/grey looks off on you, I'm thinking that you probably want warmer tones. So this brown would be a no; it's cool toned. This warmer brown would be full of win. Instead of stone/gray toned beige pants, go with a warmer color.
That site is a good one to look at color palettes.
posted by 26.2 at 9:27 AM on February 9, 2010
Since blue/grey looks off on you, I'm thinking that you probably want warmer tones. So this brown would be a no; it's cool toned. This warmer brown would be full of win. Instead of stone/gray toned beige pants, go with a warmer color.
That site is a good one to look at color palettes.
posted by 26.2 at 9:27 AM on February 9, 2010
Response by poster: San Francisco can be pretty gray at times of year, and I work in the Financial District, so lots of people around me wear black.
I like the idea of finding a celebrity who looks like me. I didn't have any luck with that recent Facebook craze, but I'll keep looking. I bet I can find someone with the same coloring, even if not the same face / eye shape and hair texture.
Thanks for the advice, everyone!
posted by tantivy at 10:02 AM on February 9, 2010
I like the idea of finding a celebrity who looks like me. I didn't have any luck with that recent Facebook craze, but I'll keep looking. I bet I can find someone with the same coloring, even if not the same face / eye shape and hair texture.
Thanks for the advice, everyone!
posted by tantivy at 10:02 AM on February 9, 2010
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posted by batmonkey at 1:20 PM on February 8, 2010