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Come Alive with Colour

Come Alive with Colour

A basic guide to choosing and mixing colours to suit you

Imogen Lamport AICI CIP

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Come Alive with Colour

www.bespokeimage.com.au

Come Alive with Colour, Imogen Lamport 2011. All rights reserved

Reproduction or duplication is strictly prohibited

You do not have the right to resell, copy or distribute this guide.

The authors and publisher of this guide have used their best efforts in preparing this material. The authors and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this program. They disclaim any warranties (expressed or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The authors and publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought.

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Contents
Personal Colour Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 5 Whats Your Colour Contrast? ................................................................................................................ 8 Whats Your Value Contrast? ................................................................................................................ 11 Personality and Contrast....................................................................................................................... 15 Mixing Colours ...................................................................................................................................... 17 How to Pick Your Perfect White............................................................................................................ 19 Why Black May Not Be Your Best Friend .............................................................................................. 20 How to Wear Red .................................................................................................................................. 23 How to Add Colour to Black .................................................................................................................. 25 How to Add a Pop of Yellow (or other fashion colour) ......................................................................... 27 How the Colours You Wear Affect Your Mood ..................................................................................... 29 Choosing Neutrals ................................................................................................................................. 31 Intensity of Colour ................................................................................................................................ 33 Looking Taller and Slimmer using a Column of Colour ......................................................................... 37 Never Short on Style eBook .......................................................................................................... 39 Discover how to dress your petite body with these tried and tested style tips. ............ 39 Your Essential Style Guide ............................................................................................................ 40 151 Secrets From an Image Consultant to Bring out the Best in You................................ 40 Travelling Light eBook................................................................................................................... 40 Learn how to pack for your next trip so that you can easily take your luggage as carryon and save time and the headache of lost luggage. .......................................................... 40

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Personal Colour Analysis

. Essentially there is a balance between your colouring and the colours you wear, neither too bright, nor too dull, and they have the right level of warmth or coolness to suit your skin.

The first step is to find out whether you are warm or cool. We discovered that Lizzie is warm (interestingly, she had thought she was cool!).

Then we tried a variety of different warm colours on her and decided that the Exotic palette looked most flattering on her. These colours are warm but a little softened, not too bright, but not too dull.

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what do you see first? T-shirt or face?

I got her to put on a cool colour (one that she loved) to show how when the colour is not flattering, the first thing you see is the colour, rather than Lizzie's gorgeous face.

And here is a photo of her in a soft deep khaki which really suits her and helps focus attention on her face first.

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Here is Maureen, who is also deep and warm, wearing a very cool and light purple top that washes her out.

And here she is in the right kind of purple that highlights her face and is harmonious with her Opulent colouring!

And just so you know, these were all taken with no fancy lighting, and exactly the same makeup on in each shot, the only thing that changed is the colours being worn!

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Whats Your Colour Contrast?

Have you ever thought about colour contrast when dressing? What is colour contrast you may ask and why does it even matter?

Colour contrast relates to your own natural colouring and creating harmony and balance with you.

For example, if you are monochromatic in colouring - so say have brown eyes and brown hair, you will find that you look great in similar colours (for example see the outfit on the left). You may even be attracted to wearing a few similar neutrals together and prefer them over wearing colour.

If you are more analogous in your colour - so say have auburn hair and brown eyes, you will look good in a selection of colours that are close to each other on the colour wheel, greens with blues, violets with reds, or yellows and oranges together. (middle picture)

If you are complementary in your colouring - say red hair and green eyes, or brown hair and blue eyes - consider wearing complementary colours together you can more successfully pull off wearing blue and orange or red together, purple and yellow, or combinations of colours others may run away from as they're too daring.

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Colour Contrast - by imogenl on Polyvore.com On of my issues with Trinny and Susannah - especially in their 2nd book What Not to Wear book, was that they were always advising people to wear monochromatic colours and avoid black and a colour - because in their experience of dressing themselves it didn't work. When I look at their colouring, I see fairly monochromatic to slightly analogous colouring, in a low contrast (will explain the value contrast in my next post), so this advice worked for them, but was terrible on people who have colouring like I do.

To give you some clues on your colouring here are some celebrity pictures to serve as a guide.

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Oprah with her brown hair and brown eyes has a monochromatic colour contrast.

Gwen Stefani with your brown eyes and blonde hair has monochromatic to analogous colour contrast.

Amy Adams with blue eyes and red (orange) hair has complementary colour contrast

Madonna with her green eyes and blonde hair has analogous colour contrast.

Courteney Cox Arquette with her blue eyes and brown hair has complementary colour contrast.

Kate Winslet with her blonde hair (yellow) and blue eyes is analogous to complementary colour contrast.

Penelope Cruz with her brown hair and brown eyes has monochromatic colour contrast.

All pics courtesy of www.people.com

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Whats Your Value Contrast?

So we've covered colour contrast, so now onto Value contrast.

What is it you may ask?

The Value scale (according to Albert Munsell who developed much of the visual colour theory we use today), is the dark to light scale - he numbered the colours 1 - 10, 1 being black and 10 being white. This scale is used in many fields including hairdressing - so 1 is black hair dye and 8 is a blonde (you may have heard your colourist/hairdresser talking numbers).

So when we think about our value contrast - it is the contrast between our lightest and darkest values. So taking the scales pictured here what is the most similar lightness and/or darkness to your hair, eyes and skin colours?

If they are 3 or less apart - you are low value contrast:

If they are 3-6 apart - you are medium contrast

If you are more than 6 apart you are high contrast.

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So for example:

Anne Hathaway with her dark hair and eyes and fair skin has High Value contrast

Rebecca Rojmin with her fair hair, skin and light eyes has Low colour contrast

While Jennifer Anniston with her medium/fair coloured hair, eyes and skin is also a low contrast.

Angelina Jolie - depending on her hair colour at the time, has medium coloured eyes and fair skin, and most of the time darker hair, so is a medium to high value contrast.

Gwen Stefanie with her dark eyes but light hair and skin is also a High Value Contrast.

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Whilst Amy Adams, with her medium value hair, and light skin and eyes is a Medium Value Contrast.

So what does this mean as far as clothing goes? Well, if you have naturally high contrast, you'll look best in high contrast clothing. If you have low contrast, you 'll look best in lower value contrast in your clothing.

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Value Contrast - by imogenl on Polyvore.com The pic here is in neutral colours, but works for any combination of colours and also patterns.

Quite often I find that some of the clothes that my clients have that they rarely or never wear, is either too high or low contrast for their colouring, so they never feel comfortable or think they look great in it

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Personality and Contrast

So we've covered colour contrast and value contrast, the final piece of the puzzle is how your personality affects your contrast levels.

Your personality can be a 'rule breaker' or 'rule stickler' one - if you are dramatic, rebellious or high energy (life of the party), no matter what your outward appearance, you may enjoy breaking the rules and wear high contrast if you appear to be low, or the other way round.

If you are very quiet, shy or low energy (wall flower), you may prefer to wear more subtle combinations of colour and value as you don't want to stand out from the crowd, even if you have high contrast colouring.

Is this all starting to make sense? Have a play with these concepts. It make total sense to me one day when I was wearing jeans and a purple top and a wine coloured cardigan - even though they were 'my colours' I looked dull (I'm a bit out there and have high contrast colouring as you can tell from my photo). As soon as I put on a a green scarf, suddenly the outfit worked and I felt so much more 'me'. Can you see with this illustration how a pop of a brighter or lighter colour can add contrast to this outfit?

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low and high contrast - by imogenl on Polyvore.com

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Mixing Colours

An easy way to mix colours is to mix 2 neutrals with 1 colour, this is pretty fail safe, especially if both your neutrals are either warm or cool in their undertone.

Another option is to go for 2/3 of a triad.

A triad is three colours equidistant on the colour wheel, if you choose two of them together, they work really well. Its then great to mix these two back with a neutral. This is why red and blue are such perennial favourites, and look great mixed back with the neutral white.

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Other great choices include green and purple, and orange and purple. You can of course choose to start with the tertiary colours and use them, so it could be a blue-green with a blue-violet, or a yellow orange, with a red-violet.

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How to Pick Your Perfect White

Whites vary, from a brilliant bright white, to soft white, cream, buttermilk, ivory, antique white, winter white etc..... Start by looking at the whites of your eyes - what is their colour? Are they bright white or a more yellow white, pink white, ivory, blue ... what are you seeing in them? You could go to a store and find a selection of white tops and shirts, find a mirror, and I hope the store has decent lighting. Stand in front of a mirror (preferably with no makeup on - sorry), and hold up 2 of the white tops to just below your chin, whilst looking at your face, and especially at your eyes, notice the whites of the eyes, you are looking for a white that makes your whites look whiter (not yellower). Discard the worst coloured white, pick up another and keep repeating the process til you get down to a 2-3 white tops that all work with the whites of your eyes, then do the same process, but look at your skin, look for the white that gives you the most even skin tone, diminishes under eye bags and shadow, and makes you glow. Generally, most people with warmer complexions need warmer whites like winter white, cream and buttermilk. Those with very soft and muted colouring need a soft white (which is just offwhite) or ivory. Cool people will work best with brighter, whiter whites. I hope this helps - let me know how you go!

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Why Black May Not Be Your Best Friend

In fashion magazine after fashion magazine you will read that essential in every woman's wardrobe is a pair of black trousers and a Little Black Dress because both these garments are the most flattering and slimming you can find. They are of course aren't they? The answer is - only if black is a colour that suits you. How do you know if it suits? To start with we need to look at the properties of black - it is a DEEP, COOL and BRIGHT colour, so if you are WARM, LIGHT or MUTED in your colouring, you should avoid it.

This model can wear the black top as she is cooler in her colouring and has a deeper value with her darker hair the look is harmonious.

This model has warm colouring and looks absolutely stunning in these colours - but notice how the harmony stops at the jeans which are black, and focuses your attention there. Her body appears split in half, rather than one long whole.

The same model in a white top looks washed out, because WHITE too is a COOL,

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LIGHT and BRIGHT colour and doesn't suit those with a warm complexion.

And here she is in black, which is not harmonious with her skin tone and does not blend with her colouring.

Notice how in this warm green - which is an EYE ENHANCING colour she looks stunning and exciting. Again the black pants ruin the flow of the outfit.

Whilst in this warm blue she also looks great as it is a COMPLEMENTARY colour for her hair. Now you may notice that your gaze gets stuck on the black pants, this is a skinny model who can handle attention on her hips and butt, but if you don't want people to look at your hips or butt, and you don't have the colouring to wear black, then don't wear black pants - they're not slimming for you. Also, did you know that black is very ageing - it will cast shadow on your face, make wrinkles and lines look deeper, throw shadows under your eyes and

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make you look even more tired, and create double chins. The older you get, the harder black is to wear, and the lighter your hair and skin the less it suits you. Now why is black considered so slimming? If light colours advance (make you look bigger) and dark colours recede (make you look smaller) then what is the most slimming colour? According to all those mags and fashion writers - it's black as that logically seems to be the darkest colour, so it should recede the most. But if bright colours advance and muted (that is greyed down) colours recede then what is black? But black is actually a bright colour as it has no grey element so those 'slimming' black trousers will actually draw attention to you bum and make it look bigger, not smaller. So what colour trousers should you buy to make your bum look smaller? Dark grey or very dark brown if you've got cool colouring, and if you're warm chocolate brown or deep olive green will both be far more slimming than any black pants ever could be for you.

I hope you now realise that 'black is slimming' is a myth for the majority of the population and you will no longer be conned by all those magazine articles espousing the black myth. All pics from http://www.shopbop.com/

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How to Wear Red

How to Wear Red by imogenl Red comes in many guises - from bright to dusky, from warm to cool, light to dark. The right red will make our skin glow with health, the wrong red will make us look like Rudolf the red nose reindeer. Check which reds suit you best by holding up a host of different reds under your face in good lighting, and dropping each in turn and watch as the colours change how your skin reacts to the particular shades, tints and tones of red. Some of the garments and accessories that work best in this flamboyant colour

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are red coats - what a great way to liven up a dull winter day, red shoes and red handbags. These all team really well with neutrals from black and grey, brown and camel, navy and white. It's so hard to go wrong by mixing red with a neutral. Unless you have a very dramatic personality, red is not usually great to be worn head to toe, keep it to one garment at a time, or 2-3 accessories (shoes, belt, necklace for example). Too much red can overwhelm us and aggravate our senses. Red has been show to stimulate and give us an appetite, but it can start to annoy if overused. Softer reds are easier on the eye and less bothersome to look at for long periods of time. As we age, we usually need to soften down the reds we wear check to see if your red is wearing you or you are wearing the red, by shutting your eyes and then opening them - is your gaze drawn to your face or the red garment? If it's to the garment, consider toning down the colour, it will make you look slimmer and younger than a too bright red. If you have red shoes, team them with some flattering neutrals, and play a game of dot-to-dot, drawing the gaze from the shoes up the body via belt, necklace, bracelet, top or earrings to your beautiful face. If you wear all neutrals and then just red shoes, our gaze will get stuck on your feet. Avoid wearing more than 3 red accents at one time - no need for overkill. Choose your reds from the same family - bright and cool with bright and cool, avoid mixing warm and cool reds for best effect. Do you like to wear red?

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How to Add Colour to Black

How do you tie colour in with an otherwise black outfit? To look tied together, rather than just an afterthought? The general rule is, if you wear neutrals from head to toe, and want to add colour, you need to add 2-3 accessories in the same colour or colour palette to make it look like it's purposeful rather than an accidental use of colour. More

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than 3 uses of the colour will start to overwhelm - not everything has to match. Remember, this rule doesn't just work with black, but any neutral - you could be wearing shades of brown and a pop of colour, shades of deep olive green, shades of beige or camel - the rules remain the same. Oh and yes - I put the parasol in as a bit of a joke!

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How to Add a Pop of Yellow (or other fashion colour)

So for those of us who don't normally wear yellow like Lorrwill and may otherwise shun this sunny trend, here are some options that you may consider, rather than dismissing it completely

Add it with a bag, yellow goes well with blue, orange, pink and red, with olive green, browns and greys and black, if you are otherwise wearing mostly neutrals why not consider a playful yellow bag on the weekend? As a scarf, not too much enough to add some excitement, it could be mainly yellow, or one of the colours in a pattern. Fun in the sun, sandals or thongs, maybe as a bracelet or some other accessory. Yellow sandals can work really well for you golden haired women. Even if you have cool colouring and find that wearing a yellow top washes you out, there are ways you can add in a colour and enjoy it, without spending a fortune or making yourself look jaundiced.

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Whether it's winter or summer, yellow adds a ray of sunshine and a visual boost to your outfit, makes you happier and boosts your creativity! So when mixing colours (not talking about mixing a neutral with colours) when dressing, use the concepts discussed here - matching undertone and intensity. Below you will notice that the clear, bright colours work well together, whilst the more muted skirts would be jarred by putting a brighter accessory with them.

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How the Colours You Wear Affect Your Mood

Today I was talking on the phone to someone in Queensland (a hotter part of Australia) about a new and exciting product just on the market (I'll share that with you soon), and she said she'd send me one, did I want white or black? Then she said, I assume black for you, not because she's ever seen me, but because Melbourne is known as the black capital of Australia, where so many people wear black most of the time.

Yes I do wear black, as it is a colour that suits my cool colouring, but I also wear lots of other colours, a lot of the time. I try to avoid black as an everyday staple, not just because I make a living from doing colour analysis, and I want to show people that it's possible to not wear black! But also because the colours we wear have an affect on how we feel and how others communicate with us and react to us.

If you think about it, businesses spend a lot of time and money deciding on what colour packaging to put their products into. Look around the supermarket, you'll see lots of packaging with red on it, as red stimulates us, raises our blood pressure and makes us hungry. Did you know that women have been shown to react to Tiffany blue? It makes us more excited.

Given this, why would we want to wear black all the time? Black is the absence of colour, it's the absorption of light, it reflects cold dark shadows on our face, and can drain us of life. It's also not the most slimming colour on the planet either (which is the reason so many give as why they choose it).

When I am choosing what to wear each day, after I've found out what the weather is going to be like, I make my choice first based on colour, what colour do I feel like today? I notice that

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often during the dull, grey winter, I feel like red or hot pink. During summer I like cooler blues, greens and teals on those really hot days, the thought of wearing red or black when it's stinking hot makes me feel a little ill.

Given that colours are reflected light waves, I think that these vibrations affect us physically, they are in harmony with us, or dissonant. When I'm doing a colour analysis, when I put unflattering colours on a client I feel physically ill in my stomach. When the right colours are put on, I feel relaxed and calm.

Do you think much about the colours you wear? Do you find different colours change how you feel?

What colour do you feel like today?

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Choosing Neutrals
You may have already seen my post about Black not being the be all and end all of neutrals. So if you cut black out what are your options?

Fortunately there are a myriad of other neutrals to choose from. Neutrals are like colours, and you can test them to see if they work for you, as you would a colour.

Some universal neutrals that everyone can wear include:

Marine Navy (a very deep teal blue) Taupe (a brown/grey) Charcoal Soft white (just off white)

Other neutral options you might try:

Warm Complexion: Warm brown, tan, camel, khaki, deep olive green, cream

Cool Complexion: Dark Chocolate, rose beige, pure white, blue grey, French navy(dark navy), charcoal blue grey

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Neutral Options by imogenl featuring Societe Anonyme pants

Hold them up and see which are most flattering on your complexion. You will also find that the neutrals that are most flattering for you will mix and match most easily with the colours that suit you best.

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Intensity of Colour

Choosing Colours - intensity by imogenl featuring Carvela shoes

The value you choose is based on your own natural values, if you have dark eyes and pale skin and/or hair, go for a combination of light and dark colours.

If you have light eyes, hair and skin colours, keep the value (lightness or darkness) more similar and preferably on the lighter end of the spectrum. If you are overall darker in hair, eyes and/or skin colours and don't have really bright teeth or whites of your eyes, then keep your value darker and more similar.

Each of the 18 colour groups in the Absolute Colour System have properties in harmony. The groups are named for the feeling of the colours, rather than seasonal (spring, summer etc) or just colour descriptors (warm, cool, light, soft etc.)

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Here in the Zesty palette the colours are bright and clear, warm and overall lighter.

Zesty by imogenl featuring Notify jeans

Here in the Spicy palette the colours are still warm and lighter, but are not as bright.

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Spicy by imogenl featuring Milly skirts

Notice how the colours blend and harmonise easily - mixing and matching works when choosing the same undertone and intensity.

You would not be able to mix the Spicy palette with the Dynamic palette (below), as both the intensity and undertone are different.

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Dynamic by imogenl featuring J Brand jeans

The reason why so many people feel that they have no skill in mixing and matching colours is that they are trying to mix colours that have different colour properties, and so won't work together, instead of looking to mix colours with similar properties. As you can see from the polyvore, it's easy to mix colours when the properties are the same - the mixes may feel more outrageous or adventurous than you'd usually choose, but why not try something a little different using this colour theory to make it work for you.

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Looking Taller and Slimmer using a Column of Colour

If you want to look taller or slimmer, you need to use the unbroken line as your guide to dressing.

What is the unbroken line? Every time you end a garment, and the hem of each garment creates horizontal lines (which break up your body), you are shortening and widening yourself.

So creating an unbroken line by using a column of colour from shoulder to knee (or longer) will elongate your body.

Don't forget to colour blend shoes to your bottom, or to your skin to create the longest, leanest lines.

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Here are some more examples of creating a column of colour.

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More from Imogen Lamport, AICI CIP

Visit Bespoke Image for lots of articles and tips on style Visit Inside Out Style Imogens Blog that is the place where the science and art of style collide. Buy her other Ebooks
Never Short on Style eBook
Discover how to dress your petite body with these tried and tested style tips.
Only $19.95 USD Do you struggle finding clothes to fit and flatter your shorter stature? Do you wonder what shapes and styles of clothes fit your petite body shape? Do you need help figuring out where is the best place to end hemlines, how long jackets should be and the ultimate length for your tops? Do you know how to select the best accessories to flatter? With years of experience helping her many petite clients find clothes to fit and flatter Never Short on Style is packed full of the tips and tricks that Imogen Lamport has picked up and is sharing with you today. Would you like to know: How to choose accessories, from glasses to shoes, hats to handbags How to flatter your body shape How to enhance your shape and use tricks of illusion to trick the eye Never Short on Style will help you have a wardrobe packed full of clothes that flatter you and make you feel more confident and vibrant. Dont wait, get your copy delivered directly to your inbox in minutes!

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Come Alive with Colour

Your Essential Style Guide

151 Secrets From an Image Consultant to Bring out the Best in You
Only $14.95 USD As an image consultant Im always getting asked for tips, tricks and secrets to help people look better, so I thought Id write an easy-toread ebook that contains over 150 tips to help all women look better. With more than 100 colour pictures included to give you even more assistance and make it really easy to make a few quick changes to improve your image. Get your copy now pay with our secure server!

Travelling Light eBook

Learn how to pack for your next trip so that you can easily take your luggage as carry-on and save time and the headache of lost luggage.
Only $19.95 USD In Travelling Light you will discover: My formula for success How to Create a Capsule Wardrobe Choosing Colours for your Travel Wardrobe How to Mix Patterns and Colours What to take on a business trip What to take on a holiday, whether a city, country or tropical destination How to add accessories to extend your travel wardrobe What to wear on the plane What to take on long-haul flights In-flight carry-on regulations Overcoming Jetlag Choosing the bag Packing method Toiletries and Makeup tips Packing for Men Travelling with Kids

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