A while back I mentioned that I follow a color palette to curate my wardrobe. Since many of you asked I have created a series of posts to describe this process.
In my first post from this series I talked about how I select neutral basics for my wardrobe. This week, I'll talk about introducing accent colors.
Discovering my favorite shades that also make me look good was not done done without a lot of trial and error. I had a general idea of what colors I liked, mostly jewel tones, such as rich crimson and vermillion reds; saffron and marigold yellows, royal, sapphire and turquoise blues; aubergine purple, plum and fuschia; emerald green; and the burnt orange of rust. But there was still the task of finding out whether these colors liked me or not.
You see, whether a person looks good in a color or not depends on their skin undertone. Some people talk about this in terms of winter and summer but I just refer to these undertones as warm and cold. Whether your
complexion has warm or cold undertones is determined mostly from your skin tone, then the color of your eyes and hair.
I have a skin with warm undertone, no surprises there with my caramel skin and brownish black hair and eyes. So naturally colors with warm undertones bring out the best in me, vermillion rather than crimson, purple rather than violet and turquoise rather than cobalt blue.
But there are some colors which can be a bit too warm for my skin. Which is the case for yellows, oranges and yellowish greens. Such colors, if worn close to my face, casts an odd yellowish shadow on my skin or washes me out altogether, none of which I assure you is the most flattering. So I can only wear my favorite marigold yellow in the bottom half of my body, most often in the form of a skirt, or in an accessory.
As I have talked about before, I put a lot of care into building a wonderful neutral basic wardrobe. I chose
my neutrals in such a way that every single of my chosen accent colors also "go with" every single one of my
neutrals rather beautifully. So building an outfit with a pop of color is never a problem. The second strategy I use is, grouping colors of the same family in an outfit. I often wear many shades of purple, fuschia, plum in a beautifully harmonizing combination. And finally sometimes I choose to pair shades that would have been sitting completely opposite of each other on a color wheel, like vermillion and turquoise. I assure you they look beautiful.
Now you might ask how do I buy these items? Do I follow a list like I do for my neutrals?
The answer is no! If you have spent the effort building a beautiful neutral wardrobe, chances are you already
have gorgeous outfits to wear, so each additional item you bring into your wardrobe must result from a gut
feeling.....in other words you must truly and absolutely fall in love with it.
I am not going to scour the streets looking for a turquoise dress/ top/ skirt or what have you, but I will
wait patiently, maybe even for years for something in that shade to come to me. And when it does, trust me
you'll know. I always do.
If you still want some kind of guideline, then you can be like me and only allow a certain number of pieces in your wardrobe. I only allow myself to own 20 dresses at any point in time. Once I reach that limit, if I have a
desire for one more, then an existing one from my collection must go. It's also a way of testing how much you truly love the pieces you have.
So once you know the colors you love and look great in, keep an open eye. If something in your favorite color is so exquisite that it takes your breath away.....go ahead and try it, if you can't take your eyes off of yourself, please do us all a favor and get it, you'll love it forever, I promise.
Now that we've covered both neutrals and colors I have one last post talking about how I would create my ideal accessories wardrobe. Until then, take care and have fun building your dream wardrobe.
Last but not the least, if you liked this post, please share it on Facebook & Twitter.
Discovering my favorite shades that also make me look good was not done done without a lot of trial and error. I had a general idea of what colors I liked, mostly jewel tones, such as rich crimson and vermillion reds; saffron and marigold yellows, royal, sapphire and turquoise blues; aubergine purple, plum and fuschia; emerald green; and the burnt orange of rust. But there was still the task of finding out whether these colors liked me or not.
You see, whether a person looks good in a color or not depends on their skin undertone. Some people talk about this in terms of winter and summer but I just refer to these undertones as warm and cold. Whether your
complexion has warm or cold undertones is determined mostly from your skin tone, then the color of your eyes and hair.
I have a skin with warm undertone, no surprises there with my caramel skin and brownish black hair and eyes. So naturally colors with warm undertones bring out the best in me, vermillion rather than crimson, purple rather than violet and turquoise rather than cobalt blue.
But there are some colors which can be a bit too warm for my skin. Which is the case for yellows, oranges and yellowish greens. Such colors, if worn close to my face, casts an odd yellowish shadow on my skin or washes me out altogether, none of which I assure you is the most flattering. So I can only wear my favorite marigold yellow in the bottom half of my body, most often in the form of a skirt, or in an accessory.
As I have talked about before, I put a lot of care into building a wonderful neutral basic wardrobe. I chose
my neutrals in such a way that every single of my chosen accent colors also "go with" every single one of my
neutrals rather beautifully. So building an outfit with a pop of color is never a problem. The second strategy I use is, grouping colors of the same family in an outfit. I often wear many shades of purple, fuschia, plum in a beautifully harmonizing combination. And finally sometimes I choose to pair shades that would have been sitting completely opposite of each other on a color wheel, like vermillion and turquoise. I assure you they look beautiful.
Now you might ask how do I buy these items? Do I follow a list like I do for my neutrals?
The answer is no! If you have spent the effort building a beautiful neutral wardrobe, chances are you already
have gorgeous outfits to wear, so each additional item you bring into your wardrobe must result from a gut
feeling.....in other words you must truly and absolutely fall in love with it.
I am not going to scour the streets looking for a turquoise dress/ top/ skirt or what have you, but I will
wait patiently, maybe even for years for something in that shade to come to me. And when it does, trust me
you'll know. I always do.
If you still want some kind of guideline, then you can be like me and only allow a certain number of pieces in your wardrobe. I only allow myself to own 20 dresses at any point in time. Once I reach that limit, if I have a
desire for one more, then an existing one from my collection must go. It's also a way of testing how much you truly love the pieces you have.
So once you know the colors you love and look great in, keep an open eye. If something in your favorite color is so exquisite that it takes your breath away.....go ahead and try it, if you can't take your eyes off of yourself, please do us all a favor and get it, you'll love it forever, I promise.
Now that we've covered both neutrals and colors I have one last post talking about how I would create my ideal accessories wardrobe. Until then, take care and have fun building your dream wardrobe.
Last but not the least, if you liked this post, please share it on Facebook & Twitter.
