Improvability Blog

“Hi Kim, I received your Colour Analysis course about 3 weeks ago. I’m working through all the DVDs and CDs and all the printed materials and loving every minute of it. I am so glad I sent for it. You’re right about one thing; it’s certainly keeping me quiet. My husband keeps asking if I’m alright?

One thing I must ask. I did an introductory colour course about 20 years ago and still keep in touch with some of the ladies. They’re always talking about ‘contrast’ yet you hardly mention it all. What exactly is it? And why is it so important?” Petalburga, Australia

Dear Petalburga,

There are many different approaches to Colour Analysis, there are many different types of consultants, and we all use different terminology:

a) to help us understand what the heck we’re talking about
b) to help our clients understand what the heck we’re talking about

and I often get asked to explain what someone has read or heard somewhere else.

I don’t claim to be the oracle but I can give it my best shot.

Please bear in mind that anything I say is my own opinion, my own take on that particular subject, and should be weighed against anything else you’ve read or heard. Use your common sense and make your own mind up what to use in your own business. It must lie well with your moral baseline, how you feel, what helps you sleep at night!

Contrast is a term that is used quite a lot in colour analysis but not one that I personally find very illuminating. After 32 years’ experience, I have come to the conclusion that most clients want to know just three things:

1. What to wear
2. What not to wear
3. What season they are

and men aren’t bothered about number 3 at all!

Whether to include high, low or medium contrast colours has never really caused a Hallelujah moment for any one of my clients.

And I am infinitely more interested in creating an Ah-ha moment for my clients than demonstrating my expert knowledge of the scientific attributes of one colour versus another.

The words themselves leave me freezingly cold so I don’t bother with them at all. My consultations are highly irreverent and always a good laugh so the word ‘contrast’ is way too serious for me.

But if you find this next bit helpful, then I won’t have rabbited on for nothing.

Let’s start with a definition of contrast with regard to colour – a difference in lightness, brightness and / or hue between two colours that makes them more or less distinguishable.

• If there’s a significant difference between the lightness, brightness, and / or hue of two colours, then we have High Contrast, e.g. black vs. white, royal purple vs. ice lavender, orange and peach.
• If there’s little or no difference between the lightness, brightness, and / or hue of two colours, then we have Low Contrast, e.g. dove grey and soft lavender, rose pink and ice pink, apricot and peach.
• If the contrast is noticeable but not especially significant between the lightness, brightness, and / or hue of two colours, then we have Medium Contrast, e.g. red and orange, grey and black, yellow and gold.

I suppose I could blether on for England, quoting Ittens, how to use a colour wheel, and lots of other major research on contrast with regard to colour (of which I have shelves groaning under the weight of the stuff) but as this is seriously not anything that I can ever personally get excited about, I sincerely hope my meagre efforts so far have managed to answer your first question?

Now if you want to start talking about how fast food outlets use contrasting colours to get you to eat faster, and how hotels use contrasting colours in some rooms and complementary colours in other types of rooms, then that would be infinitely more interesting to me but I’m trying to stop my usual habit of digressing here…

Will this help your client?

As for your second question, ‘Why is it so important?’ Well, perhaps we need to consider a variation of that first.

‘Why is it so important to some other consultants?’ is a question that we could debate for hours. However, let’s forget them and focus on you.

What you should be asking yourself is:

• Is knowing all this important to you?
• Is it important to you to include all this information in your consultations?
• Does knowing about contrast in any way help your client to choose the best colours to wear?

Decide for yourself and go with whatever works for you.

After all, we are all different (thank God) and you must work with the tools that ‘do it’ for both you and your clients.

My advice to all my clients is always:

• Wear whatever you want, whatever makes you look and feel fabulously happy and gorgeous.

• And if that’s not what I (as your image consultant) suggested then that’s absolutely fine!

I would just encourage you, Petalburga, to put the needs and wants of your client first. And enjoy yourself! That’s the rock on which I’ve built my own extremely successful business. It works for me, and it will absolutely work for you.

“Hi Kim, I was so excited to receive my seasonal drapes set that I tested them on myself.

During the exercise I had some doubts that I’d already had in the past. There are some colours that it’s clear fit with my skin and eye colours – and some clearly don’t – but there are some others that are more related to my personal taste.

For example, I’m Winter (brown-eyed, dark brown hair and fair skin) but I like myself also with some Autumn colours (terracotta, coffee brown, deep tomato red, dark periwinkle, warm purple, dark yellow green) and a few Summer colours (light blue grey, cocoa).

What do you think? Is this due to my lack of experience? Perhaps I’m making some mistakes? Or might I be a mix of Winter and Autumn?” Silburga, Italy

Dear Silburga,

Colour is totally subjective and the colours you like to wear are always down to your own personal opinion.

There are no rules with colour. The labels on the drapes are meant as a guide only and were never, ever meant to be taken as gospel. They are not law. They are not written in concrete. They are open to human interpretation.

Follow how you feel – what you look and FEEL good in.

However, I would also add that you cannot ‘do’ your own colours.

No-one can be totally objective about themselves.

We all need someone else looking in from the outside to help us ‘see’ what we can’t see for and about ourselves.

I would always recommend that every consultant pays another consultant for a colour analysis in order to get a professional, objective viewpoint.

TIP: Treat this as an investment in your business and make sure you feed the receipt through your books.

At the end of the day, wear whatever you want, whatever makes you look and feel happy.

There are no rules. And all the systems out there that claim to be ‘accurate’ cannot possibly drop seven billion people on the planet into a mere 4, 6, 12 or 36 little boxes!

Every single human being is unique. And what your client thinks and feels MUST be taken into account before we open our mouth and foist what is nothing more than our opinion on someone else.

I’ve seen so-called professional image consultants do irreparable damage to some of their clients because of this but I’m not going into that right now…

You are not a lump of meat!

People who ‘style’ professional models to promote cars, watches, clothes, hair products, washing machines, etc. have to treat the poor darling as a lump of inanimate flesh because, in this scenario, she is nothing more than a prop..

But we don’t.

Our client should be the centre
of the service we offer

Silburga, you are a living, breathing human being with feelings, emotions, and a moral baseline. All of these will affect how you FEEL about the colours you wear.

I don’t know you personally so these are only suggestions (and feel free to slap me if I’m wrong here):

• You might need your Winter colours to help you promote your business
• You might prefer your Autumn colour choices when you want to demonstrate your strong nurturing side
• And the gentler Summer colours might be the ones you need to help regenerate your energy

I repeat – these are nothing more than examples as I have never met you!

Colour is a journey to be enjoyed

So please don’t be so quick to put yourself down.

Experience comes from practising, and until you have a go you’ll never know whether you’re right or wrong.

• Experiment with the colours you love
• Get a face-to-face professional opinion
• Discover the colours that make you look and feel fabulous
• And then you will have a living, breathing story of your own colour journey to share with your clients.

PS. You have no idea how powerful your own story could be in building your business, but that’s for another time.