It might surprise you that color can play such an in-depth role in the fashion world, but as we’ve been discussing for the past several weeks, color is an intrinsic aspect of every part of life. To know how to dress, you must first know yourself. Let’s begin with an analysis of seasonal skin tones.

You have to determine what aspects of your skin are causing youto appear the way you do in order to determine your skin’s “season.” The three main aspects that determine your season are temperature, clarity, and value. Although we have already gone over a few of these aspects, let’s review what these basics mean in color theory.

• Temperature: In skin, this means that the undertones of one’s skin is either cool blue or warm yellows and pinks. some people don’t have a blatant undertone and are described as neutral.
• Value: Value is just another word for lightness. Light colors have more white than dark colors, which are composed of more black. Again, medium values are not rare.
• Clarity: Clarity is a measure of a color’s saturation. Bolder colors are clearer.

Combinations of these aspects result in seasons.

• Winter: Cool, clear, dark
• Spring: Warm, clear, light
• Summer: Warm, soft, dark
• Fall: Cool, soft, light

Now we will discuss color-matching based on color theory in order to put together a good outfit.

Monochromatic color matching involves using different articles of different values of the same color. For example, a dark yellow top with a light yellow skirt would be monochromatic. A color will always match a whiter, greyer, or blacker version of itself. Another type of color matching is analagous, which involves pairing colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. If we think about colors as a family, the closer the second color is to the parent color, the easier it is to match. The more a second color deviates from its parent, the harder it is to match. This “parent color” is called a color bloodline.

It is rare to see an outfit that follows either the monochromatic or analogous color matching schemes. Natural matches are colors that share a color bloodline. For example, we know that two primary colors mix to create a secondary color. Green is the “offspring” of blue and yellow, thus these three colors share a bloodline. Since the colors share a bloodline, they are a natural match and will look good together in an outfit.

Using these two lessons, (season and matching) we can now put together an ouutfit that we can look great in. Winters look best in bold, clear colors or icy pastels. Summers can wear neutrals and pastels, and muted colors with cool undertones. Warm undertones look best on falls. Springs must find a happy medium between too muted and too dark, but look best in pale, soft colors.

I hope that you learned that there is a science to fashion and you will be able to apply it to your own life soon.