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Come Alive with Colour

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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

What’s Your Colour Contrast? ................................................................................................................ 8

What’s 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 carry-

on 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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What’s 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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What’s 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. It’s 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 off-

white) 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 – Imogen’s 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.

Don’t wait, get your copy delivered directly to your inbox in minutes!

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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 I’m always getting asked for tips, tricks and

secrets to help people look better, so I thought I’d write an easy-to-

read 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