Color Me Beautiful
On Monday, April 7, 2014 we had a speaker talk to us about communicating with colors. Colour Me Beautiful started in the US in 1983, but was sold to the UK about 10 years ago. As some psychiatrists found, first impressions are 55% based on your appearance and body language, 38% on your tone, pitch, and pace, and 7% on your words. Given that appearances make up such a significant part of impressions, the goal of Colour me Beautiful is to help people make positive impressions through their appearances.
Appearances include the way you dress, color characteristics, 3 aspects to identify type of person, and main color types. The way you dress should be an extension of yourself and your personality. Additionally, it should complement your coloring and body shape, complement your personality, be appropriate, and be current (fashion is the least important as it is last on the list).
Color characteristics are important, but do not make that much sense to me. There are three types of characteristics: undertone, value, and clarity. The undertone means that every color has some gold and others have blue. Value is supposed to stand for light or deep/dark depth. Finally, the clarity stands for whether the colors are soft or muted, or if they are clear or bright. The three aspects to identify types of people are their hair, eyes, and skin tone. Based on these three characteristics, you are able to pinpoint what type of color type a person is.
The three types that are linked together because they are opposites are Light and Deep, Warm and Cool, and Clear and Soft. Light is when a person has light hair and eyes (blonde hair, blue or green eyes) and dark is when someone has dark hair, dark eyes, and any skin tone. At this point our speaker told us that deep colored people cannot wear white from head to toe otherwise they will feel naked. I was sort of shocked and thought the presentation was a bit off at this point. I always wear white over the summer…and I’m pretty sure it looks fine.
She continued to discuss how warm colored people strike people through their hair color and they shouldn’t wear white, but rather off-white. On the other hand, cool people should wear reds, purples, pinks, and blues. Often they have ashy hair, but not necessarily.
The third group of people were clear and soft. Clear toned people can wear reds and blues, they have dark hair, bright sparkling eyes, and should wear contrasts. Soft toned people have no contrast in their look at all, are bland, and the women shouldn’t go without make up.
After she explained all the different tones, she told us what each of us were. Although there was no definitive answer for me, she started by saying I was a deep, and then at the end of the presentation, she came back, stared me in the eyes, and said I was more of a warm person. Still, both of which can’t wear white! Although the color tones make sense to me (light, deep, warm, cool, clear, or soft), I don’t agree with all the things that go along with them.
She said that many people are influenced by their family, especially their mothers, in what colors they wear; however, I base it off of seasons and the people around me. Certain types of friends bring out different types of clothing. I felt that the majority of people in the United States do not dress based on their color tone but rather their style. In my eyes, style is the most important factor, followed by color. Not the coloring of the person, but rather the color of the clothing. Overall, this presentation was very interesting and much different than anything I’ve ever heard, but it was very interesting.
