Forever winter if you go

more superficial things

I have wanted to find out my “color season” since I first heard about it in the 1990s. This “analysis” is based on your hair, skin, and eye colors, plus the level of contrast and undertones in your skin, and magically determines the best colors for your wardrobe and makeup. However back in the 1980s when this was invented, the system shoved all people of color into the Winter season. This was clearly For White People Only.

Like many other facets of life, color analysis has come a long way since then, and I’ve been noticing that the four seasons have expanded into 12 types, which seems a little more accurate than squeezing every single person into 4 “seasons”. In addition, I’ve seen people offering this service expanding to understand that people of color can also vary WIDELY in the qualities analyzed so not everyone is a winter, the end. But I couldn’t bring myself to pay hundreds of dollars to get this done, either in person or with some of the very popular online sites. For years I tried to figure it out on my own but got stuck on whether I was ‘warm’ or ‘cool’ toned.

Enter Anuschka Rees. She’s the author of one of my favorite fashion books, The Curated Closet, which survived the Great Book Purge of 2017 when we moved from Washington to California. It’s a fantastic, detailed manual on how to put together a wardrobe that fits your life and preferences.

Rees now offers online color consultation for a reasonable price, so I paid for it in December and then procrastinated a few months, as is my way. She needed several photos of my face, taken outdoors, wearing different colored tops. I finally asked Meridian to help me with the photos a few weekends ago. She grumbled, then took great photos.

I uploaded them and waited 2 weeks to get the results back. Rees sent me an amazing 38-page PDF with background on how the analysis works, and my personalized “color season”. Turns out I am a “True Winter”, lol, just like the 80s thought I was.

Photo by Lightscape on Unsplash

This makes SO MUCH SENSE. I have always been drawn to clear, cool, BRIGHT colors. My favorite neutrals are white, black, and gray. I hate tans and beiges. Silver jewelry looks better on me than gold. A few years ago I vowed never to buy any orangey-red clothes because I viscerally dislike that color.

So now I feel like I have “permission” to only buy the stuff I like and to get rid of the stuff I was keeping because I “should” have a beige sweater for a neutral option. This also makes decluttering my closet easier - the first things to get a critical eye are those colors not in my preferred palette. Same with my makeup drawer- goodbye coral lipstick that never quite worked!

Obviously I can wear whatever colors I want, but I like having this (unscientific) information. It also makes shopping easier - I can just ignore that whole wall of muted colors and dusty neutrals.

Have you had your colors done? Did you find out anything interesting? If you’re interested in getting yours done with minimal effort, here’s what I used. Get 20% off with code COLORFRIEND. I’m not affiliated with her, just super happy with the results!