To understand seasonal color analysis, we need to understand the three aspects or dimensions of color first. They are:
I. Hue & temperature (undertone)
The hue defines the color family of an object, or what color it is – green, purple, orange etc.
Although not universally agreed upon, we perceive some colors as warmer and others as cooler. This is often referred to as a color’s temperature or undertone. It can be either warm, cool or some combination of the two (neutral).
We tend to associate yellow, orange and red with warmth, whereas purple, blue, and green appear cool. And you will often find the color wheel divided like this:
This does not mean that all yellows are warm and all blues are cool. Any color can have warm or cool undertones – think of an acidic yellow (yellow mixed with green) and a tangerine yellow (yellow mixed with orange). The former will have a cooler quality than the latter. See the examples below:
When it comes to seasonal color analysis, there is a general consensus that yellow is the warmest color and blue is the coolest. That is because warm skin tones tend to have yellow undertones, while cool-toned skin has blueish undertones.
Thus, colors that are blue-based are classed as cool – the more blue, the cooler the color. Yellow-based colors are warm. And warmer colors contain more yellow.
If a color’s undertone is imperceptible, it is a neutral color – neither warm nor cool. Examples are green and red: while pure green consists of yellow and blue in equal parts, pure red contains neither blue nor yellow.
II. Value (Depth)
Value designates the depth of a color or how light or dark it is.
Light colors have had white added to them and are referred to as tints. Similarly, dark colors have had black added to them and are called shades.
III. Chroma / Clarity
Chroma defines a color’s saturation, or how bright (clear) or muted it is. Another way to understand chroma is to think about how ‘close to grey’ a color is.
Clear, bright colors are far away from looking grey because they are highly saturated. The more saturation is taken away, the closer a color gets to grey, and the more muted it becomes.
Adding grey to a color turns it into a tone.
To summarise then:
Now that we understand the basics of color theory, we can take a look at seasonal color analysis.
Seasonal color analysis is not a new concept. In fact, our modern understanding of harmonious colors comes from 19th-century impressionist painters’ understanding of the seasons. To accurately depict each season, they needed to understand the colors that are reflective of each one.
That means that as nature is moving through the season, it changes its set of colors. Think about the colors of landscapes as they experience the four distinct seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter – the fresh tints of spring, the gentle tones of summer, the earthy shades of autumn, and the icy hues of winter. This change in colors occurs because of how light reflects on the natural world. Each time the sun changes its position, it paints the world in a new light.
Since we humans are also part of the natural world, it only makes sense to apply these sets of colors to ourselves too. But it was not until the 1980s that the application of the four seasons to fashion color choices gained mainstream popularity. And that was largely due to Carole Jackson’s successful book ‘Color me beautiful.’ Her analysis focused on two of the three dimensions of color we discussed above.
The book’s test determines whether someone’s coloring is
- WARM or COOL (temperature); and
- LIGHT or DARK (value).
In Jackson’s book, which seasonal type you are depends therefore on two variables:
1. the undertone of your skin, hair and eyes (either warm/golden or cool/ashy); and
2. how light or dark your overall coloring – and particularly your hair – is.
The seasons represent the four possible variations of these two variables: If your natural hair color is lighter than medium brown, you are either a Spring or a Summer; if it is darker, you are an Autumn or a Winter.
If your skin and hair have a warm undertone, or you are a natural red-head, you are either a Spring or an Autumn; if your skin has a blueish, cool undertone, and your hair is ashier without any golden or red highlights, you are either a Summer or a Winter.
Some people fall without a doubt into one of these four categories. But what if you are warm and light, yet the colors of Spring are too intense for you? Summer colors are less saturated, but they are cool. What now?
The truth is most people don’t fall neatly into one of the four original seasons – not to mention the fact that the model did not take into account people of color. To address some of these issues, the model was refined and developed into a more accurate twelve seasons color analysis.