Virtual colour analysis Part 2

Remember Joyce, from Sudbury, Ontario? I attempted to analyse her colour direction based on four photographs she kindly sent me. I concluded that she was Deep rather than Light, Cool rather than Warm, and Muted rather than Bright.

I took the view that she had a Muted primary direction. On the secondary colour I went for Deep rather than Cool. Since then Joyce has sent me a range of photographs of herself, without make up, wearing some of the clothes in her wardrobe. The photographs I like the best are those where the muted colours are clearly cool rather than deep. So I would now revise my view slightly to say that cool muted shades will flatter Joyce better than deep muted shades, making her colour direction Muted-Cool.

Joyce has kindly dressed in a range of her Muted-Cool wardrobe. In the first photograph she has a deep blue denim jacket, a cool pink shirt and some blue-grey beads, silver earrings and a cool pink lipstick. I think she looks amazing – her eyes in particular really look so blue.

I believe that the muted and cool shades really help integrate Joyce’s colouring. Here she is in grey with the same pink shirt and a silver necklace. What do you think?

I really like Joyce in these shades and I love the way her eyes are enhanced. The colours she wears in these pictures, and the ones below, match and pick up colours that are already present in her complexion and features. Here are four more looks in her new colour scheme. I am so grateful to Joyce who was open to making a change, and also being a guinea-pig in our experiment.

You may say that Joyce is a beautiful woman and she would look nice in anything. But here are a couple of less good colour schemes so you can compare them. I have chosen a green that is both bright and warm, and shiny too (Joyce will look more beautiful in matt shades).

And here is a not very flattering red that is too warm and deep, decorated in gold which is much less attractive on Joyce than silver.

I want to thank Joyce for working hard with me, trying on her wardrobe and photographing herself. She is also a really good sport allowing me to comment and critique her colours on Fit and Flare. I hope this has been useful. The main lesson I have learnt is that is it really hard to get this right at such a distance. A proper colour analysis needs the person in the same room, not on a different continent!