My color story

Back in the 80’s I had my first color analysis and ended up as a spring. I got a booklet with swatches in my hand and off I went to try to find the exact colors in my fan. I didn’t have that much luck and I never really felt very comfortable in the colors when I found them. And then we went into the dark era, suddenly black was the color we all should wear, I held back for years as I knew black was not any good for me, but eventually I gave in and black became the main color in my wardrobe. This dark era lasted for years and years it seemed to never end, and actually I don’t think it’s ended yet as we are constantly told that black works for everyone and that if we want to build a capsule wardrobe the foundation of it should be black and white, and then add a couple of accent colors. This is a concept that only works for Winters.

Back to my black wardrobe, yes I agree it was quite easy to wear black and I am what I would call mirror blind, I just can’t trust what I see in the mirror. I can put on an outfit and feel perfectly fine when I look in the mirror, but if I see a picture I can immediately see what’s wrong. Back in my dark age I rarely saw any pictures of me, and when I did I felt I looked old and drab and I assumed this was what I looked like, after all time takes its toll.

I wanted to get out the black eventually and I really admired the style and colors one of my best friends had. She always had the most beautiful outfits and looked so elegant and sophisticated in her blues, grays and pinks. I wanted to look like her, and I tried to copy her, but I always felt like a gray mouse. Of course my elegant friend is a Summer and when an Autumn try to dress as a summer it’s bound to fail. The only thing a Summer and and Autumn has in common is that both should wear more muted colors.

After I got a nasty inner ear virus in 2014 which completely knocked me off my feet and forced me out of my current job I got a lot of time on my hands. My days were a lot different than before and while I had days I almost wasn’t able to get out of bed I also had better days and I spent a lot of time online on Facebook and Pinterest. One day I came over the capsule wardrobe concept and I was so excited about it that the next day I took everything out of my closet and started to build a capsule wardrobe. It was spring and decided to make navy my base color and I packed all my black away for the spring and summer. I joined a Capsule wardrobe group and tough my self to take outfit selfies. I always got a lot of compliments and attention and it was so strange as I never really looked at myself as particularly stylish or trendy. With all the time on my hands I decided to start a capsule wardrobe blog and I was using a mannequin for the outfits, then one day a friend who’s an amateur photographer asked me why I didn’t model the outfits myself and offered to photograph for my blog. We had a lot of fun photo sessions and sometimes the pictures turned out great and sometimes I looked drab and old. It was one particular photoshoot that actually changed my life in more ways than I ever would imagine.

It was late summer and I was about to make my autumn and winter capsule. I had digged out my black clothes as for autumn and winter I was going to use black as my base color. We took quite a few pictures of me in a navy blazer and we tried to get the French vibe on these pics. And then I changed my outfit, I had put together an outfit I thought was a bit edgy . It was a black top, olive duster and striped brown and black culottes. In the mirror this looked like a nice outfit, but when I saw the pictures I was shocked. In 5 minutes I had aged 10 years. I looked drab and faded, all I could see was the gray roots and my saggy neck. While in the navy outfit I thought I looked fresh and more youthful. I can also see I don’t feel comfortable in the black and olive outfit. I think the subconscious me knows this is wrong. This was when I decided to pack away most of my black clothes once and for all.Bye, bye black.

After this experience I decided to get another color analysis, I knew color analysis had developed a lot since the 80’s, but I still expected to be a spring. I was totally shocked when I was analyzed Warm, deep and soft which is equivalent to Autumn in the tonal system. I was handed a booklet of swatches and then I was in my own again. It went better this time though and when I started to get my colors it felt like coming home. Suddenly I didn’t feel like a gray mouse anymore. And I got loads of compliments, even from strangers in shops and on the street. My only regret was why didn’t I do this long time ago.

After a while I was playing with the tought of being a color consultant myself and was trained in the Color Alliance system. And that made the pieces of the puzzle come together as I now learned about Contrast levels and why some outfits worked much better than others even if the colors wasn’t really in my palette. One thing I decided quite early was to never give my clients the color fan and then just leave them to find out by themselves. I decided to talk my clients through the fan and explain how to use it. That’s why I always have a video chat with my clients after they have received their fan. It makes a world of difference. And having this group also gives my clients more in depth understanding of their fan and and how to use it properly, plus they get a lot of inspiration both from me and from the other members .

So this is the story about how I became a color consultant and I just love my job, I love to make my clients shine and become more confident in their colors and not try to be a half good copy of someone they admire. We are all unique and finding what’s unique about ourselves and enhance our coloring instead of sabotaging our own personal coloring by using the wrong colors.

If you are on the fence I will tell you now it’s the time to order your analysis. This is the best time of the year as I am working with natural lighting when I analyse the pictures. I never compromise on this and that’s part of my success. In the autumn and winter it’s quite a challenge for me as there’s so few days the light is good enough to really see the subtle nuances. You have probably seen pictures of my clients holding their fan up to their face and you can really see that it’s a harmony and balance between them and their fan. No wonder as the colors are custom picked by a computer program to enhance your skin hair and eye color and the colors are also picked to work with each other.

You can find both the color analysis and my other services here. Just saying that to also know your body and face shape is another tool to understand your unique self and suddenly you have all the pieces of the puzzle.

https://www.colorsinstyle.com/shop