Color Your Style

By Jeanine Byers Hoag –

What color are your eyes? Most people when asked that question would say something like “blue” or “brown” or “green.” And though they would be right, the best answer is far more complex.

This screenshot shows that my eye is far more than brown. In fact, there are more than 50 different colors in it. The same is true for your eyes.

In his book, Color Your Style, David Zyla introduces a system for finding your best colors in your eyes, hair and skin, and then, he offers suggestions for when to wear those colors and how to pair them together.

Once you know your colors, you can wear them. And although you may want to try color analysis to identify what the “more than 50 colors” are, even the few you can find by examining your eyes, hair and skin are a great start toward putting a color palette together.

For instance, I had no idea that I had so much green in my coloring and was not wearing it at all. When I began to find my body colors, I discovered olive green in my eyes, light olive and cypress green in the look of my veins beneath my skin. And would you believe, there is even some green in my hair??

What color are you avoiding that might be one of your best?

Here’s how to begin finding out…

(1) Take macro pictures of your eyes, hair and skin. Examine them closely to identify as many colors as you can. You also can grab a magnifying mirror and take a look at them in daylight. Write down the colors you see.

The book, Color Your Style, gives you color suggestions, which made it much easier for me! I decided that the green was cypress green, the red was brick red and one of the browns was espresso. Then, I looked them up online to confirm that those were the colors I found and indeed, they were.

(2) So step 2 would be finding a resource that has color names and/or color pictures to help you identify the colors you find.

(3) And if your resource doesn’t have pictures, step 3 would be to find one that does or look up the colors online. After identifying a few of the colors in my eyes, I created an outfit inspiration picture with those colors in it.

You may find that you are wearing some of your best colors already. I was wearing a dark chocolate brown I found in my coloring and sometimes, the espresso, but I wasn’t wearing either one as much as I can because I erroneously believed they were not my best colors.

As we age, our coloring changes, so I recommend doing this color research every few years if you are 35 or over. The best color analysts determine the coloring you already have in you and offer you a palette that has most, if not all of your colors in it.

This color research exercise is a great way to get started on your own and a gift you can give to yourself this New Year that will result in finding colors you didn’t know you could wear.

Jeanine Byers Hoag is a personal style blogger and the author of The Capsule Wardrobe Book: Signature Style Essentials for Plus Size Fashionistas. For more information, go to www.capsulewardrobebook.com.