1930—Paris Frocks at Home
Lesson IV—Color: Friend or Enemy
The Fabric Counter may be your Waterloo.
Each one of us has our special color pals—we like them a lot—when they are near us we get a real thrill. There are literally hundreds of these colors waiting on every fabric counter.
However, some of these possible colors are more friendly than others. We do not all respond in the same way to all colors. Some colors always make us happy while others make us miserable. Some make us vaguely uncomfortable and others make us comfortably contented. Perhaps you have never realized how much power for pleasure or pain is inherent in an innocent looking five yards of material.
Warm colors, the reds, oranges, yellows, some greens and some purple-reds, are definitely exhilarating to some people-and in some cases sufficiently exciting to be really disturbing.
Cool colors, on the other hand, like blues, blue-greens, violets and some greens cause reactions ranging all the way from a sense of calmness and security to the deepest depression amounting almost to an inferiority complex.
Individuals react in different degrees of intensity to warm and cool colors depending upon their temperament.
What colors befriend you?
Since colors have so much power over our feelings it becomes a matter of extreme importance that we know which ones are friendly and which are out to "do us wrong."
The colors you wear may be the greatest single aid or hindrance to your social or business success. Did that ever occur to you?
The color of your dress may completely upset the effectiveness of your carefully designed, well selected Butterick pattern by rendering you so insignificant that no one sees you at all.
There is no one quite like you.
If all people reacted the same way to colors we could just give you a set of rules about what happens when one wears red, for instance, and all you would have to do is memorize the rules and be assured that all would be well. But we can't do it that way since no two people are exactly alike. Do you know anyone exactly like you except possibly your twin sister? No two people have exactly the same combination of coloring of hair, eyes and skin together with build and facial expression. In other words, no two personalities are exactly alike. But what about "types" you say? It's a comfortable theory but it just doesn't work when you start out to select your own best colors. Few of us are types, most of us are a mixture of characteristics found in a number of so-called types.
The exact coloring of your own hair, eyes and skin as well as your own special personally must be taken into account in accurately determining which colors are best for you.
The one-color habit cramps your style.
Some of us have certain beliefs and habits concerning colors which may be cramping our style badly. We have usually found in assisting people to select their colors that we can increase very greatly the range.
A cure for a dark brown taste.
I think in this connection of a certain dean at a woman's college who has the "brown habit" so badly that she is making herself look years older than her age. When she herself was a student in college brown was undoubtedly one of her best colors and she forthwith adopted it for life. She not only dresses in it but furnishes her entire house in browns, oranges and some yellows. She writes with brown ink, and even uses a brown typewriter ribbon. The fact she seems not to realize is that the color of her hair and skin has changed with the years. Her build is different, and the sparkle of her eyes is not so bright, or if it is, the way she dresses deadens her personality. If someone could just induce her to wear some rich dark reds or some bright dark blue-greens the magnetism which she unquestionably possesses would be apparent the instant she steps into a room or sets foot on the campus.
How then shall we make a discriminating selection of colors for our clothes so that we may be reasonably sure of choosing the right ones?
These color rules are for you.
Some general suggestions about choosing colors should be of practical help to you.
First think of yourself as an individual, not as someone approximating a type.
Then consider the color of your skin, face, neck and all that is usually exposed by the present fashion for open necked daytime dresses. After all, more square inches of skin coloring enter into your personal color harmony than hair or eye coloring.
Reds vitalize the skins.
Dressing to your skin coloring is very simple. You just choose colors which will make your skin look as vital as possible.
In general, the colors which will do this are certain reds, if not too bright, pale coral or tea-rose pink as it is sometimes called, peach color, and a flesh color with a warm or somewhat yellowish cast, sometimes called cameo shell.
For transparent skins.
For the fragile looking, rather transparent skinned person certain cool reds if not too dark and seemingly heavy, and pale cool pinks cast a subtle delicate flush over the skin. The only person whose skin just can not be dressed in red of any tone is the rather florid, red faced or red nosed lady.
Blue-greens do astonishing things.
Still another color range, which does very flattering things to skins is the blue-green color family. Blue-greens suggest their opposites... the reds, the vital glowing tints which we must simulate in a subdued way if they are not actually present somewhere below the surface.
Dark, light and medium blue-greens, provided they are not too bright, do really astonishing things to freshen skins. If you happen to have a decidedly purple-blue eye the blue-greens may make your eyes look somewhat steel-like and impersonal. Intense jade green in large amounts makes a dark skin look too swarthy or a florid skin too coarse, but is very becoming to a honey color sun-tan skin.
The hair has its becoming colors too.
Next let us examine colors which do the very nicest things to our hair. Hair coloring usually tones into the yellow, red or brown color paths. Some blond hair seems to measure in a clear warm yellow path and presents few color problems. Those of us who have hair of the mouse colored, medium blond variety will get the maximum clear color effect by wearing dark browns, navy blue and dark reds, provided these colors are also good with the skin and eyes. The person with medium blond hair avoids beige as a rule.
Gray hair is a problem.
The person whose hair has started to get gray has a real problem because of this mixed stripy effect in her hair. She must avoid any colors or textures which call attention to the nondescript character of her hair. As a rule she dresses in either dark or light colors avoiding medium shades or middle values, provided of course her build is such that she may wear light colors successfully.
Black sometimes produces a very distinguished effect when one's hair is this mixed color, since it intensifies the dark tones still left in the hair and throws into relief the silvery high lights, and an otherwise dull pepper and salt effect becomes clear cut and sparkling.
Select your tweeds carefully.
Strong bright browns are usually very unfriendly to this mixed hair. Tweeds should be selected carefully. The red, green, blue-green, or warm purple tweed mixtures do much more for gray hair than black and white tweeds, altho black and white may be used for a coat when one always wears a hat.
Color contrasts flatter white hair.
White haired women have a comparatively easy time with their color selections. Any color which contrasts with white hair will be flattering with the possible exception of brown. Even this color may be used in velvet or furs if the white haired lady has a clear skin and brown or hazel eyes. Beige sweaters and hats do nothing whatever for her hair, altho it is so beautiful that even they cannot seriously damage it. She might better select colors of greater depth and clearness, dark, light or medium but seldom exceedingly bright.
Gray for gray haired people? Yes, by all means, provided it tones into the same kind of gray as appears in the hair. A warm gray is apt to be more becoming than a cold slatey gray, since the effect of blue-gray against the skin is chilling.
The eyes have it.
You may wonder why we have postponed a consideration of the color of the eyes. You doubtless have heard repeatedly that if one's clothes match one's eyes, then all will be well. But wait. We realize now, that the colors we wear must be becoming first to our skin and then to the hair and eyes. Eye color is subtle and sparkling.
Most eyes are mixed in color. That is, a brown eye often has in it certain dull yellow lights as well as dark yellow-red lights. Blue eyes may be either purple-blue, almost violet, clear blue, or blue-green, often showing flecks of tiny streaks of yellow-red. So-called hazel eyes are often chiefly yellow-green. Whatever color we wear should add to the depth and sympathetic expression of the eye.
Brown for brown eyes.
Brown, reds and greens will all deepen the color of brown eyes while certain rather bright dark blues will make the so-called black eye (which is really a dark yellow-red eye) look dark and velvety.
Blue for blue eyes.
Blue for blue eyes is safe enough providing it is the particular blue that matches the blue in your eye. Purple-blue worn by a person with green-blue eyes has the effect of producing a rather colorless gray eye which looks as hard as nails.
Hazel eyes are rather fun to dress since one can be green eyed one day and amber eyed the next, depending upon which of the colors in one's eyes is intensified by one's dress. Yellow-greens produce an amber light which is most alluring and provocative while certain warm red-purples give these eyes a greenish cast and a quizzical and sophisticated expression.
Who wears black well?
How many times we are asked, "Can I wear black?" The answer is yes, in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred. The trick is to choose it in the right texture. For some skins, black should be worn with a softening color or texture between the black fabric and the skin. This is true when the skin is of china-like transparency and rather colorless, as well, as when the skin is inclined to be sallow.
The flattering transition colors to wear with black are warm flesh color, egg shell, nude, Vionnet pinks, pale coral. Antique ivory, especially in nets, fine laces, and batistes is flattering to any skin.
The secret is in the texture.
And now, what of this all important matter of textures for our black costumes? Black canton crepe, crepe marocain, crepe faille, or some of the more sparkling pebbly crepes are more becoming than flat crepe or crepe de chine. Shiny black satin is trying but becomes less so as we choose satins of subdued brilliance, with a finish more like poult de soie. Many people can wear black satin, however, who would find satins in strong colors unflattering to their build and ageing to their skins.
Transparent black is usually very flattering and the semi-transparent materials such as crepe roma, elizabeth, triple voile, fiat chiffon, wool crepe and wool georgette can be counted upon to take pounds from your figure.
Taffeta, if black and very stiff, produces an austere effect. The stiffness of line and sudden contrast of high light and shadow in this material has a staccato feeling which is very becoming to youthful faces and figures in bouffant costumes.
White can do you dirt.
White—innocent enough looking as it is, may play the very dickens when clasped to your bosom. Dead white is trying in almost any texture to all but the most perfect skins as well as adding to the apparent size of the figure. "Off-white" tones, on the contrary, are flattering.
Pastels are flattering.
Pale slightly grayed pastels, such as flesh color, Vionnet pink, cameo shell, egg shell, nude, pale orchid, peach color, tea-rose, water greens, pale aquamarine, maize, endive, and very pale warm yellow reds, old ivory, etc., often have the effect of clarifying a somewhat sallow skin. The only way to discover which are your best pastels is by holding them next to your face and throat and studying the effect. Try them in soft crepes or chiffons. Satins may not be so flattering.
A word to the wise.
Just a few cautions concerning colors that may not always prove good friends. Strong bright purple-blue, the so-called royal blue, or blue glory, is very trying to most skins. Watch out for this color, since the color itself seems to have a great appeal, especially to our husbands and to all male buyers in department stores. It always appears under some name on each season's color card. This strong bright purple-blue calls forth all the lurking yellow which may be an underlying color in the skins of many of us, and so causes us to have brownish shadows in hollows around the eyes, about the mouth and in the throat. Two types of women do wear this color well, however. One is the clear skinned girl with purple-blue eyes and spun gold hair. The other is the Irish type with fair, peaches and cream skin, clear blue eyes-or snappy brown eyes and black hair.
Purples must be handled with care.
This is supposed to be a good color for the matronly type or elderly woman. Most purples drain color from skins, but certain warm red-purples, like the Patou purple of a recent season, do wonderful things to clear skins and brighten eyes. Look for the eggplant colors then, if you like to wear purple. Royal purple is unfriendly to almost every one.
In a season when it is fashionable to look swarthy and heavily sun tanned, these strong bright purples, blues, greens, and oranges are worn by the younger set to enhance this effect. Both the purple and purple-blue, however, have the effect of coarsening the skin.
Don't be a slave to fashion.
What shall we do concerning fashions in colors? Fashion is so important that it must receive a large share of our attention. Every season certain colors receive favorable fashion acceptance. There are always enough of these fashion-right colors and various shades in them in the shops to make it entirely possible to secure a varied color wardrobe of our own becoming colors. But always remember, nothing is gained by wearing a fashion-right color which is desperately unfriendly to your skin, eyes and hair.
