Diana and Christine Bruno before the color analysis began
Diana with the House OF COLOUR color wheel
Diana draped in winter colors
Black is my favorite color. It makes up about 80 percent of my wardrobe, and I’m fine with that. I’ve written before about how little pleasure I find in fashion. I don’t have an eye for it — which is probably why I gravitate towards black and other neutrals so often. If it were up to me adults would wear uniforms just like students. That would make everything easier, honestly.
A few months ago, I was on hour three of scrolling TikTok when I was sucked into a color analysis vortex. I went deep down a colortok (as the kids call it) rabbit hole. The idea is this: all of us have skin overtones and undertones. Your overtones refer to the colors I see when I look at you. Your skin color, hair color and eye color contribute to your overtones. Your undertones refer to the colors you can’t quite see at first glance, they’re the subtle hues beneath the surface contributing to your skin’s overall color. Your undertones live a couple layers deep.
According to House of Colour, depending on those tones, all of us belong to a particular “season” — spring, autumn, winter or summer. Each season has an accompanying color palette, and when you wear your season’s colors they’ll complement you. You’ll look vibrant and healthy in those colors, while, generally speaking, colors outside of your season’s color palette will wash you out.
House of Colour was founded in 1985, but the company’s color theory isn’t new. Color analysis has its genesis in Hollywood. Robert Dorr, an artist who was familiar with Swiss impressionist Johannes Itten’s theories of color groupings, noticed one day that an actress could look wonderful in one outfit but tired and old in another — the effect of the color she was wearing on her skin. Now the company trains stylists to perform color analyses.
I searched for where a fashion-dumb woman like me could have her color analysis done. I was bummed to learn the closest representative was in Houston. Enter Christine Bruno.
Bruno is a Lake Charles native who recently moved to Corpus Christi for her husband’s job, but because her daughter attends McNeese she visits the Lake Area often. I had my color analysis done during her last visit.
To begin, Bruno emailed over a list of instructions. I needed to show up without any makeup and needed to block off three hours for the process. The analysis would be happening at Brazen, a downtown boutique right next to Stellar Beans.
I sat in a chair facing the glass windows — natural light is an important part of this process.
“Is this (black) your natural hair color?” Bruno asked me as I sat. It wasn’t. I haven’t seen my natural hair color since I was in college, maybe? My mom and dad both started to gray very early and, unfortunately, those genes were passed down. I found my first few gray hairs in high school; now I’m about 50-percent gray. I use a $6 grocery store box dye every four weeks like clockwork to hide that fact.
“My hair was very dark brown before, though,” I say. She lays a white cape (similar to the type you see in a hair salon) over me before she hides my hair behind a white Handmaid’s Tale-style hair bonnet and asks me to remove my gold earrings.
The analysis starts off with a short color theory lesson. “At the top you’ll see autumn and spring,” she says, pointing to the large House of Colour color wheel. “Those are warm tones and they’re outlined in a gold frame. If you fall within these seasons, gold jewelry will look best on you. At the bottom, you’ll see the winter and summer seasons, which are cool tones, outlined by a silver frame. Those seasons generally look best in silver jewelry. The only color that belongs in all four seasons is true red.”
After giving the color wheel a once over, I decided I would really like to be a winter. The colors in the winter palette looked really bright and attractive to me. I knew from watching the aforementioned TikTok videos that the color specialist and the person who is being analyzed work together to determine what colors look best. I worried my lack of fashion savvy would prevent me from seeing the difference in the colors. Would this even work for me?
“You’re going to be able to tell,” she said. “Don’t worry. We’re looking for harmony and brightness. I’ll help you.”
The first step was comparing cool tones versus warm tones. She alternated laying cool tone and warm tone fabric squares over the white cape. I was pleased to learn she was right, and I could tell a definite difference. “I know it can be tempting to make a determination after only a few colors, but it’s important to keep from making any judgments too early in the process. Right now, we’re just collecting data,” she said.
She instructed me (and the crowd of women watching the analysis) to look under my eyes, around my jaw line and, especially, at my lips. My lips ended up being the easiest and fastest way for me to tell what colors complemented me and what colors didn’t. When I was covered in a warm-tone fabric my lips were dull and muted; when I was covered in a cool-tone fabric my lips were vibrant. I was surprised at how obvious the difference was.
“You’re definitely cool toned,” she finally said after we’d collected enough data to satisfy her. This meant I was either a winter or summer, and the next step would help us figure out which one.
“This next part might be a little harder for you to see — more subtle,” she said. “Since your skin has cool undertones, cool colors complement you, and since both winter and summer are cool palettes the difference won’t be as striking as it was when warm colors were still in the mix.”
We repeated the process of alternating fabrics — this time with summer and winter fabrics. She was right, it was more subtle but, thankfully, I was able to see a difference.
“You’re a winter,” she finally said. “Winter colors are more vibrant and saturated, and you’re going to be really happy to hear that winter is actually the only season that has black in its color palette.” I accidentally yelled at that great news. My beloved black. Thank God.
Then it was time to apply winter makeup. I brushed a bright cool toned blush over my cheeks and applied bright red lipstick and black mascara. It was really wild to see how bright and alive I looked with the right makeup, and I ended up purchasing a blush and lipstick in my season.
Diana shopping at Brazen for clothes in her season
Another color lesson, this time on the three points of red, followed the makeup application. Winter’s three reds are red, fuchsia and burgundy. “In general, all the colors from your palette not only go with you but also coordinate with each other,” she said. “The exception being your three points of red, which will clash a little with each other. You don’t want to mix those.”
Bruno then took her time placing every winter color fabric on me and rating them on a scale of one to three. If a color was a three it was one of my “wow” (best) colors. Although it can be tempting, according to her you don’t want to only wear your wow colors. It’s good to mix it up within your season as a whole but “knowing which colors you look absolutely amazing in is helpful for important events and special occasions.”
Bruno gifted me a color fan with winter fabric swatches and we walked around the boutique identifying which pieces were in my season. By the end of the whole experience, this writer, who has not a single ounce of fashion sense, actually felt empowered. I think it was the first time I’ve ever been in a clothing store and not felt incompetent.
“Remember, these aren’t rules; they’re tools,” she said. I was glad to hear her say that, because I would definitely be breaking the jewelry rule. Winters are supposed to look best in silver, but I only wear gold. I don’t think that’ll be changing in the near future.
In my experience, knowing which season you belong to can make shopping and dressing easier — especially for the most fashion inept among us. For more information on color analysis, contact Christine Bruno at 337-884-8049.
Have an idea for Diana’s next experience? Let her know by emailing her at diana.vallette@gmail.com.
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