colour and style analysis session
We name each section after seasons to be descriptive:
Warm, bright, clear, and splashy. These are the colours of citrus fruits, fresh green shoots, tulips, hibiscus, terracotta pots, and warm aqua blue mediterranean seas.
Cool, smoky, pastel, muted shades. Summer berries, plums, sweet peas, hydrangeas, bluebells and pastel English garden colours.
Rich, soft, warm and earthy. Moss, chestnuts, autumn leaves, cinnamon, olives, spice-rack colours.
Cool, saturated, clear colours, high contrast. Rich holly green, bright red berries, snow, wet slate, bright arctic skies, jewel tones.
Because it is a mix of yellow, the primary warm colour, and blue, the primary cool colour.
Together we go through around 150 different coloured drapes to see the effect of each next to your skin. I find if you are warm or cool, soft or bright by analysing the effect various colours have on your jawline, your overall skin texture, your eye sockets, and any shadowing, sculpting, or filtering effect the colours have on your face.
After one session you will be confident and fluent in which shades suit you best. We find the seasonal palette from which you will build a cohesive wardrobe. Within your palette, I will find your sub palette, and the within that, your WOW colours… the ones that when placed near your face make you look fresh, vibrant, and glowing. Your WOW colours are where we concentrate capital in your wardrobe portfolio.
Your body structure, your face shape, your personality, your decisiveness, how rational or intuitive you are, how introverted or extroverted you are, your interests when you were 10 years old before the world placed expectations on you, and a host of other components, all make your style uniquely yours.
We peel back the layers of the onion and determine what your style archetype is at your core, to make the outside (your wardrobe) and the inside (your intrinsic style) harmonious, authentic, and aligned. I’ll ask you to bring to your appointment (if possible) some clothes that you love and wear a lot as well as some ones that you love but don’t seem to wear, so we can find your personal thread of style running through them. If you aren’t able to bring in clothes, have some photos ready on your phone of you wearing your favourites.
Many years later, Emilia asked her why. She was told it was because she was wearing Roger Vivier shoes (her mother had given them to her as a good luck present in her first job).
The senior manager assumed that if she was putting that much effort in to her office appearance early on, she’d be putting that same effort into her work as well. At the time, Emilia had no idea what Roger Vivier shoes were, but her mother did!
First impressions count. She is a living example of the Marilyn Monroe quote ‘Give a girl the right pair of shoes and she can conquer the world’.
When she first joined the team, there were 4 other women in her cohort, none of whom paid any attention to their personal style, despite being extremely well educated and great at their jobs
After Charlotte joined, we had a session to determine her best corporate colours, her best overall colours and her WOW colours. We discovered her intrinsic style and found pieces that fit in her specific corporate context, but also fit her classic and huntswoman archetypes. Her tightly edited wardrobe now exuded authority and confidence and projected leadership, but still felt very ‘her.’
Within a year Charlotte was offered a promotion, given more prestigious cases, and a generous pay rise. If you were Charlotte’s boss, would you put her in front of your top paying clients, or the others in her team who dressed like they were still at University? Authority and authenticity are equally important to getting you where you need to go. You are dressing and embodying your future self now.
She travelled extensively for work, and had a creative and mostly black wardrobe that served her well wherever she went. She got married, moved countries, and then took eight years out to raise her children. Nina wanted to return to work, but with a family, didn’t want the same travel schedule she had before.
She went back to school to retrain and leveraged her film production experience to help a series of tech startups, each with the explicit purpose of eventually being bought out by private equity. Neither her film producer wardrobe of years gone by, nor her school run Mum wardrobe was suitable for her new career in casual tech startups or for the meetings with private equity investors.
We’ve transitioned her to a wardrobe in her spring palette that is both relaxed and authoritative for the office, with a several structured pieces for meetings with investors, where projecting authority and showcasing expertise is critical.
After years of blogging and keen interest in beauty and wellness, I have an incredible little black book. Bring allllll your questions!
Sorted.
I’ve got you.
I have some gems.
Covered.
Done.
I have options.
I have opinions!
Colour analysis + digital colour palette for your phone + hair and makeup colour recommendations + one month trial of curated Monthly Edit + little black book discussion
Style analysis + personalised folder of your style recommendations + one month trial of curated Monthly Edit + little black book discussion
Colour and strategic style analysis + personalised folder of your style recommendations + one month trial of curated Monthly Edit + little black book discussion
Half day targeted shopping trip
Full day targeted shopping trip
No, I am a bright spring, so I look exhausted and hungover in neutrals. You may look amazing and luxurious in them.
It varies depending on how easy your colours are to determine, and how much little black book information you want to discuss. Allow at least two hours for colour and three for style. Most clients like to break this into two different sessions, because there is A LOT to take in.
No, this is really a one and done experience; your undertone never changes, although you may prefer different colours within your palette as your hair or skin colour changes.
Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg claimed to not care about fashion either. However, Steve’s iconic black turtleneck jumpers and Mark’s signature hoodies are intertwined with their identities and how they present themselves and their businesses to the world. Disinterest is still a signal.
You’d be the first! There is such a broad range in each colour palette and each style archetype; we will find what feels like home for you. I am just the guide to take you there.
Absolutely!
I’ll give you a copy of your seasonal palette, your WOW colours, and all the style documentation you need to guide you. If you need inspiration for an event, a holiday, or an interview, you can sign up for a monthly edit (coming soon) of items curated in your palette.
Definitely. Give me a brief beforehand of what you need (travel capsule, new job wardrobe, beach holiday, etc) so I can scour the stores first to save you time and money.
I can, but it isn’t ideal. I see a lot of people who have been misdiagnosed online. Some skin is ‘cuspy’ eg the warmest end of a cool palette, or the coolest end of a warm palette. It is critical to be accurate, and phones, variable lighting and computer screens make that tough. I prefer natural light. If you are a very obvious season (like me) it will work, but I am not a believer in virtual accuracy, despite the convenience/popularity. Also, every AI colour analysis app I’ve ever tried has been dead wrong.