Color analysis

Color analysis  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  (Redirected from Winter, summer, autumn, or spring complexion)



Color analysis, also called skin tone color matching or color seasons, is the process of finding colors of clothing and makeup to match a person's complexion, eye color, and hair color. It is often used as an aid to wardrobe planning and style consulting.
Color analysis is the process of determining the colors that best suit an individual's natural coloring. There are several means of analysing personal coloring. The most well-known is "seasonal" color analysis, which places individual coloring into four general categories: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. "Winters" and "Summers" have cool coloring. Some clues that a person has cool coloring might include ash tones in the hair, grey-blue eyes and pinkish undertones to the skin. "Springs" and "Autumns" have warm coloring. Some signs of warm coloring are red or golden hair, golden brown eyes and golden undertones to the skin.
Another system of color analysis relies on analysing whether the person's coloring has high or low contrast; for instance, dark hair and pale skin create high contrast. Under this system, individuals are classified as "light-bright," "muted," "gentle" and "contrast." This color system uses all colors and states that each person can wear any color depending upon how bright or toned down the color is. Still other systems combine analysis of warm and cool coloring with analysis of contrast levels. (reference needed)
Another color analysis system attempted to classify individual coloring into "morning," "noon" and "sunset" palettes. These palettes are called Colortimes and were developed by Leatrice Eiseman. The Colortime names are Sunrise, Sunlight and Sunset are a reflection of the sun and how nature and people look at these times of day. (reference needed)
There is evidence the colors a person wears can affect how others perceive him or her; according to a British study, red and pink are thought to signal sexual attractiveness, particularly when worn by women. Dark colors like black or navy may convey authority or simply make the wearer seem less approachable. The theories of color analysis also teach that certain colors are capable of emphasizing or, conversely, de-emphasizing an individual's attractiveness to others. Unflattering colors may make a person look pale, for instance, or draw attention to such flaws as wrinkles or uneven skin tone. Flattering colors are thought to have the opposite effect.
One practical application for color analysis is that by limiting wardrobe color choices a person will probably find it easier to coordinate his or her clothing and accessories, thus possibly saving time, space and money.
Contents [hide]
1 Early History of Color Analysis (1810-1970s)
2 "Seasonal" skin tone color matching for clothing and cosmetics
3 The four color "Seasons": The fundamentals
3.1 Winter
3.2 Summer
3.3 Spring
3.4 Autumn
4 Prominent systems of "seasonal" color analysis
4.1 Deborah Chase, The Medically Based No Nonsense Beauty Book (1975)
4.2 Bernice Kentner, Color Me a Season (1978)
4.2.1 Winter
4.2.2 Summer
4.2.3 Spring
4.2.4 Autumn
4.3 Suzanne Caygill, Color: The Essence of You (1980)
4.4 Carole Jackson, Color Me Beautiful (1980)
4.4.1 Winter
4.4.2 Summer
4.4.3 Spring
4.4.4 Autumn
4.5 Mary Spillane and Christine Sherlock, Color Me Beautiful's Looking Your Best
5 Systems of contrast analysis
5.1 Joanne Nicholson and Judy Lewis-Crum, Color Wonderful (1986)
5.2 Alan Flusser, Dressing the Man (2002)
6 Color Psychology
6.1 Color Seasons
7 References

[edit] Early History of Color Analysis (1810-1970s)In 1810, German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published his Theory of Colours. In 1840, it was published in English in London by John Murray. Goethe made an exhaustive study of color. However, he did not speak of the use of his theories with regard to choosing clothing colors, or with regard to the influence of hair color on the face.[1]
Therefore it may be historically accurate to say that the first "color and image consultant" was Michel Eugene Chevreul (1786–1889). As the director of the renowned tapestry firm, Les Teintures des Gobelins, Chevreul made it his business to know everything he could about color. In particular, he noted that colors interacted with each other when they were placed side by side. When viewed alone, however, the very same colors appeared quite different. When a client gave Chevreul a fabric swatch of her yellow curtains, for example, he was expected to incorporate that exact shade into the client's tapestry. Alas, when the carpet was completed, the yellow appeared not to match. However, when the yellow fabric swatch was placed next to the yellow pattern in the carpet, the two yellows did match. Chevreul discovered that the viewer's perception of the yellow in the carpet had been influenced or manipulated by the other colors alongside it, so that it appeared to be different than the yellow of the curtains. (The curtains, of course, hung completely alone, so they were not subject to the influence of another color.)
Chevreul further discovered that when looking at any given color, the eye demands that the opposite or contrasting color on the color wheel simultaneously be generated. Apparently the eye has a precise equilibrium, so that when looking at red, for example, the eye generates green, even though we are not aware of it. He called this phenomenon Simultaneous Contrast. In 1839, Chevreul published the findings of his meticulous and extensive research in a voluminous publication entitled De la Loi de Contraste Simultane des Couleurs ("Of the Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colors").[2] Chevreul devoted a separate chapter to his research on clothing and hair color, in which he concluded that any color worn next to the face, including hair color, would affect the appearance of the skin's color.
The French Impressionists were greatly influenced by Chevreul’s book, and Georges-Pierre Seurat, in particular, became obsessed by Chevreul’s theories with his Pointillism style. He learned to "manipulate" colors in his paintings and the mixture of the colors he used would very often take place only in the eye of the beholder, and not on the canvas. Van Gogh used many of the same principles, but his fiery temperament was not suited to the intricacies of pointillism, so he applied the theories to canvas using more assertive brushwork.
Two German-born artists and art educators who expounded upon the principles of simultaneous contrast set forth by Chevreul were Johannes Itten (1888–1967) and Josef Albers (1888–1976). Itten published The Art of Color in 1961,[3] and Albers published Interaction of Color in 1963.[4] Itten proposed a natural correspondence between the four seasons of the year and four groups of naturally harmonious colors, thereby establishing the framework upon which would be founded the "seasonal" color analysis that would become popular in the 1980s. He stated, "I have never yet found anyone who failed to identify each or any season correctly. This demonstrates that above individual taste, there is a higher judgment in man, which, once appealed to, sustains what has general validity and overrules mere sentimental prejudice."
[edit] "Seasonal" skin tone color matching for clothing and cosmeticsThe concept of studying color in order to change and enhance the way a person looks was introduced in universities in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, when home economics teachers passed along the principles of color from art studies to their students. Until that time, only artists had been concerned with the study of colors and how their appearance could be manipulated and changed.
Starting in the 1970s, the availability of high-quality, accurate and inexpensive color printing made it possible for the first time to produce books for the mass market in which skin tones and clothing colors could be accurately reproduced.[5] The result was a the near-simultaneous publication by a number of authors of books proposing systems of color analysis designed to allow the reader to "discover which shades of color in clothes complement your natural coloring to look healthier, sexier and more powerful."[6]








The authors of these books all present roughly similar ideas. Most agree, for example, on the following basic points:
Most rely upon a color system in which the colors are divided into four groups of harmonious colors which are said to match with the four seasons of the year. The seasons are, to some degree, arbitrary, and it sometimes happens that someone will be on the cusp of two seasons. But, as Carole Jackson insists, "with testing, one palette will prove to be better [more harmonious] than the other."[7] Jackson also acknowledges, however, that the reference to the four seasons is nothing more than a convenient artifice: "We could call your coloring 'Type A,', 'Type B,' and so on, but comparison with the seasons provides a more poetic way to describe your coloring and your best colors."[8]
A person's color season is simply a determination of their skin tone.
An individual's basic color category, or season, remains the same over his or her lifetime, and is not affected by tanning, because "[w]e still have the same color skin, but in a darker hue."[9]
Skin color, rather than hair or eye color, determines a person's season. Bernice Kentner warns, "Remember, do not rely on hair coloring to find your Season!"[10] While hair color may change over the years (and hair or eye color may be artificially changed by dyeing and colored contact lenses), the person's color season will not change.
A person's color season has nothing to do with the season of his or her birth or favorite season of the year.






 The four color "Seasons": The fundamentalsColor analysts usually describe the seasons as being the result of a combination of the three traditional primary colors (red, yellow and blue), as they appear in the undertones of the skin. However, in practice things are a little more complicated.





Everybody's skin color includes strong elements of red (based on the color of the haemoglobin in his or her blood, which is visible, to some degree, through the translucent skin). Color analysts agree that this is the case for persons of all races, and for all varieties of skin color.[citation needed] The undertone, which will be either blue or yellow, determines the person's color category, or season. A person's skin may have a strong or weak blue undertone, or it may have a strong or weak yellow undertone.Unfortunately, the blues and yellows in human skin are not actually the same as the primary colors on an artist’s color wheel, as they are the result of melanin and carotene, two pigments which do not have the effect of turning the skin blue or yellow. Rather, melanin produces browns where it is the predominant pigment,[11] and greys and blue-greys where it is mixed with the yellows and reds caused by carotene and hemoglobin.[12] Where carotene is predominant, it produces undertones that are described as "golden" or "peach."[12]