Wear Your Life Well

Hot Hue: Spring 2011

 

 A Color for All Seasons

"Courageous. Confident. Vital. A brave new color, for a brave new world. Let the bold spirit of Honeysuckle infuse you, lift you and carry you through the year. It's a color for every day, with nothing everyday about it."

According to the company that largely sets color standards and creates the trends for the fashion and home decor industries Honeysuckle is the choice of the Pantone Color Institute as the Color of 2011.
www.pantone.com

What this means to you is that soon you will see this hue dominate the Spring fashions in stores everywhere, and it's a color that will work well for many styles from casual to corporate. It is also a a shade that is complimentary to almost everyone, especially a woman who is looking for a healthy glow. Is this dynamic reddish-pink for you?

Only if you love it. If not, it's only one of the top ten colours for women's fashion chosen by New York designers for Spring 2011.

"The colors designers have chosen for the spring season present and interesting marriage of unexpected warm and cool tones," said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.

Flirtatious Honeysuckle is a feel good hue is perfect for a post-winter pick-me-up. The dramatically deep color of Russet brown and the quintessential neutral of Silver Cloud are outstanding trans-seasonal tones. Spicy and gregarious describe the warm tones of Coral Rose, a sophisticated orange. Peapod, a fresh yellow-green and Beeswax which is a warm honeyed yellow will also be seen . Cool, colors like vibrant Regatta and Blue Curacao or romantic and fanciful tones like Lavender and Silver Peony will add zest to any wardrobe.

Playing with new colors is a fun and and easy way to keep your look looking fresh.There is no reason to feel any fashion pressure about the latest colours. Style is personal. Stay true to the tones you know look good on you and to those you connect with emotionally. Fortunately, the spring 2011 fashion forward colors represent both warm and cool palettes well so there is something for everyone.

Me? I'm looking forward to updating my wardrobe with Blue Cuacao, Silver Peony and Russet Brown.

Fashion 911 Tip: Black-a-holic

We all have a love affair with black. Maybe it's an addiction. It's easy to get out of bed in the morning and reach for black. Even the most self confident and fashionable women feel safest in black.

Let's face it, it is more forgiving of figure realities, goes with everything, works for almost any occasion and can be almost any style mood. You can wear it year round no matter what the weather or the event. Black can convey many emotions, modest, sophisticated or sultry. Even more, a red wine stain can't ruin it.

Even with all these attributes,I caution you to be sure to wear clothing in a color other than black. Think of it as the foundation, not the defining color of your wardrobe. I know that all black garments do not look alike, but unless you are a sicilian widow you don't need half a dozen black jackets, a dozen pairs of black pants, two dozen pair of black shoes and a stack of black sweaters. Yes, black is the foundation of many wardrobes, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing - well that applies to your closet too.

Many women seem to be afraid of color because they have been hanging onto that black security blanket for too many years. Unless we can enliven our otherwise monochromatic wardrobe with some interesting textures, accessories and colors, we will start to look drab and dreary. There are no absolute rules about color, I don't want you to be rigid. Understanding which color choices are most flattering to you becomes more important than ever before, once your own coloring starts to change with the aging process.

Go a little crazy, stretch out of your comfort zone and live a more colorful life.

What's your Comfort Color?

"Purple Grandma. Purple." At the tender age of two, my granddaughter has a definite opinion of what she wants to wear when on those ocassions that I help her get dressed. For her, it's all about color and purple makes her happy.

Because of my background in fashion, I have worked closely with women to help them find their perfect color palette based on the natural colorings of their hair, skin and eyes. I don't believe we need to get stuck in rules, but do believe that in our 40's, 50's and 60's it becomes even more important to fine tune our color choices to those that make us look more radiant.

Yet, even if a color might be a good one for us, why is it that we feel comfortable with some colors and not with others? Color psychology is the key.

Our color preferences reveal a lot about our personalities and from the dawn of culture to the present day people have developed strong associations with specific hues. The colors around you influence you at a subconscious level whether you realize it or not. While there is no universally accepted theory, color psychologists agree that color affects our mood and influence our emotions.

Me? I love blue. Any shade of blue, but especially that mysterious, rich, deep tone of midnight blue. I don't know why I like blue so much, but I do know that when I wear it I feel safe and self-confident. Perhaps it's because when I was a little girl my mother dressed me in blue a lot. She would give me a hug and tell me she likes me in blue because it makes my eyes look even bluer than they are. She still tells me that today.

Each color evokes an emotional response from us and it's not the same for everyone. Every color has positive and negative attributes. For example, blue can represent calm, trust, honesty and security. It can also be perceived as stuffy, boring, un-spontaneous and old.

Years ago, I came home with a new suit that was a sublime shade of robin's egg blue. As soon as I saw it I fell in love with it and knew I had to have it. It was a fantastic color, fit and fabric. When I got home I was excited to model it for my husband. He complimented the fit but was less than enthusiastic overall. Why? You can imagine my dismay when he shared with me that particular shade of blue reminded him of the clothing his grandmother used to wear. That is not what I wanted to hear from a man who is six years my junior.

As for my little purple princess Zoe, I know she will love purple until that day in the future, fifty years from now, when someone calls it menopause mauve.

PS...I decided to return the suit and keep the man. Blue is still my comfort color, my favorite color. I just don't wear that particular shade of old lady blue anymore.