The Colours That Will Suit Everyone
Colour analysis has changed Mia Freedman's life, and she wants it to help you too!
In this episode, Leigh Campbell enlists the help of colour expert Kim Crowley, to learn how you can eliminate the noise in your wardrobe and when you go shopping, by discovering your personal colour palate.
From the importance of your season (summer, autumn, winter or spring), to understanding your undertone. Plus (disappointingly), why black might not be the best neutral for you.
THE END BITS
What Colour Are You? Take The Quiz Here
Get $20 off for our birthday. Click here to get a yearly Mamamia subscription for just $49.
Want to shop the pod? Sign up to the Nothing To Wear Newsletter to see all the products mentioned plus more, delivered straight to your inbox after every episode.
Listen to Dopamine Dressing & Why It’s More Than Just Bright Colours
Check out Style Sense
GET IN TOUCH:
Feedback? We’re listening! Call the pod phone on 02 8999 9386 or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au
CREDITS:
Host: Leigh Campbell
Guest: Mia Freedman
Guest: Kim Crowley
Producer: Emeline Gazilas
Audio Producer: Lu Hill
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast. Mama Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on.
Whoever said orange is a new pink with seriously disturbed laurels for spraying groundbreaking? Oh my god, you have to do it. You live for fashion.
Hello, and welcome to Nothing to Wear, the podcast that solves fashion problems and levels up your wardrobe. I'm Lee Campbell, and every week I'm going to talk to an expert who is going to help us work out how to get more out of the clothes we already own and tell us exactly what is and isn't worth adding to our wardrobe. Today, we're talking about the fashion trend that has made a comeback and has taken over social media. It's called color analysis or color theory, and it essentially means there are certain colors that suit you more than others. People are raving about it, and one of those people is a returning guest and Mamma Mia co founder Mia Friedman, who joins me now, welcome back. I am very intrigued to have you on this episode because basically you've forced it upon us. So let's start. What is your favorite color. I feel like a four year old asking her.
I'm going to straight away say blue.
What type of blue?
A corn flower dusty blue? Like a dirty kind of a blue, a dirty bright blue? Yeah?
And what is your favorite color to wear? And is that different from your blue?
See? I like anything bright. What I've just recently learned is the colors that I like are not necessarily the colors that suit me.
Interesting. Well, that leads me perfectly into why have you recently become obsessed with having your colors done? And colors in terms of fashion?
Well, to take listeners a little bit behind the scenes, when our producer Grace, when she was pitching ideas for the show, she said, I think we should do one about getting your colors done, and I remembering when that was a thing in the eighties, I think was just like, oh god, no, what a daggy idea like summer, winter, autumn. We're absolutely not doing that. I said the same, not realizing but Grace, of course, because she's younger than us, is a head and it's like that's having a massive resurgence all over TikTok. There are filters where you can work out what you are, and so I've been thinking lately because I keep buying clothes that just don't feel right. And often it'll be I'll buy something because I like the color, but the shape won't be right, or I'll like the fabric but the color won't be right. I've noticed that there are things that I just am drawn to and drawn away from. And ironically, because I'm go into dopamine dressing and I like bright colors, I'll rarely wear things like brown, and on the odd occasion that I wear brown, I'm like, oh, I look really good today, which I don't think every day when I look in the mirror. And then there are colors that are like those cool pastel colors that I like in theory, or bright yellow or bright orange, but then I put them on and it's like.
Oh, no, this isn't working.
Yeah, there'll be some shades of a color that look great and some shades that look really terrible. So luckily, the younger people in the office persisted, and jesse on Mama me out loud brought having her colors done or doing her colors online, because she said, can you come on an episode and talk about I said, no, I don't believe in it. You did, and then I said to you, oh my godly, I'm obsessed with colors, and you said, no, that's rubbish, and I said, no, Jesse's told me I'm an autumn. I mean, there are different color systems. You can either divide yourself into the four seasons, but there are ones that are twelve that into each season into winter. So she said you're dark autumn. That's what she thought. But now then someone says, I'm not. I'm all at sea, but I'm definitely in the autumn family, which means the colors that you would imagine autumn signifieres, which is oranges and browns.
And maybe that's why you like dirty bright blue instead of the bright blue.
Yeah.
So you've liked this information, You've gone back and looked at your wardrobe. What happened then? Is there stuff there that you love the cut off or love to look at the color?
It has turned down? The noise is when I'm getting dressed and when I'm shopping, because I can be really drawn to something because it's the color of the season, because I like the shape. But then I'll be like, oh no. I was going for a mammogram the other day and I was sitting in the waiting room, trying to occupy myself so I wouldn't get anxious. And I was looking at all the different women and working out who was wearing the wrong colors wearing the right colors? Yes, And basically the wrong colors just make you look washed out, or they make your skin tone not look good or your eyes not pop. Even if you like a color and it doesn't suit you, as long as you don't wear it next to your face, like you might wear a skirt in a color that doesn't suit you, a pair of pants or something.
For a bag or a shoe.
Yeah, exactly. So for example, I learned that white doesn't suit me, ironically because I'm wearing white today because my wardrobe is lagging in this new information about myself, because I've got a lot of white because everyone tells you white to.
Bab while I thought black and white were just for everyone.
Neither black nor white suit me.
Oh that's really hard.
Interesting, But there's lots of neutrals that do suit me. Okay, are brown, like brown's creams, car keys, which I'm always really drawn to.
I I've got.
A cream shirt and I thought, oh, that's interesting. I wouldn't usually buy that. I'd just bite in white, but it only came in that color, and I love it.
And and it's such a small change.
Tiny change.
Interesting. So Mia has found her colors, and I purposely haven't looked into mine because I want the next guest to help me. I haven't listed the help of fashion stylist and color expert Kim Crowley. You may remember her from our episode on The Seven Deadly Shopping Sins. Kim has also worked as a color expert for the past ten years, so long before it became a trend. Kim, welcome back to the show. You're wearing a beautiful color. I don't even know what color it is, and I'm wearing black because I was scared. So let's start at the start. Why is it important to know our colors?
So basically, knowing your colors is a shortcut to feeding better in your clothes. And I think every single person wants to feel better in their clothes. So basically works in two different ways. Okay, so when we're matching your ideal palette with your unique features, Number one, you're going to actually look better. So your skin will look glossyre, your hair will look glossy, your eyes will look brighter, your fine lines will be decreased. So it's like a kind.
Of altiating serum for your b look.
Yeah, exactly, moisturizer exactly. But the second part, right and a bit I'm really fascinated about the genius behind it, is that the more you actually buy in your palate, the more that your clothes will mix a match because they have a common denominator. Right, So you can actually own a lot less clothes, have loads more outfits, right, So that whole nothing to wear, this.
Eliminate, that's what we're about.
So it turns the kind of one trick pony into a workhorse. That's what we want. We want more workhorses in your wardrobe.
Okay.
Yeah, And that's why this whole seasonal color analysis needs a rebrand, because it's not just all it's going to make me feel better. It's the outfitting part, the sustainable part.
Yes, absolutely, I love that. An important part about color analysis is each person's individual skin undertone. How does that play a part?
So it's undertone first, so are you cool? Are you neutral? Or are you warm? And then it's about contrast. Okay, So what I mean by that is if we were to take a black and white photo of you, would everything stay balanced? Right? If that's the case, then you've got soft contrast, medium contrast like Mere Freedman, or a stronger contrast like you. Yeah, got more of a contrast between your eyes, your skin, and your hair. You've got a more strong contrast. You need strong color. But all the while, when I'm doing that, when I'm analyzing clients, it's also about are they overall light or are they overall dark? Oh, that's a third component as well.
No wonder this is a profession because I'm already confused. Okay, so let's break down the color analysis. I mean, I know that there's sixteen different seasons. That's a lot a lot, but can we talk through the four main seasons and tell me what they mean.
Even if you understand the one sea and the umbrellas your colors, you will still massively benefit because obviously then you know what to go for, what to avoid.
Sure, then you might be able to find tune it from there, right.
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, And that's actually a really good point. It might be for year one that you start to understand the season and then you start to really get down to the nitty gritty it's a process, okay, color confidence progress.
Okay, So what is a summer?
So a summer is light, cool and soft. So when you think about a summer, you think about their color palette being maybe a little green meadow, blue stream, little pink flowers. Okay, Hey that's soft, tretty, light, delicate.
Okay, do you have a celebrity that's a summer that we can kind of reference?
Naomi Watts, Kate Planchette, and I Live Your Wild because I don't want everyone thinking that all summers are blonde.
Okay, Autumn, what is an autumn?
Autumn is rich, warm and earthy, So think colors that you would find in a forest or in a spice rax So you oregano, you time and paprika, you're chili, all very unentrend all of those.
Yes, autumn's having a moment in fashion.
Yes, well that's the thing. That's what's so interesting, Okay, because autumn colors came in about a decade ago and completely revolutionized the way we wear color. Prior to that, it was all cold color. So when I was designing I'm a former fashion designer, most of my straws would always be full of cool and cold colors right than the seventies trend game in ten years ago and completely change the way we wear color, right, And so it means that more warm based people like myself as an autumn mere freedom and autumn can also have a range of color, right. But obviously that's scared a lot of people much. I don't know what I'm doing too.
Yeah, you're like, isn't just blue blue and red red? Can't we just to the yes primary colours? What about some celebs that are autumn. You mentioned Maya, she's a celeb, but who else?
So we've got beautiful Jennifer Lopez, Zendea and Gizelle.
Okay, what is a winter?
So a winter is strong, cold and bold. This is where you sit. I'm a winter family. Okay, so think about saturated jewel tones.
Oh good, that's what I like my color.
And they like you too, which is even better. So it's emerald, sapphire, ruby, red. And you've got people like you know, Katie Perry, Lapeit, Nuango, Lucy Lou really really strong striking people that can really take strong striking color.
What do we picture when we're talking spring?
So spring is light, warm and vivid. So I want you to picture a sandy beach, so tropical oceans of aqua and turquoise, and then a watermelon and coral summer and sunset.
Well, I want to be there. We all want to be springs.
But that's a really good illustration of the types of colors that we want to go for as a spring.
Okay, and any examples of springs.
So Cameron Dias, Amy Adams and Nicole Kidman and I put Camerondias in there because we don't have to be redheads if ye spring okay, because it's obviously it's about the combination of your features, not just one feature, not just.
Your hair color, because that's more than that. I previously mentioned that I wore black today because I was nervous, but because to me, black and white don't count, but you think they do me as suddenly I think she can't wear white off.
White is better on her, That's what she says.
Yes, So talk to me about black. It's not everyone's neutral, no, okay, and.
People are gonna hate me. Who's listening to this. I'm really sorry. I've had eight hundred and fifty clients and when we look at black on them, and often they even say to me before I even say to them, Kim, I think black's not working on me. I'm like, thank god you said it, not me.
We don't always feel fabulous in it. You just kind of feel a bit invisible, or it's easier it's buying online. Black is black, but it's not always the best color.
So when we wear black, we're taking the risk of color out of it, so we know it's safe and we never really question whether it really is flattering on us. There's so much black in store, and again, when I've been designing, I put a lot of black in store because I know it sells, of course, and so the trouble is because it then sells so much, we put more and more in. We trial new shapes in black to put it in, So we fill our store with black, white, and gray a lot at the time. But now in this side of fashion, I've realized that black, white and gray actually really harsh and quite dull. So black actually can take the color out of people, yes, and it can take the color out of colour. So when we're trying to put color together, a lot of people will tell me, you know, I can put black with a pop color. So when I'm talking popcolor. I'm talking primary and secondary shades. We can put that combination together, right, But the trouble is we've been wearing that for a long time. Yeah, so it can look a little bit dated. It looks quite harsh.
I was going to say, it feels a bit harsh. I normally only wear black with denim because I don't know how to pair black.
No, that's much better for you, actually, particularly with your eye where you sit. That's so much better. Not too pale denim more what you've got on now.
Okay, yeah, so today that's so if black stop for us, and you're saying it's not for a lot of people, what are our other sort of neutrals?
So it could be like an expresso brown, a moss green, a beautiful French navy so oh good, Navy is a neutral. Yeah, late navy is really good on so many people. So even if you can just swat black for navy, that step one, I'm really easy for listeners to do. But it's interesting because Mea Friedman talked a while ago about when she wore a chocolate brown suit into the office and everyone was like, oh, you look amazing, look amazing, And I was screaming out of going. That's your black.
Maia's and she's learning that now.
Yeah, it looks amazing. And then also you mentioned a while ago your beautiful burgundy slip dress that you just keep wearing and it's really versatile. That's because that's one of your blacks, right, And when it's black wright it can get forgotten. We might find it a bit boring.
You know, it's like, how not exciting to reach for?
No, But when it's in Burgundy, you're like, I've made a bit of an effort. I'm looking different. But burgundy isn't stuck like her primary and secondary shade.
It's moretiary, not too statementy. And that's why I've had it.
For you exactly. And they're the piece of we want in our wardrobe. So we don't want them to shout loudly, we want them to shout quietly. Yes, they're the kind of tertiary tones. That's why I teach a lot.
Of time, and so I still feel good wearing it. But it doesn't scream a season. It's not hard to style.
But also you can put burgundy with hot pink, you can put burgundy with silver, you can put burgundy with blush pink. You can put burgundy with deep green, you can put it with bright red. It looks amazing. So it's the versatility of this third tier, this tertiary kind of color. Yeah, because when we talk about color and I say to my clients, I'm going to get you in more color. Oh my god, no, no, no, they immediately think of primary and secondary shades that shout really loud.
Yeah, that's what I think. When someone says color, I think like bright, yeah, or pastor, which is just not my jam. Let me ask you about accessories, because when people say to me, getting your colours done, oftentimes I think people are asking if they can wear silver or gold? Is that part of the aspects?
It is? It is because that's a really good way for listeners to try and work out what season they are. So if they light up in silver, then they're cool. If they light up in gold, then they're more warm. But if they're not really sure and they actually look quite good in both, then they're probably neutral. Sat in the middle.
We don't have those three undertones.
Yes, they're the three main us.
Is it good to be neutral because you can go both ways? Or is it more confusing, more confusing.
So I do have some clients that really enjoy going both ways, and they have big, big wardrobes and they enjoy that, but that's very few of them. Most of clients come to me want to simplify things, of course, so being able to define. Okay, you are feeling better in silver or feeling better in gold, although both look good on you, let's choose one because the more that you can actually refine your buying decisions and it all works together. So a trim on your bag goes with your belt and your beautiful and you buckle on your shoe. If it all goes together, you can leave the house quicker. Yes, right. If we've got a fat around and this doesn't go with this, oh it's all too hard. We go back to our active where we'll go back to black, and we opt out of fashion, and that's not what we want. We want you to opt in and have fun.
Yes, that's right. Okay, So not everyone has access to you unfortunately, well they do, but not right this minute. So what if they want to go into their wardrobe and learn more about their colors or work out before they go shopping. For me, I'm a bit of a bower bird. I go shopping and I go, oh, that's pretty. Oh that's great, And I either get at home and I've got ten of them, or I get at home and I'm just not going to wear it because I was drawn to it for some reason. So what can people do at home or while listening or shortly after where they can just get a bit of a vibe of what they're going to do when they want to go shopping again.
So looking at your veins is a really good test, right, and I want you to actually get together with your friends to look at your veins because with color, we can compare ourselves.
Mine of purple on blue? Is that a color?
Yeah, so you're more blue, so you're cooler and colder. Okay, mine are a little bit more green because I'm warmer green, So green is warmer if you're neither. So if you've got friends on one side that are bluer, friends on the other side that are greener, you probably sit in the middle. Again, undertone neutral, so it's a little bit harder to define undertowe neutral, but basically you can go across both. Often if you're undertone neutral, it's less about the undertone and more about then Do I need softer color to match my softness or do I need stronger color to match my strength. It's about the type of color, not the undertone. Does that make sense?
Yes, sort of.
So that's a good way. So the vein check and the jewelry check. Yes, fun with it, that's really what it's About's about putting the fun back in fashion. If we don't know it. We go to shops, we buy loads of stuff. Yeah, we buy something from autumn, something from spring, something from winter, something from summer. We bring it home. We expect it to all work on us, and it's not yet everything's meant for us. Yeah, that's a really key like it's it's the color and it's not meant to go together, right.
And then you're so confused and you've got nothing to wear in an order full of clothes.
Yes, we spend thousands, We stress, we spend so much energy. Then we're going back and forward trying to you know, take it back, and then we've spent so much time a lot. I'm going to make this work, So we try so much harder.
That's what I was going to say. We're buying other things to match with it. When it was the next day.
Exactly, it's not meant for you. Don't change your makeup, your make cups beautiful, just stay as you are, but change the color.
Right.
So this is the best best thing you can ever do for yourself, the best investment, because it just shrinks all that you know, stress and confusion and you get clarity. And basically what you want to do is when you go into store, you go to the colors that are for you, your palette, and then you shop into shape. Yeah, so it's color first, shape second.
Great. Now this is a first podcasts, but I also host a beauty podcast, so I must ask this, does our makeup and our hair color? And obviously we're talking coloring, but what if people bleach their blonde hair or where colored contacts? Does that confuse you?
So I did an event the other day and had lots of influences. They dyed their hair, they put loads of makeup on that wasn't necessarily the right tone for them, and then they had color contacts. Yeah, that was challenging.
So they need different wardrobes for all the different looks then.
And that's the trouble. They've started to confuse themselves. So really, your natural or two tones light or deeper than your natural hair color is where we want you to stay.
Yeah, every hair color star I've interviewed over the decades say yeah, if you want it to be most flattering. A couple shades lader, a couple of shades start gups something too dressed. Yeah, exactly, and then your natural colors will still suit absolutely.
Utterly because it absolutely goes to make up. This color analysis is every single thing you put on your body, from your sunglasses, your swimwear, your toenail varnish right down to that. It makes such a difference to how pretty you think your feet are when you're wearing the right tonnail varnish and the right colored shoes.
So true mine. Sometimes a different petty color can make me feel about my.
Feet because they're not the prettiest part of our body.
Should we be working out our colors with no makeup on?
Absolutely? Makeup free is what you've got to do right, because often we'll have a little bit of color in our foundation, for example, then maybe our blush is slightly wrong for us and our lipsticks slightly wrong. But when it's all balanced, it's perfect. So do this testing with your veins and your jewelry, makeup, free up, get a mirror, play with your friendshuld.
You ask someone's opinion? You know, do you think I'm called warm? Neutral?
Absolutely? Because you want to be able to compare, and often when you're all sat together in front of the mirror, you can start to see, oh, you're a bit more olive, or actually you're much lighter than me. I've never thought about that because it is so subtle, isn't it is? Yea, But even if you can understand a few of your key characteristics, that's still absolutely going to help you by smarter and dress better.
I love this. It's very expensive. How old are these? Let's get onto bougie and budget because you've inspired me to shop more color. So where do you take your clients or recommend your clients go? Are their brands? Are their stores that do color well in a not glary, terrifying vomit of rainbow, which I'm sure that's someone's idea, but I'm guessing people are scared of color.
If they're listening solutely, Oh my gosh, they're so scared of color because we think in that really binary way, right, it's going to be black or it's going to be a pop.
Yeah. I honestly think like hot pink, flural yellow or neutral.
Yeah, that's my rain. Yeah, but it's the colors in the middle that actually want to play with more. That's the key. That's where you get your bang for buck, and that's where you get your more flattering tones on you.
You're right, but you know that hot pink dress is amazing, but how many times can you wear it? Because that's that hot pink dress? Right, where are we shopping for color?
So budget Uniclo. I think they're brilliant because of obviously they're floor space. They can actually allow loads of different colors, loads of different tones, so beautiful Kashmir and Marino will also go and check their men's wear section as well. I often buy from their men's wear because they've got different tints of color.
Love them so and interesting you say Uniclo because I don't think of them as color color, but they do have a lot of tone or like you can get a tank in three types of gray and four different types of brown and camel and it's those tertiary.
Colors colors absolutely right.
Okay, so that's our budget color place to start. What about bougie.
Jack and Jack they've still got a lot of neighbors. But they do tones. They do tones of caramel into cinnamon, they do burgundy into merlow, they do moss greens, the tones that they do. If you can't find a color that you like, I can't help you, right.
Because it's funny. When I thought about asking about stores, Yeah, my brain immediately went to bright colors. But there's so much more than that.
So and that's what we need. To flip color on its head and stop thinking about it differently so that we can put it on our body, will wear for seasons and seasons, and will look so much better on us.
I get it, okay, Well, Keim, before you joined us, I picked my bougie and budget in colors that I like, but I thought i'd bring them and show them to you and then you can tell me what you think. So I'll start with my budget, an oversized linen blazer. It's from a brand called Admison. Here on the Iconic. It's currently reduced, so I hope it's still available. I might buy it if you tell me it does come in seven neutral shades. Now, I like what they're calling khaki. I almost would call that olive is.
That would call that olive too. Yeah, khaki to me is a bit lighter.
How's that on me?
It might be a little bit earthy?
I thought that was autumn after what you said. Is that mere autum?
That's it, that's mea, that's mea.
And I want something a bit more winter. I mean, the good thing is. And obviously the link will be in the newsletter. There's other shades. There's so many shades.
So lighter neutrals are really hard to buy online because it's the nuances of is this neutral slightly yellow undertone, which is warm? Is this neutral slightly greener, which is a bit warmer? Is this slightly more pinky, which is cooler? They're hard. Always always check that you can get a full refund, greed and maybe by two Yeah, because the colors on there are actually quite different. Those little nuances that will mean that that jacket will go over fifty things in your wardrobe or only five?
Yes, okay, that have changed my life. Okay, next one, I wonder if I got this right. This is a brand on the iconic card Amelias, but this is called the bridget Linen pant in Merle Low. I hope I got this right. Wide leg pants. Yes, so that's a me color. Yes, okay, so it's like a deep red white, beautiful linen wide leg pant. But for other people there's a rose water.
Okay, so that might be a really subtle blush. Yes, most people can wear that, to be honest, Okay, it's a really interesting color because it's really gentle. A lot of people's white and off white. It's really lovely, so we don't want it to lila. It needs to be definitely a bit more pinky peach.
And then this duck egg blue. Who's that four?
That's more summer. That's more summer mus Yeah, summer family light summer.
And this goes to show that you can get the same style but in different color families. And I should say they're one eighty nine and I love them. This is so fascinating. You've changed my life and now I finally believe in color analysis, where I was a hater before, so.
As I though when I first started I had to learn this, y I did not want to learn it.
Kim, You're wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us pleasure, thank you, thank you for listening to Nothing to Wear. Don't forget to sign up to our Nothing to Wear newsletter. It's free and there's a link in the show notes. If you loved this episode, then why not check out our Dopamine Dressing episode, which is all about embracing wearing color. To listen, follow the link in the show notes and I'll see you next week. This episode was produced by Emmaline Gozillas, with audio production by Lou Hill. This podcast is powered by our subscribers. If you believe in independent women's media and want to support us, a subscription to Mamma Mia costs less than the price of a coffee each month. There's a link in the show notes and a big thank you to all of our current subscribers.