How to Wear Colour




Illustration by Georgina Heffernan

 

Every woman knows that feeling - you wake up in the morning and feel two sizes bigger.
The scales say you weigh the same, but the mirror in your room tells a different story; the dress you looked so stylish in only a few days ago now looks decidedly lumpy. It‘s time for dark colours and baggy jumpers - in short, your fat wardrobe. If you are having a 'fat' day you‘ll probably stick to wearing black. Many women wear black because it has the same slimming effect on a body as ignoring chocolate for an entire month but the colour has a disturbing side-effect - it ages the face as well.

Black clothing can, in fact, underscore dark lines under the chin, accentuate shadows around the eyes and give your skin a greyish tinge (charming.) While black gives a slimmer silhouette, wearing it next to the face will, quite simply, add years. Wearing black head to toe is wrong on so many levels, like seeing a Goth on on a sunny beach; it looks out of place and dower- especially during the summer months.

 So isn‘t it time that you ditched the funeral garb for something infinitely more flattering?

Yes, ladies I‘m talking about colour, glorious, wonderful colour. Tomato red, sea green, duck egg blue, rose pink, buttery yellow and regal purple. Recently, black has been loosing ground to colour in the fashion stakes and more and more women are ditching sombre palettes for rainbow prints, and foregoing the safety of the little black dress for evenings in shimmering metallic and eye-popping primaries.

 It‘s worth keeping in mind that a great outfit is as much about proportion, cut and overall style as it is about colour and although dark shades do minimise your size - they can look incredibly drab. Monotone coloured outfits can be just as flattering, if not more, than plain old boring black and wearing additional colours around your face will also bring attention to your skin tone, face shape and eye colour. What's not to love?

If you have put on weight over the years, avoid bights in problem areas and introduce colour slowly, for instance a bright pair of shoes or beads, or layering a shocking-pink vest under a black one. If you are too nervous to suddenly don a myriad of rainbow shades, why not try introducing small splashes of colour to your existing wardrobe. Throw a colourful jacket over your boring black ensemble and you suddenly have a flattering look that will work.

Whether you are a size 6 or 16. Introduce other splashes of colour with a few well chosen accessories such as pillar box red clutch, a striped scarf or a pair of purple heels and before you know it - you‘ve gone from drab - to fab! One last word of warning, never, under any circumstance, wears the colour mustard. It has been scientifically proven to be the shade most men find utterly repellent ( handy to know). Red, one the other, hand will get their - erm- juices flowing each and every time.

Problem solved...

   "I don't design clothes. I design dreams." - Ralph Lauren