Adrianne Webster meets a House of Colour expert to find out about the power of colour analysis.
How often have you thought, ‘Does that colour suit me?’ I’d be willing to bet the answer is ‘a lot’. Because unless you’re living under an extremely offline rock, you’ve likely noticed the ‘colour analysis’ trend during your nightly TikTok doomscroll and fallen into a rabbit hole to find out which season you are.
The art of ‘getting your colours done’ is having a bit of a resurgence lately. Having boomed in the ‘70s and ‘80s when Carole Jackson’s book Color Me Beautiful sold over 13 million copies worldwide, it was commonplace for a trained colour consultant to come to your house and ‘do your colours’ — i.e., tell you which shades you should steer towards if you wanted to look like the best version of yourself.
Now, the trend has boomed on TikTok too, with over 277k videos posted on the topic. But having spent more time than I’d like to admit trying to work out my own season through various filters and videos, I thought it was high time I sought the advice of a professional.
I met with the lovely Lynsey Howell (a Summer!), a trained specialist from House of Colour, at her studio in Livingston, and we spent a good deal of time discussing the science of colour analysis.
How does colour analysis work?
A trained consultant will sit you down, cover your hair and body with neutral fabric, and drape different colours over you to first determine your undertone — are you cool or warm? — and then your colour season: Spring or Autumn (warm-toned) or Summer or Winter (cool-toned). Within your season, there are different sub-seasons of shades ranging from Dark Summer to Soft Autumn.
Different consultancy brands work from different systems. Lynsey explained that House of Colour (HoC)’s roots go back to Hollywood, where Robert Dorr, an artist familiar with Johannes Itten’s theories of colour groupings developed in the Bauhaus, observed how an actress could look wonderful one day yet tired and older another.
He recognised this was the effect of the colour she was wearing on her skin, and the beginnings of colour analysis were born. This quickly developed into a four-seasons analysis framework.
What is the process like?
Lynsey showed me her colour wheel made up of swatches of the four seasons, and we looked at how drastic slight changes could be. She held silver pearls against warm fabrics, which cheapened the metals, but when held against the cool winter palette, the pearls were transformed, looking expensive and elegant.
Armed with this knowledge, we moved over to the mirror and got into the fun bit. Looking a bit like an extra from The Handmaid’s Tale with fabric covering my hair and body, Lynsey draped different shades against my face and body to firstly get a sense of my undertone — something that I’d puzzled over as a pale person with cool eyes but a touch of redness to my hair and freckles on my skin.
Other things she’s looking for at this stage are how the drapes brighten or dull my eyes, even or bring out redness in the skin, and whether they bring out or detract from dark circles and shadows in the face.
After a few minutes, it was decided: I’m a cool tone! This means I should wear silver jewellery over gold (goodbye, jewellery box full of yellow gold) and opt for cool-toned make-up.
Knowing I’m a cool tone narrowed things down to the cool seasons: Summer or Winter. Lynsey selected the specific drapes for those seasons and laid them against my face to see which flattered me best. We discovered that the punchy, bold fuchsias and electric blues of the Winter palette overpowered my features, while the Summer palette brought things into focus and harmonised well.
The summer palette: Soft, blue, rose, muted
So, I’m a Summer! But we didn’t stop there. Within the Summer palette, there are sub-seasons: Sweet Pea, True Summer, Dark Summer, Brown Summer, and Pastel Summer.
I’d always had an inkling that I might be a Summer, but when I tried outfits in the stereotypical pastel shades of the Summer palette, I felt washed out and a bit… meh. But when Lynsey started layering some darker Summer shades of burgundy, cool teal, and navy — admittedly, tones I’d never normally wear — my features brightened and everything started to just… make sense.
We also talked about make-up, with Lynsey giving me a full tutorial on the kinds of lipstick, concealer, blush, foundation, mascara, and eyeliner I should wear to bring out my eyes, colouring, and lips in the best way, while using minimal product. There were some shades in there I wouldn’t usually wear, but I am dipping my toe into post-session.
So with all that said, it’s official… I’m a Dark Summer. It’s not a season or sub-season I’d ever have guessed for myself, so it just goes to show that it’s really worth seeing a professional to get an outside, objective perspective on what best suits you.
Lynsey gave me a helpful guide full of swatches of the shades within the Summer season and had gone through each shade in the mini booklet, rating them from 1-3 stars on a scale of how well they flattered me, with some standing out as ‘wow’ colours.
House of Colour consultants also share a thorough guide to which shade of denim suits you best, which colours you should wear for ultimate impact in a corporate setting, and your ‘BTB’ shades — ‘better than black’. I learned that Summers should never wear black; that’s 99% of my wardrobe gone!
This swatch book serves as a helpful tool when out shopping — the guide is small enough for a pocket or bag, and you can hold the swatches against clothes you’re considering trying on to work out whether they’d work within your palette.
Final thoughts
You can take away as much as you want from colour analysis — as Lynsey said many times during our consultation, there’s no House of Colour police that’s going to come and arrest you if you wear a shade that’s not in your season. And there are some bits of advice I learned that I’m not sure I’ll adopt right away.
For instance, Lynsey advises Summers to wear four to five different shades at once, whereas I (ever the minimalist!) prefer a sleek tonal outfit of one or two shades at most, à la Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy or ‘90s Mossy in her Calvin Klein era.
But that’s the beauty of it — you can do what you want with what you’ve learned, and if you still love wearing mustard yellow when you’re a cool-toned Summer, then great! No one’s going to stop you.
However, with the rise of low-cost fast fashion — we discard 92 million tonnes of clothes-related waste each year — I’m trying to be more considered with my style choices these days. I want a new coat or dress to last a lifetime and want to make sure I’m really nailing the silhouette and shade first time around.
Colour analysis is a great way to help you do that, especially with tools like your colour guide and the many Facebook groups and support tools that House of Colour share at the end of your session. There’s even a group to help you work out how to dye your current wardrobe to match your season. How cool is that?
Armed with my House of Colour Summer palette guidebook in my pocket, no & Other Stories is safe. Now, what TikTok style trend can I obsess over next?
Find out more about Lynsey Howell and her services at houseofcolour.co.uk/stylist-profile/lynsey-howell.
