Discover your color palette and your style type.

Is True Summer Too Warm for You?

9/4/2017

Interestingly, it can seem that way.

We say True Summer colors are purely cool. But next to True Winter colors, True Summer colors actually appear a tad bit warmer.

This has to do with the fact that True Summer colors are less saturated --i.e., more greyed.

To desaturate or "grey" a color, we add its opposite color. For example, to mute a purple, we add yellow.

By doing so, we draw the color a tiny bit across the color wheel, bringing it closer to the warmest color on the wheel. So, since it's closer to the warmest color, it appears to be a bit warmer.

Here are some True Summer pinks:

And here are some True Winter pinks:

Those True Summer pinks look a little warmer, don't they? The warmth is a result of the tiny bit of yellowish-greenish color that is added to the True Winter pinks to desaturate them.

Here's the practical application of this for you: if you think you're a True Summer, but those "purely cool" colors still feel too warm for you, you might want to try True Winter.

:-)

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20 Comments

Rosetta

9/7/2017 03:22:19 am

This is very interesting, but I'd really appreciate a similar article for us warm (or warm-neutral) seasons too :)

ruby

9/7/2017 03:20:02 pm

I assume it would work on a similar principle i.e.warm spring being warmer than warm autumn because the autumn colours are muted by adding the opposite cool colour.

Rosetta

9/8/2017 08:45:32 am

Hmm, that's an interesting thought; so one would say that True (i.e. Warm) Spring is warmer than True Autumn? Hopefully Rachel will chime in on this :)

Rachel

9/8/2017 11:39:40 am

I will put it on my list of future blog posts! :-)

Lena

9/8/2017 02:02:38 am

Hi Rachel, you wrote that if you want to figure out your style category you should try different outfits and pick the one who makes your face look beautiful. But that could be hard to tell for an amateur. Could you tell me what to look for exactly ? Should the lines of the outfit harmonize with the lines of my face? If I have an ornate face with curved lines, should I look for the same thing in the outfit to flatter my face? If my face is angular, should I look for angular lines in my clothes?
And how do I if I am a blend of 3 or more categories and I want to know which one is dominant?
Also, how important is your personality in all this? Should you take that too into consideration?

Rachel

9/8/2017 11:49:06 am

Lena, great question -- "Could you tell me what to look for exactly?" I *wish* I could teach this. It's not easy.

The Style ID Calculator is my attempt to operationalize this sort of analysis for every woman, but when it comes down to this very basic question -- "How can I tell what's beautiful?" -- it becomes squishy and not easy to answer. Here's what I do, as best as I can explain it: I attempt to empty my mind of all thoughts and distractions; I enter a sort of meditative state. I have the pictures in front of me, but I'm actually putting my attention on my own emotions -- I visualize this as putting my attention on the feeling I have in my chest area. When a combination is beautiful, or harmonious, I feel a sort of lightness inside, and an attraction -- like I want to move toward the image, or continue to look at it. It's almost like my ears pricking up. It's like my soul is saying, "Hello, what's this?"

By contrast, when I look at an unlovely or disharmonious combination, I notice a flicker of unpleasant emotion and a feeling of wanting to draw back from the image. Sometimes I feel my face scrunch up -- almost to say, "Ew."

To notice these feelings in yourself, you could try looking at two pics of a celebrity you like -- one of that celeb looking amazing, and one of her looking meh. Flip back and forth between them, but put your attention on you own emotions. Try to sense what's changing inside you emotionally as you flip back and forth.

Rachel

9/8/2017 11:51:51 am

With regard to whether your personality is a factor, it's really not -- unless you want it to be. If you choose to incorporate your personality into your visual appearance, and it so happens that your personality and your physical appearance contrast with each other, you may appear visually inharmonious. But if manifesting your personality in your appearance is important to you, do it; the point of all of this is to increase our power and happiness, right?

Lena

9/9/2017 04:24:04 am

Thank you Rachel, I will try to do like you do!

Rosetta

9/8/2017 08:51:10 am

In reference to Lena's comment above, I always instinctively know what makes me look beautiful (and what doesn't, it's just so clear when there's something "off" in an outfit / garment /style for me), and I've always thought everyone knows this the same way - after all, it's so obvious! Amateur or not. So I must admit I'm quite taken aback when I've seen people say they just have no clue as to what looks good on them... How can this be?

Rachel

9/8/2017 11:53:05 am

Rosetta, I think you must have a gift! It's my experience that "I have no clue what looks good on me" is unfortunately much more common for women than "I know exactly what looks good on me." More power to you!

Katja

9/9/2017 04:36:51 am

But can you really be objective about yourself? I find that hard myself. The things you think look good on you may very well be things that you like. They may not necessarily look good on you. (That is not always the case. I don't know in your case, Rosetta. You may have an eye for these things.)

Rosetta

9/10/2017 05:52:25 am

Thank you, Rachel :) I truly didn't realize it's so rare as you say, like I said I thought everyone knows it the same way as I do! Maybe it's also because I've distanced myself years ago from the "mainstream" way of very masculine clothing that all women wear nowadays, i.e. jeans & t-shirts etc., it just isn't *me, and slowly built up a picture (and wardrobe!) of what actually suits me, instead of what others tell me to wear...

Katja, I'm also a bit sceptic about this "you can't be objective about yourself" stuff, surely you are the best person in the world to know what looks good on you! And other people are hardly objective either, their views on you are *always* affected by their own tastes & opinions ;) As is evident from what's been written about the nature of compliments by Christine Scaman, for example.

Rachel

9/11/2017 10:53:54 am

I think most people do find it difficult to be objective about their physical appearance -- we often hyper-focus on details that other people barely notice, and fail to notice aspects of ourselves that are obvious to other people. I find selfies *extremely* helpful in this regard.

Rosetta

9/10/2017 06:13:30 am

And also, it wouldn't make anyone very happy to wear clothes that they *dislike*, even if told by someone else that "this is what you should wear and what I think looks good on you"! ;)

Rosetta

9/10/2017 06:15:13 am

The above was meant as a continuation to my longer comment above it, looks like it got into slightly wrong place :)

Nancy

9/10/2017 06:36:40 am

Jeans and t-shirts are not masculine clothing. You can look very feminine and sexy in that kind of clothes. It all depends on how you look and what kind of jeans and t-shirt you choose for yourself.

Rachel

9/11/2017 10:51:02 am

Jeans and t-shirts are archetypically "masculine" -- both because, for most of their history, they were worn predominantly by men & boys, and because they are generally geometric in shape (geometricity always reads as masculine) and Natural in fabric. They tend to be very good on women with a lot of Natural, a lot of Gamine, or both.

Katja

9/10/2017 09:14:50 am

Rosetta, I'm just saying that it can't hurt to ask for advice from a professional or a friend when determining what kind of clothes suits you. Maybe you do know yourself well, but your view on yourself is affected by your own taste and opinion. You don't know how you are perceived by others.
I also think that it is important to like the clothes you are wearing. You should feel comfortable in them and they should " feel like you".

Rosetta

9/12/2017 06:50:44 am

I do get what you mean, Katja, but actually I think it *can* hurt, in some cases - as like I said, others' views are just opinions (even professionals', yes), and they may well just confuse you more than anything else - *especially* if you are already wearing clothes that you feel comfortable in, ones that feel like you! :) Of course in the opposite case, when you have no clue, it can surely help, yes.

Rachel

9/12/2017 09:33:59 am

I think it's important for us to occasionally zoom out and think about the big picture of all of this color and style business. For me, my immediate goal is to help women find the colors and styles that are most visually harmonious with their natural physical selves.

But the larger, more important goal is to help women feel beautiful and confident *as they are* -- to help them let go of a feeling that they need to fundamentally alter themselves in order to look and feel good.

So if a woman already feels beautiful and confident in the choices she's currently making, I encourage her to keep doing what she's doing. :-)

Truth is Beauty

Is True Summer Too Warm for You?

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