For White People Only?
Some people have criticized seasonal color analysis for the way it seems designed for a White audience. Critics allege it describes White people well but fails to account for the full variety of human beauty.
To quote one thoughtful blog post: "This system fails for women of color because it fails to acknowledge that women of color are a spectrum."
In practice, this has unfortunately been true in many cases. People with deeper complexions, along with many brown-haired, brown-eyed people, have found themselves automatically typed Dark Autumn or Dark Winter, without a real consideration of their coloring.
Here, I aim to provide examples of humans of color from a variety of seasons.
I may not succeed in finding examples in all 12 seasons; paler-skinned, light-eyed folks do dominate Light Spring and Light Summer, just as Dark Autumn and Dark Winter are dominated by people with darker coloring.
But I hope to succeed in demonstrating that not all Black, Latino, and Asian folks are "Dark Something," and that seasonal color analysis is truly for everyone.
I'll add more celebrity examples as I discover them. If you know of some, please contact me!
To quote one thoughtful blog post: "This system fails for women of color because it fails to acknowledge that women of color are a spectrum."
In practice, this has unfortunately been true in many cases. People with deeper complexions, along with many brown-haired, brown-eyed people, have found themselves automatically typed Dark Autumn or Dark Winter, without a real consideration of their coloring.
Here, I aim to provide examples of humans of color from a variety of seasons.
I may not succeed in finding examples in all 12 seasons; paler-skinned, light-eyed folks do dominate Light Spring and Light Summer, just as Dark Autumn and Dark Winter are dominated by people with darker coloring.
But I hope to succeed in demonstrating that not all Black, Latino, and Asian folks are "Dark Something," and that seasonal color analysis is truly for everyone.
I'll add more celebrity examples as I discover them. If you know of some, please contact me!
Bright Spring
Selita Ebanks
Niecy Nash
|
Ni Ni
Sanaa Lathan
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Kerry Washington
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Soft Summer
 Adriana Lima  Danielle Leonel |
 Leona Lewis 
Amandla Stenberg (thanks for the tip, reader Kim C!)
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True Winter
Michelle Williams
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Bright Winter
Romany Malco
Zhang Ziyi
|
 Alek Wek 
Lupita Nyong'o
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Kevin Brown
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True Autumn
 Beyonce  Aishwarya Rai |
 Jennifer Lopez  Eva Mendes |
Soft Autumn
 Naima Mora 
Mariah Carey
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Rihanna
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Additional Resources
Some people still believe all Springs are blondes with light eyes. Christine Scaman's written a wonderful article featuring a brown-eyed, brown-haired, half-Korean Bright Spring in several of her season's drapes. Check it out here.
Check out Donna Fujii's excellent and underappreciated book,
She proposes an extensive system of color categorization for Asian, African-American and Latina women. This system hasn't yet caught on, but I think it deserves more attention.
Darlene Mathis has a wonderful book,
with several examples of women from all four primary seasons.