What's your favorite color? Do you have a color you don't like at all? Do have certain colors that you think you look better in? For the first half of my life, I had one color that I didn't like and thought I didn't look good in, Red.
I was one of those little girls who had the long, dark red curls that everyone said were beautiful. However, after every comment that someone made about how much they loved my curls, it was followed with a comment about how redheads couldn't wear red. I heard it so much that I grew up to dislike red in all situations, not just in clothes. As time went on, I also heard that redheads shouldn't wear pink either. Pink was just behind red in my dislikes.
Advance to several years when my oldest sister went to a Color Me Beautiful party. This was a home party where they determined what season you were according to your hair and skin tone and what colors looked best on you. My sister learned that she was an Autumn at this party and looked good in earth tones or Autumn colors. The rest of us, sisters, had similar coloration to her and followed her lead in what colors we should be wearing. Years later, I even got a Color Me Beautiful book as a reference for my colors. One of the first things I learned from this was there are two basic colors of red, a blue based one and an orange based one. The orange based one was okay for Autumns to wear. Wow! Red was okay to wear.
However, now not only did I know a whole set of colors that supposedly looked good on me, I had whole set of ones that supposedly didn't look good on me, not just red and pink. I'm not sure this was progress. As time went on, I did gravitate to the colors that were recommended for Autumns. And they probably did look better with my skin tone.
But I don't really care any more. If I like the color whether or not it is supposed to look good on me, I wear it. If it makes me happy, it will show on my face and that will make me look better than anything else. And these days, I like red. I wear it, I decorate with it, and I paint with it. I am happy for this progress and sad for all those years, I missed out on the fun things that were red.
Oh, I remember "Color Me Beautiful"! A good friend of mine was the Appearance Coordinator for Walt Disney World employees back when I worked there. As such, she was in charge of the Wardrobe department and of helping her supervisor develop new looks for costumes and also the dress code for employees not in costume. She would discuss Color Me Beautiful and give us advice on what color to wear or not, when I was a secretary. Now the position no longer exists, that I know of, and Wardrobe has completely changed as Cast Members are now allowed (well, required!) to bring their costumes home and wash them themselves, something that was a HUGE no-no when I worked there. But I'm rambling.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, I never was into fashion or clothes much so I never really paid attention to what color I should or not wear. I can't remember what "season" I was either. My favorite color is black because it's slimming and doesn't show stains much (unless it's baby spit up), lol. The colors I don't like to wear are orange and yellow. Orange is pretty much a color I don't like on anything. My grandma and my mom both love decorating with orange, bleh.
I prefer dark tones like black, grey, navy blue, brown, but I also love colors like pink, red, blues, greens. I avoid white because I'm messy so a white T-shirt gets stained almost immediately (somehow I'm able to avoid that with the other colors, why is that?!) although I do love white tops a lot.
I think that you have the right attitude: if it makes you happy and YOU feel you look good in a certain color, go ahead and wear it! Life is too short to worry about what other people think, IMO.
I like how you made the word "red" actually red throughout the post. Have you seen the test (not sure if it's an intelligence test or what) where you're supposed to read a paragraph describing various objects of color and the color words are in color but the color doesn't match the word? So for instance "orange" is colored "pink". It's really hard to read because your brain gets really distracted by what it sees. There's another such test to determine whether you are colorblind here http://www.color-blindness.com/2007/06/27/stroop-test-can-you-read-the-colors/ I just tried it again and on the 3rd line I got stumped by the 2nd word. I see it, I see the color, and I cannot make myself say the COLOR. So weird! In any case, I'm glad I READ your post :)
I'm with you on the white shirts and stains. I love a crisp white shirt, but always seem to spill something on them. I don't have many anymore.
DeleteIn Lumosity, the computer game to keep your mind in shape, they have a game similar to your link. You have to respond based on the word instead of the color it is written in or vice versa. I can do it, but it is pretty hard.
The thing about colors is that each color has undertones and values. I can wear reds with blue undertones but look washed out in reds with yellow undertones. The same goes for every other color, but I do have troubles with greens.
ReplyDeleteI do not wear orange because the orange tones that look good with my skin tone is not available often. There is one shade of orange that literally makes me gag. There is an azalea that color and a couple of houses in my neighborhood have them. During the blooming season I will not look at their yards because looking at that particular shade makes me want to barf. There is also a blog and I like the content but they use the same orange background color so I can't read it on my computer. The color is altered slightly when I read it on my iPad. I know it is odd, but it is what it is.
Wow, I've never heard of anyone that has a gag reflex to a color unless it's associated with something else. I know the azaleas you're talking about and really like them.
DeleteIt's a good thing that you weren't around Wally when he was growing up. He went through an orange phase for several years. Orange shirts, orange blankets, etc. I'm sure among his things there would have been the offending orange. Hope the orange azaleas are done blooming.
I guess that makes me three for three commenters who don't care to wear orange. Peachy orange looks good on some people but makes me washed out. Pea green is another color that doesn't seem to flatter most people.
ReplyDeleteI went through the Color Me Beautiful season testing when I was a bridesmaid for a friend--that was her gift to the bridal party. It was a fun gift, actually--a fun girl's night out. I am a winter, which works out great since I wear a lot of black. Colors in the bright pink/cranberry shades (with blue undertones) are the colors that I get the most compliments in when I wear them. I still kinda follow the color guide, but not obsessively so. I'm probably more concerned with the cut of the garment these days--is it slimming and do I feel comfortable in it?
I think I identify with almost all of Nathalie's comments about colors she wears and why. NObody in our family gets to wear much in the way of white. I'm not that dedicated to doing laundry.
The colors that you all don't like are just the right ones for Autumns. I guess there are enough colors to go around for every one. I haven't quite gotten into the slimming black thing yet, but the middle age spread is catching up with me. I may have to start wearing slimming black even though it's supposed to look bad on Autumns.
DeleteThere are probably shades of orange that I like but what first comes to mind is a very harsh shade of orange. There undoubtedly are warm, beautiful shades out there.
DeleteYou could wear browns if you are really worried about "spread", although I doubt it's an issue for you. I have a broad-shouldered, short-waisted, thick-thigh build so I have been aware of using clothing as a way to lengthen and slim my figure for decades.
Right now, I think it's more about the proportion of my clothes. I have a long torso and wider hips. If the shirt hits too high, it accentuates the hips. But comfort trumps everything.
DeleteOh my. I too was told there were all sorts of colors that were "off limits" due to my strawberry blonde hair - mostly red, orange & yellow. The only things I was supposed to wear were green & blue. Now, as a dyed in the wool Denver Broncos fan, this was hard news to swallow! And my high school colors were orange and black too! What's a girl to do?
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, I've since heard that redheads should wear "jewel tones" - no clue what that means, but I assume it means pure bright colors.
At this point I don't really care about things like fashion, so I just wear what's clean & available. :-) I suppose I do tend toward blues & greens still, but I do have some orange, yellow & red bike wear - the "high visibility" colors.
This is sort of an aside... but I find it curious that a disproportionate number of my blogging buddies have red hair. What do you think that means? Perhaps I "self select" and tend to follow the blogs of other red heads. That can't be the case here, since I followed your blog long before I knew you were a member of the club. I just find it interesting...
I'm going to have to think about that one. We are on opposite ends of the red spectrum. You are on the light end and I'm on the dark end. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm to save that tidbit as I gather data.
DeleteAlso, we talked about the Vulcan salute and how it was hard for your dominant hand, but not for the other. I've done some sampling and found that every one I sampled can do it with both hands but struggle more with their dominant hand. I assume that means that we use our fingers as a group more with our dominant hand than the other hand, so it is harder to separate them.
Disclaimer: I don't really know what's going on and I don't think my sample set was large enough to be statistically significant.
I found it interesting in the Harry Potter books that so many characters were redheads. And they are all the "good" people in her books.
DeleteWe have red hair in my family background--my grandfather had red hair and I have cousins with red hair--I was disappointed that I didn't get that particular gene. Then I could join your club! :)
Hair dye, could make you an honorary member :) My mother has black hair and my father had light red hair and we all come out with auburn hair. We looked nothing like my mother and people used to ask her whose kids she was babysitting for when she had us out. However, with the recent additions to the gene pool, we added some more red haired ancestors.
DeleteOK... very interesting about the Vulcan salute. I think your hypothesis makes some sense.
DeleteAnd Kris... I'm musing over anyone wanting red hair, especially as a kid. I always felt it was a bit of a curse since I got teased a lot and couldn't enjoy things like sunbathing with my friends. I always wanted jet black hair. I dyed it once for Halloween... and let's just say that Halloween was the one and only day that it was suited for... at least on me!
I have very dark brown hair (some call it black) and white skin, so I have to be careful about the sun, too. People seem surprised that I don't tan well because of my hair color. I do get a little darker but no one can tell because I'm so pale. I remember being in study groups during college and in the spring we would study outside--everyone wanted to be by me because they said the sun's rays would bounce off of my glowingly white skin onto them. The bonus is, now that I'm past the half-century mark, that my skin is aging well. We sun-avoiders just may have the last laugh.
DeleteIn the days before sunscreen, it was difficult for me to be outside at all without getting burned. My mother tried to get us to cover up and limit our time outside, but we got burned all the same. I do have sun damage, but it's not as bad as it could be. However, my husband who has darker skin, does not show sun damage at all. He uses sun screen now, but not as a kid. We get the skin we get just like everything else.
DeleteAdd me to your sample of people who can do the Vulcan salute better with my non-dominant hand!
ReplyDeleteI am sure you look lovely in red! I come from a culture where the Western concept of what colors "matched" and "clashed" didn't seem to apply! Saris have color combinations that often feature colors that are opposite to each other on the color wheel and, the brighter the better!
Now that you mention it, I've never seen a sari that I didn't think was pretty. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder where color is concerned.
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