Prepidemic Guides: Dressing Your Palette
Color can be a daunting subject for many guys. While our female counterparts are often quite the color experts, we shudder to hear words like tint, hue, and tone. But a few ideas go a long way in coloring a man’s wardrobe, and with some practice, you can learn them too – we promise.
When it comes to color, there are two extremes: those whose hues are dictated by the latest fashion advertisements and those who will staunchly swear against wearing anything that’s not “their color.” Here’s how we look at it. Since you look amazing in a range of colors, there’s no reason to spend your money to just look good. And as we’ll explain below. while one’s palette should always be dictated by his complexion, it should still be flexible enough to show eclecticism and flair. We’ll show you how to find the stylish medium.
Ralph Lauren, which always takes great care in choosing its models, purposefully crops below the eyes and hair to presentboth neutral and vivid colors.
Determining your palette.
In a utility standpoint, color should do two things: minimize proportional imperfections and draw attention to the face. Let’s first take a look at the latter.
To determining the most flattering color for your complexion, place yourself along two axes: contrast and temperature. To determine your contrast, compare your hair and eye color to your skin color and position yourself as high, medium or low contrast. To determine your temperature, determine if you look better holding something blue/gray/snow white (cool) or yellow/brown/beige (warm) to your face.
Here's the simplified spectrum: identify your color along the two axes.
What does this mean?
A high contrast face calls for vivid or pure colors with a greater light versus shade while a low contrast face calls for a more muted or faded (think pastel) palette. A cold complexion favors bluer hues and black while a warm complexion favors yellower hues and brown (navy blue does work as a neutral color for warm complexions).
Here, the dark colors on the left overpower the warm, low-contrast face while the brighter shades complement that on the right.
This warm, medium contrast gentleman is dulled down on the right but simply enlivened by the gold and charcoal combination on the left.
When selecting from your wardrobe, then, you simply refer to the appropriate axis. And while we believe developing a color aesthetic doesn’t mean memorizing rules, the guys who need clearer guidelines can check out this helpful guide here.
Emphasizing your features.
Within the general framework above, you can further enhance your features by emphasizing your unique colors. Highlight your vivid blue eyes, emphasize your ruddy cheeks, and framing your face between your hair and a similarly-colored ensemble; these all viable ways to highlight your unique features.
Notice the blue eyes of this model framed by the blue scarf, which is a bit muted down to match his low-contrast palette.
Sir Paul Smith masterfully frames this guy’s light skin with a black shirt and some bold frames.
As warm, light, and vivid colors draw and cold, muted, and faded colors suppress attention, they can also be used to adjust your proportions. For example, a man with a slighter build can emphasize his upper body with a vivid red sweater or, for the low-contrast guys, a warm red-brown sports jacket with dark slacks. Similarly, someone with a heavier build can wear a dark navy suit to create length and draw more attention to his face rather than his body.
Here’s a great example of using color to suit your proportions. The bulk’s still there, but he looks 20 pounds lighter.
Keep this primer in mind next time you construct an outfit and soon, you’ll find yourself a lot more sensitive to your best colors and a lot more skilled in self-expression.
3 Responses “Prepidemic Guides: Dressing Your Palette ”
Subscribe to Prepidemic!
Your best post yet
I am pleased to see such an in-depth post regarding a most fundamental technique. I think though, that a few hints can be more simplified. First, echo hair color under the face. As a pale-faced man with brown hair that is almost black in hue, wearing a nice black shirt frames my face well and makes it the center of attention. Second, keep color around the face. This is easy with traditional shirt, suit, and tie dress, which localizes three pieces on the chest directly under the chin. Lastly, while black men seem low contrast, in practice this is not the best classification. When a dark face is surrounded by a white shirt, high contrast naturally occurs. Therefore, wearing an ensemble that itself has medium to high contrast is most complimentary, depending the relative depth of color of each gentleman’s own face.