Fashionclick^®  Style Interview

oranges for fall are also more active colors, and in the 90’s, all over the world, people have got into riskier sports and high-energy activities.

We are seeing more unusual use of color combinations than we have ever seen in the history of fashion. Never have colors like orange and blue been put together. We saw orange and yellow, colors that were closely related, but rarely did we see these opposites being used together. One of the reasons - and I point this out in my book – is that people are understanding more about balance today or at least they are more curious about it. They want to get more balance in their lives, feel more like balanced individuals, and color is a marvelous means of obtaining that balance. If we take orange, which is very warm, it is the hottest of all colors actually, and we combine it with blue, which is a cool color, we now have a balance of cool and warm colors. Then again, we may opt to make the warmer colors more predominant and the cooler colors a smaller part of the combination or we can do it the opposite way.

Absolutely. I touch on the proportion of color because that is one of the biggest mistakes people make. If you use color in almost equal amounts of cool and warm, it gets very confusing. In the atmosphere, we need to have a balance of cool and warm as I mentioned earlier, but it means that one color family must be predominant. So if you decide that a beautiful apricot color is a favorite, and that you would like to wear it or put it on the walls, you would use that in about 75% of the area - whether on your body or in the atmosphere. And 25% would be in a cool range of color. It can vary a little bit, 80% - 20%, 85% - 15% for example. But one color family should be the statement whether cool or warm, whether blue, green and lavender or yellow, orange and red. One should be dominant and the other family should be subordinate. That is the proportion.

I think the biggest mistake is they look at the colors on a chip or a chart and they don’t realize that color can change once you put it on the wall. A small piece of color is very different than a large area. So what I always advise people to do when they are decorating their homes is to go out and invest in one can of paint, put it on several walls, and look at it at different times of the day.

Also, lighting can make a tremendous difference. Artificial is very different than natural light. If you are in a room that gets a great deal of natural light, the colors are going to look one way. But if you turn on the lights and you have incandescent or fluorescent lighting, you are going to get reflected colors that will change the tone of the walls. So I tell people to live with it for about a week before deciding what is the color you really want to put on your walls.

I think color for the clothing you wear - just as it is in your surroundings - should be selected on an emotional basis. When you walk into a store or go by a store window, 60% of what attracts the eye is usually the color. And if you say ‘I love that color’, generally it will love you back. Very rarely does one wear a color that is not becoming if it is a color you truly love, because we learn when we are children, by the way people react and respond to us, what looks good on us.

People who have, say, beautiful red hair, know that when they wear a coppery color, orange or a complementary green or turquoise, people have said to them since childhood, ‘oh that color is so beautiful with your hair!’ Everyone loves to get compliments and so as a result, every time you wear that special color and people comment on it, that makes you feel good. And that is a color you should choose. I think that too often people are drawn to colors based on trends. They buy the hot thing and maybe that works for you, maybe it doesn’t. But color is something we respond to on a very emotional level, and I think we should allow that emotion to come through.

Of course, women do have the advantage of being able to change their makeup. They can put on a different lipstick or a different blush and improve the look of the color. Men have a more difficult time because they don’t wear make up. I find men are really intimidated by color because they haven’t learned much about it. Girls use their mothers as role models. Mothers go shopping with

"If you love
a certain
color,
generally
it will
love you
back."

Leatrice Eiseman

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