How to find your color season, and why it matters

Some days you put on a top and someone asks if you slept badly. Another day, a different top, the same face, and someone says you look well. Often the difference is not your sleep. It is the color sitting closest to your face.

That is the whole idea behind color seasons. Some colors make your skin look clear and your eyes look bright. Others pull color out of your face and add shadows that were not there before. Knowing which is which takes a lot of the guesswork out of getting dressed.

What a color season is

A color season is a name for a group of colors that sit well together and suit the same kind of coloring. The seasons are a shorthand: Spring and Autumn colors are warm, with a golden base; Summer and Winter colors are cool, with a blue base.

A common way to do it today uses twelve seasons, three in each family:

• Spring: Light Spring, Warm Spring and Clear Spring. Light, warm colors that look fresh and clear.
• Summer: Light Summer, Cool Summer and Soft Summer. Cool colors with a soft, gentle look.
• Autumn: Soft Autumn, Warm Autumn and Deep Autumn. Warm, rich colors with an earthy feel.
• Winter: Clear Winter, Cool Winter and Deep Winter. Cool, crisp colors with strong contrast.

The season is not about the time of year you were born, or the weather. It is only a way to describe colors.

The three questions

Every season comes from three simple questions. You do not need to answer all three perfectly. Even one clear answer helps.

Warm or cool? Warm colors have a yellow or golden base, like camel, coral and olive. Cool colors have a blue base, like navy, raspberry and icy pink. Hold something gold and something silver near your face. If one makes your skin look clearer and the other makes it look tired, that is a strong clue.

Light or deep? Look at your hair, skin and eyes together. If they are all quite light, light colors will probably suit you. If they are deep, or if there is a strong contrast between them, deeper colors will carry you better.

Clear or soft? Some people look wonderful in bright, pure colors. On others, the same bright color seems to arrive before they do. If bright colors overpower you, softer, slightly muted shades, like dusty rose or sage, are likely your friends.

How to test at home

You can learn a lot in ten minutes with things you already own.

1. Stand by a window in daylight. Indoor bulbs, especially warm ones, change how colors look.
2. Take off your makeup and pull your hair back, or cover it with a plain light scarf.
3. Hold one color at a time just under your chin. Use clothes, scarves or towels.
4. Look at your skin, not the fabric. Do the shadows under your eyes get softer or deeper? Does your skin look even, or blotchy? Does your face come forward, or fade back?
5. Take a photo of each one in the same light and compare them side by side. A friend’s eye helps too.

Try pairs that differ in one way only, such as a warm red and a cool red, or a bright blue and a dusty blue. The difference is easier to see that way.

Why it matters

Knowing your season is not about rules. It is about making the clothes you already have work harder, and buying fewer things that do not.

• Fewer shopping mistakes. A short list of colors you know suit you makes it easier to walk past the ones that do not.
• A closet that works together. Colors from the same season tend to mix easily, so more of your pieces go with each other.
• Easier mornings. When most of what you own suits you, there are fewer wrong answers.

You can still wear any color you love. The simple trick is to keep your best colors near your face, and wear the rest further away: on trousers, skirts, shoes and bags.

Color in the Gulf light

Strong sunlight can make soft colors look washed out outdoors, while the light in malls and offices can make warm colors look more yellow than they are. If you can, look at a new piece both inside and outside before you decide.

If you wear a headscarf, it is the color that sits closest to your face all day, which makes it the best place to use your season. An abaya or an outer layer can then be a neutral you love, with your best color framing your face.

Where Tiraaz comes in

When Tiraaz opens, its color report is built for this. It shows your season, your best colors and the ones to go easy on, with makeup and outfit ideas, and it puts a small “Your color” mark on the clothes in your closet that suit you, so you can spot them fast.

Until then, a window, a mirror and a few scarves will get you a long way. Start with one question, warm or cool, and see what your face tells you.