Faded Church Hall Curtains, & a Borrowed Scarf

I love seeing people in their best colours. I can become quite emotional, with a feeling that stems from the pit of my stomach, making me feel both excitedly energised, and almost tearful (in a good way :-)), at the same time.

I have just experienced this emotion again today. It has reminded me why I am so fascinated by Colour Analysis, and why my head is constantly trying to work out the seasonal categories of people I come across, and the best colours for them from their palettes.

This afternoon, I went along to my weekly art class at a local Church Hall. A class friend, Mary, I had already deduced a while back (... secretly analysing her, without her knowing!) has colourings typical of a Soft Summer in the 12 seasons category system.  Her colouring is very similar to Jennifer Anniston’s and Sarah Jessica-Parker’s.

Over the past few weeks I have been chatting to her about colour analysis (I am always trying to find people interested in talking about colour analysis!). I sent her links to my favourite sites ... my top favourite being Lora Alexandra’s “Pretty Your World”.  Mary already has a superb artist’s eye for colour, which seems to translate into her being aware of the colours which suit her.  But I had felt that she may be able to go both:

(a) a little deeper in colour (that is, deeper in darkness, or value, terms, but not too dark as to be a Winter colour in the 12 seasons), and

(b) much more greyed in tone, i.e. softer, less bright (less clear), almost faded looking tones.

 than she wears at times.

This afternoon, two special moments happened:

1                  I suddenly noticed the curtains in the Church Hall contained colours of the Soft Summer palette. Looking at the curtains hanging at the windows, they appeared overall cool (blue) toned, yet greyed, washed out and colourless (... I know this description does not sound too complimentary!). However, I thought that they were typical of Mary’s palette, so, much to our art teacher’s amusement, we clothed the curtain material around Mary. Immediately her grey/blue eyes came alive to a deeper bluer, and the colours completely harmonised with her skin and hair colouring. The colours in the curtains were perfect for Mary and her natural colouring.

2                   A little later I spied a multi-coloured scarf on a window ledge (soft pinks and blue/charcoal greys) – and assumed it was Mary’s, as again it was ideal for a Soft Summer; but, no, it wasn’t hers. Draping it around her neck and shoulders, it became obvious that the colours were absolutely spot on.  Her face came alive.  It was as though the scarf had been custom-dyed for her.

[I shall endeavour to update this post next week, with some photo’s of Mary with the curtains and scarf, as an illustration]

Particularly following the borrowed scarf incident draping – I felt emotional and tearful, as I just love seeing people in their best colours.  I am also deeply moved by witnessing people’s faces beaming with delight after they have seen themselves in their best colours.  

Needless to say, Mary loved the scarf colouring (she ran off to the loos to check it out, and came back out with the biggest smile). I also felt deep happiness in witnessing her reaction to seeing herself in her perfect colours.

And with both incidents, we had a small gathering of people around, who also enthused about these colours on Mary.

Several hours later, I am still glowing with happiness and excitement by this afternoon’s unexpected informal colour analysis session, using old faded Church Hall curtains, and a borrowed scarf, discovering some of Mary’s best colours and experiencing her delight at this.

[I wrote this post immediately after our art class, on Thursday 6 Nov].