Colour Conclusions

If you already had the dubious pleasure of reading my recent post over at the Colette Patterns blog, you’ll know my brain space has been partly occupied by considerations of colour. This is a facet of my proposed new more grown-up approach to sewing in which I theoretically think things through before leaping into a project with the aim of producing more successful and wearable garments. I’m planning on making guidelines, rather than inflexible rules, on what colour fabrics to head for so that some cohesion reins and each garment suits my complexion and colouring.

Having identified myself as a ‘Woman of Winter’ (!), I was interested to learn that apparently the types of colours that allegedly suit me best are generally the ones I gravitate towards anyhow. (Sometimes it nice to receive affirmation that you were right all along!.) Bright, clear and strong colours apparently complement the contrast of my fair skin (with blue undertones) and dark brown hair and muted tones (which I developed a mild aversion to some years ago), for reasons deeper than my present understanding, do nothing for this contrast.

Using the knowledge I’ve gleaned from hanging out with myself for thirty years I have concluded that the following colours should be firmly represented in my wardrobe:

Black. I currently have only a couple of black items and feel I could do with some more of the cool and adaptable qualities it can bring to the party.

Navy. An argument could be made that navy beats black for the title of ‘most versatile and classy basic’ and I doubt I’d be one of the objectors (can you imagine how such a tussle would be staged?!). Pre-garment cull I had a considerable dose of navy in my wardrobe and I would like to re-administer this over time.

Red. At the tender age of 19, two mates and I (all with very different colouring) tried on the same red dress that we all fell in love with, but none of us could afford. We all looked pretty good, but even though I was arguably the less attractive of the bunch, I believe I rocked that dress the hardest due to my colouring. In a similar vein to Gertie (another ‘Winter’, I believe) red has since become one of ‘my colours’. However, in recent times I’ve inexplicably kept it below the belt, which is something of a missed opportunity upon reflection. By 'red' I mean from ruby shades through to tomato red/orangey shades, even perhaps going over to the coral side of the street: they're all welcome.

Turquoise (or whatever you prefer to call this colour). Fashioned into potentially world’s most amazing shoes as seen in the picture below (actually, I’m pretty sure the MOST amazing shoes in the world would probably feature little anchors somewhere), this colour can be devastatingly awesome when paired with red (see above).

In no way will my future creations be limited to these colours alone, but these will be the backbone of my wardrobe. In fact I’m becoming increasingly fascinated by people’s relationships with colour. How do you decide what colour fabrics to sew? Is it purely an instinctual thing, or have you had to sit yourself down at any point, have a good think about it and make some decisions?