Colour analysis- how it could help you declutter Part 1

Late last year I decided to buy my daughter a colour analysis class. She had just started work and her rather chaotic student wardrobe really wasn’t suitable for her new teaching career.

The basic premise of colour analysis is that wearing the wrong colour tones can drain you, making you look ill or tired. Wearing the right colours will lift your look so that you look your ‘best you’.

My colour journey

I first had my colours done aged twenty and have never regretted it. Being able to walk into a shop and immediately eliminate rails from a distance has probably saved me months of shopping time. (Not to mention the money I might have wasted!) As someone who didn’t love spending time shopping this was a big bonus. My Spring colours were clear, light and warm, and I could see that they suited me. But over the years I started to get a bit lazy. I drifted towards the clear Winter colours. However I was wearing Winter’s darker shades which were not doing me any favours.

Having recently allowed my grey hair to emerge, I was aware that some of the colours I was wearing really weren’t working for me. People always complimented me when I wore a particular bright green jumper, but I definitely needed a refresher.

The colour analysis experience

We spent a fun morning with the lovely Emilie West from House of Colour. Colour analysis involves being draped with a huge variety of colours to establish which is your ‘seasonal palette’. A Winter herself, Emilie quickly established that I was actually still a Spring, with a warm, light and clear palette. However my best colours within that range had shifted and I’d never been brave enough to wear some of them. My daughter was delighted to find she was Autumn as she had already intuitively been moving in that direction. Her colours were warm, and deep. We bought new lipsticks to kickstart our new look and started decluttering our clothes.

Decluttering after colour analysis

It turns out that colour analysis was the trigger needed – my daughter quickly culled the large quantity of black clothes (and tatty tights) she had accumulated.  A big pile quickly emerged for charity.  For me, my weakness was dark grey. My main challenge was that as a professional declutterer I didn’t actually have a massive amount of clothes- so couldn’t afford to ditch all my Winter colours immediately. Following Emilie’s advice, we both bought a few basic tops in our best colours to get used to wearing them. At the same time we started working out the gaps in our wardrobes.

I’m always fascinated to look inside clients’ wardrobes. Clothes are often predominately black which is pretty unforgiving – even for Winters. We are definitely scared of using colour! Often there is a clear sense of a seasonal palette- but not always the most flattering one. I highly recommend you consider getting colour analysis done. It is a one off lifetime investment, a lovely experience (take a friend to watch/ join in!) and really does help reduce decision-fatigue. And decluttering and organising your wardrobe, seasonal swatch in hand, is sooo much easier!

If you’ve enjoyed this blog, have a read about how Style Analysis was the final piece of my puzzle.