Why an unfortunate incident with a lemon-yellow sweater encouraged me to become a colour analyst

The year was 1998. I was working in my first job in fashion PR and while we didn’t earn a lot in terms of actual money to buy things like food, we were given an awful lot of free clothes and underwear. At that time, I was prepared to live on beans if it meant a free designer wardrobe and a good selection of balconette bras at my disposal.

The way it worked in London agencies at that point, was that you did the PR for up-and-coming designers for free, which then encouraged the established fashion brands with budget, to come on board. The young designers would then gift you free clothes as a thank you.

And that’s how I came to be in receipt of a gorgeous, lemon-yellow cashmere jumper by a designer who was dressing everyone on the red carpet that year. It was the first time I’d ever owned a piece of cashmere and I felt like I’d truly ‘arrived’. I teamed it with a pair of charcoal grey, Joseph trousers and a pair of ‘Silver Bullet’ Nike Air Max. This was at the height of minimalism and it was mandatory for everyone working in the industry at that time to wear Joseph or Helmut Lang trousers with those trainers.

Alas, my joy at wearing the lemon and charcoal combo was short-lived. Concerned colleagues asked ‘Was I feeling OK?’, they told me I looked a bit ‘off-colour’, ‘wan’. I think the word ‘jaundiced’ might even have made an appearance. That evening, parked in front of the mirror, I tried to understand why my colleagues were so concerned for my health, when I felt absolutely fine.

Then I saw it. It was the lemon-yellow, it was draining the life out of me. The next day I sold the jumper at a designer second-hand shop and made the decision NEVER to wear yellow again.

Years later, when I became interested in colour analysis and had my ‘colours done’ professionally, it revealed that I was a Warm Autumn. This particular shade (I think I’ll go with lemon-curd) could not have been more disastrous for me. I am dark, muted and warm. Lemon is light, bright and cool. It works against my colouring in every conceivable way, particularly as a roll-neck with its proximity to the face.

I am very warm, which means that yellow is the dominant colour of my undertone (rather than blue). In the right colours, this yellow reads as a warm gold, which indicates health. In lemon yellow, I mirror that colour and start to look unwell.  As humans, we have evolved to scan for two things in a face – health and fertility. A golden radiance suggests both of those things, a yellow pallor is indicative of sickness.

This is why I believe that wearing the right colours is the most pro-ageing thing you can do and you only need to do it once. Before you start with any expensive procedures needing regular maintenance, start by finding out which colours make you glow and which drain the colour from your face.

What else wasn’t working in that outfit? The charcoal grey trews – they might’ve been 'Joseph darling, Joseph'…, but with the silver trainers? Cool, yes, but way too cool for me. If I’d opted for gold trainers and khaki combats (which were also permitted in late ‘90s fashion circles), I might’ve got away with it. However, head-to-toe cool, icy tones were sending me on a one way ticket to the sanatorium.

Now I understand my colour season, I see that not only can I wear yellow, but it’s actually my wow (a colour that works for me above all other). My yellow however, is earthy, rich and golden. Put me in sunflower, ochre, turmeric or saffron and I look the picture of health, I’d even go as far as to say radiant.

My colour analysis also revealed that coral is a wow colour for me. On finding out, I thought immediately back to an outfit I’d worn in 1995 for my cousin’s wedding. A burnished gold, knee-length slip dress and a pair of late 1970s, coral and gold sandals. I absolutely adored that outfit and I had thought about it for years afterwards. It really was ‘the one that got away’ sartorially speaking.

Once I qualified as a colour analyst myself, I noticed that most of my clients are taken back to a place and a ‘wow-fit’ in time when they are told their best colours. Colour unlocks a powerful core memory of something that they have worn and loved in the past and they can remember exactly where they wore it and how it made them feel.

My mother-in-law went back to a rust coloured coat she wore in 1960 for her first job in a bank. A client last week clicked as to why she chose Oyster for her wedding flowers, while another realised why she so loved wearing an emerald, satin dress as a little girl.

The thing is, on an instinctive and intuitive level we do know our wow colours and we are drawn to them. It’s just that we get overwhelmed by the fashion industry and social media telling us that this colour or that print is the one we should all be wearing this season.

For many years I was part of the problem. I wrote endless press releases which trumpeted  why we should all be wearing leopard Cranberry, diaphanous Ballet Slipper or wide-legged Pepto Bismol (if you’re a Warm Autumn don’t, please don’t).

But I do the opposite now. I advise my clients to drown out the noise and really start to understand the colours they are drawn to. This colour feels right for a reason, it’s not random. You are drawn to it because it is in harmony with you, your unique colouring and I would even say, your unique energy.