I went into David Jones on the weekend to try on a dozen different coloured tops, testing their compatibility with me. (We’d just had a lunch out and Ellie was napping in the pram, so I had time to kill.)
I realised that there were even more colours (eggplant and teal) that weren’t the best on me, but last week when I tested out different coloured fabrics, I put them in the ‘suits me’ pile because I liked their richness. I assumed they were my colours without thinking about them critically enough. I can see now that they’re okay, but not my best.
The outing also confirmed that forest green most definitely makes me look ten times better than anything else. I was a little tempted to buy the green top I tried on (the most perfect green ever!) but I’m sticking to my ethical clothing pledge and will make something green for myself instead.
What I’m doing with all this is learning the specific group of colours that makes me seriously shine, emotionally and aesthetically.
I don’t need to do anything with that knowledge if I don’t want to. I’m not judging colours. If I wanted to wear pink, I’d still wear pink.
But I think it’s like what they say about writing well – you need to know the rules to be able to break them. If I know my colours are autumnish and I want to wear black anyway, I can, and I can do it on my own terms and understand why I may not feel as bright as if I was wearing cream or rust. I really believe it’s much better to know why you feel a certain way because you can handle it better. And I certainly believe colours have an impact on how you feel.
That said, knowing my colours makes me want to dress exclusively in them.
Yeah, that would have sounded incredibly constricting to me a month ago, too. If you tell me to stay within the lines, I say – or think, because I’m usually a nice person – ‘psh, I’ll do what I want, it’s my life’.
I get it.
But it’s not constricting. It’s liberating.
I feel like I finally have the ability to see and understand the things that resonate with me. To appreciate other colours, but not feel that I need to take ownership of them. I can just let go of what’s not me.
It’s like my style confusion has disappeared and I’m left with a very clear, specific vision. I feel more comfortable taking risks (like wearing long, high waisted vintage skirts, which I’m loving lately) when I know the colour of it will give me the confidence and good mojo I need to pull it off.
I was going through my closet (which is inundated with wrong colours) with all this in mind. I took every single piece that wasn’t my colour out – just the summer stuff, since I’m not wearing any of it at the moment. Even though there were only about 4 tops and 1 skirt left, it felt like a much better space. My space.
I originally wanted to keep several things in not-me colours, in the interests of convenience and not having to replace so much stuff. I figured I could still wear a grey dress if I wore it with a green statement necklace or something.
I soon rethought this.
Because a wardrobe as full as possible with my colours isn’t just good for making me feel better about myself and my style. It’s also good for innumerable outfit combinations.
I saw this when I laid out a bunch of clothes in my colours – preloved ones I wanted to reconstruct. Pretty much all of them looked awesome together, colour-wise. I tried some on and found that I could mix and match a heap of them, way more than I was used to. I’m used to not wearing things in my closet, not being able to find things that go with certain pieces, thinking I have nothing to wear even though my closet is full.
I’m confident that all that will stop once I craft my wardrobe using these ideas.
I think this ‘wardrobe capsule’ concept is kind of old news for the style conscious of the older generation. They tend to be the ones searching for this kind of style advice from books and experts, or already possessing it from their younger days. While us in the younger generation are more interested wearing what we want when we want, thinking ‘screw the ‘rules’, fashion is experimentation,’ etcetera etcetera.
But keep in mind that the younger generation is responsible for the style-confused, trend-conforming girl with a terrible self image who is everywhere at the moment. I’m not so convinced that we’re the ones with the right idea.
So I’m setting out to prove that a capsule wardrobe in your colours doesn’t have to be boring (I still adore some quirk). That it can help with your confidence and energy, when you know which group of colours is yours. And that too much fashion choice can be a bad thing.
