red, reconstruction

A new favourite top and a new favourite me colour.

I made it from a thrifted woolen jumper which was in perfect condition except for its polo collar. Plus it was a completely daggy fit. I kept the buttons from the original neckline and used them at the shoulder, then did some simple hand embroidery along the seam, using thrifted beige thread. And I resized it, of course.

For some reason I had not thought to crop a jumper until this piece, but I really adore it.

A while ago I wrote that I discovered red didn’t suit me even though I kept trying.

I was wrong.

I did a heap of research on colour theory after that post, and I’m starting to recognise that different shades and hues of a colour can be completely different in terms of suitability. That barely 1% of the hues of a colour actually work on me. And other colours, like black, just don’t work on me at all. This is nice for being picky.

I’ve chosen to avoid my not-me colours in my wardrobe altogether (which leaves me about 8-12 very specific colours to work with). But if you have a not-you colour that you want to keep wearing, just try not to make it the closest colour to your face. And some colours are worse than others.

Since I’m a deep autumnal girl, the only red that works well on me is the one above. Rich and golden. There are some rich reds that have a blue hue, and they make me look kinda sick. But in golden light, sometimes the blue hued reds look golden. So it pays to pay attention.

I wish I could recommend a good book for finding your colours, but every one of the five or six I read gave a bunch of bad advice, in my opinion. The best was Colour Me Confident for their colour palettes. Just, uh, assume all their advice is wrong, but if something makes you go ‘yes that makes sense!’ then go with it, that’s great.