Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [11]
Dark colors absorb the light and make you look smaller. Light colors reflect the light and make you look larger. Some colors, such as red and orange, are vibrant, harsh, and domineering. Yellow and green tend to reflect a sallow tinge onto the skin.
In my seminars on how to dress for public appearances, I always say that due to these facts, a good basic rule is to wear no bright reds, black, or white.
Rather, when you select colors to be worn on the platform or before the camera, you need to stay in the center of the color spectrum. The closer you come to the middle, the better the colors will look, and the more becoming they will be. Thus, blues, grays, and jewel tones are the most flattering.
Many women like to have a “color analysis” done in order to find what colors are becoming to them. This may work well for the private person, but for the public person the recommended colors often do not look good, especially when viewed through a still or TV camera lens.
Blue and Purple. Blue is the most pleasant color of all because it is stable and in the middle of the color spectrum. It is an excellent choice to complement the owner of blue eyes. Denim blue looks good on almost everyone, from cowboys to babies. Pale blue blouses or shirts photograph white. Probably the most beautiful garment on or off camera would be a deep blue suit, with (for women) a blouse either matched to the color of the suit or in a muted, jewel-toned pattern.
Good variations of blue are navy, bright navy, royal blue, marine blue, colonial blue, French blue, Delft blue, slate gray-blue, or cadet blue. Other variations include the teal blues and nonbright aquas that are mixed with green. Periwinkle blue is a good cool color and is about as light as you should go.
The blues to avoid are turquoise blue, bright aqua blue, and solid pale blue.
Many of the purple shades work very well. Mauves, rich royal purple, dark violet, dusky violet, deep lilac shades, purple with red tones, and plum purples are all flattering colors.
Green. True Christmas green is too bright to be a good clothes color. The same goes for the brighter variations of kelly green, forest green, and, of course, lime green. However, some shades of green can be very nice. Jade green that contains gray, dark emerald, or soft olive green (close to khaki) are excellent.
Red. Red does cheer you up; however, it is an energetic color that dominates you and your surroundings. It should usually be considered a “no-no” for the public person. It is unstable and vibrant and often bleeds outside of its own borders when being photographed.
In a stadium full of people, notice that the one in a red parka is more visible than all of the others and is the one you will notice. You see a red tie long before you see the person. Red can reflect on the whites of the eyes and cast “heat” onto the skin tone.
However, many of the variations of red are excellent choices, including wine, burgundy, rose, and dusty rose.
Pink is a tricky color. Hot pinks, bright pink, and nearly-white pinks should be avoided. If you like pink, select the dusty rose or grayed rose mentioned above.
Orange. Orange is a hot, vibrant, glowing color and is generally harsh and unbecoming to all skin tones.
About three years ago, a TV studio where I often work was auditioning a series of applicants for an opening for a newscaster. I’ll never forget a woman who came in dressed in an orange suit and blouse with an orangy rouge and lipstick to match. You can easily picture how that looked with her blond hair. She had obviously spent much time assembling that orange look. She wanted to be noticed, and she was! But she didn’t get the job.
However, brown-based earth tones somewhat related to orange are good middle-spectrum colors. These include terra-cotta, apricot, brick, or autumn-leaf tones.
Yellow. Yellow is a bright color that attracts attention to itself. It tends to reflect onto the face, giving the skin a sallow, jaundiced, unhealthy tinge. It is often said that