The Anti-Color Analysis Thread

[FrugalFashionista]

This is a safe space for anyone who
(tick any that apply)

• wants to burn her scarves
• will scream if someone goes semantic on 'Oyster'
• does not want to be made to wear lipstick
• is not looking forward to the next Kettlewell catalogue
• does not identify with any particular season
• will never ever do a style day
• has self-diagnosed Stockholm syndrome
• is tired of the tireless marketing drum of color analysis on S&B

I realize I may be endorsing an unpopular view but this thread here is for anyone who does not want to discuss color.

C'mon, am I the only one?
Raise your hand...

PS I will send a crappy lipstick personally chosen for me by a color analyst to the first taker. It's a shimmery peachy tone that has no staying power and streaks your teeth. But don't worry, it will make you look a million times better.

MN is funny at times. People definitely more touchy now though.If there are threads going for people who love this colour thing then whats the problem? You can log in to the HOC and CMB sites and see lots of pictures frugal has done nothing wrong.

I am a happy hoc convert but I totally get what Frugal is doing. Scepticism is good and healthy, and yes HoC is disproportionately discussed on MN. If you are happy with your hoc transformation, who cares what others think. My consultant was way too old fashioned for my taste, but just like I love listening to old people stories, I took away valuable information from her and discarded the rest. Live and let live Ladies, enjoy yourselves.

Frugal has a blog, is that right?

Ardiente, I agree scepticism is good - but what was wrong with a thread like "I don't get this colours thing any more, it doesn't work for me. Anyone else?" Instead of the mocking and sneering at something that lots of people have found really useful, often because it's helped them at a point where their confidence was a bit low. I would have thought a debate about it would be much more constructive. But maybe less oh-so-amusing.

Maaan, is this what S&B's become? A place to mock other women's choices? This thread ain't stylish or beautiful.

I get the sceptism and agnosticism - there's a place for it.

And there's also place for the way this has turned into a festival of not giving a shit about anyone's feelings or worrying about using any kind of accuracy in one's argument (colour analysis by age group, really? ) - and it's called AIBU.

I think S&B has always been brutal and kind in equal measures

We mock people all the time, why are those who 'analyse' colour exempt?

If there are plenty of us who see HOC as emperors new clothes and want to say so, I think that's fine.
If it seems to some that this area has become a huge advertisement for HOC and that we are uncomfortable with it, then it is okay to say so.

If we illustrate our feelings by pictures of jaunty scarfs and dreadful make up/clothes...well again, that's okay.
They are images freely available on the internet.
We do the same endlessly with Per UNA etc

In homage to this thread, I wore a khaki scarf today rather than a grey or black one. And not a single bloody person rushed over to me to say that my eyes were popping. Tomorrow I will try the same experiment with red.

I don't know if the colour stuff looks at jewellery as well, but I do think there is mileage in the idea that some people look better in silver than gold (or the reverse). I deffo feel better in silver.

I look better in silver in the winter but like gold when I have a bit of a tan.

S&B has always had strong opinions, who can forget the threads re. white linen trousers?

Anyway, its nice to see some of my favourite s&b posters all on one thread

was she being comp wrt the eye popping thing?
sounds like an insult to me

black suits very very few people

I think it's quite interesting that this thread doesn't seem to have attracted any unhappy customers of colour analysis, apart from the op. To be honest, I had expected them to flood in - I think that says quite a lot.

However I am all for having more scepticism on S&B - in fact I'm thinking of starting an anti serums thread. Who's with me

I wear more gold now as I think it sits my colouring better. Black suits me again It did when I was young then at about 40 it looked terrible now ok again!

Well, I guess for some of us we'd never have colour analysis and there's plenty of those on this thread.

I think Ronald also said she'd had it and didn't think it was that great.

Oh good, a place to vent about scarves.
What's up with the goddamn jaunty scarves?! I bought so many a few years ago. Pop of colour near the face, easy accessory blah blah blah. Let's get real they're annoying and not practical unless it's outdoors in the middle of winter and it's a wool scarf.
I'm not as hardcore as Frugal so I donated them instead of burning them. Now they will live on and pop someone else's colours.

Frugal -re your Pinterest board

I think there is a difference between posting a link to a per una outfit on the M&S s website to comment on the outfit and posting photos of private individuals to laugh at their hair, make up and general lack of style .

I'm sure the models who work for m&s don't care what you think of the clothes . They probably hate them too, it's just a job to them. Posting pictures of ordinary women who are happy after their makeovers is very different.

I know someone pictured on your page. She got her colours done to cheer herself up after the death of her husband, whom she had spent months nursing at home . I hope you enjoy laughing at her.

If your Pinterest page is just for the amusement of you and your friends, perhaps you would be kind enough to make it a secret board and remove the link to it in this thread?

TIA

Kristina I really hope your poor friend isn't on MN and doesn't see this or the sarcastic pinning of her image

I expect frugal will be along in a minute with a flippant response and a quip about your friend and her jaunty scarf

I'm sorry if this thread has gotten out of hand. The purpose was not to mock anyone, and I apologize if I have done so. You have to understand that there is a lot of self-mockery involved too - after all, I believed in all this for several years and have a wardrobe full of silly stuff as a result.

I've been active on and off here a long time and we all know how every now and then the nastiness gets out of hand and feathers fly. I don't fully understand why but there has always been a competitive element to fashion and sometimes the 'mean girls' vibe just takes over. Maybe we are born that way? Evolutionary psychology has a lot to say about intrasexual competition and maybe that's what we are doing here… Personally, I've tried really hard to keep a couple of longstanding threads friendly and constructive. Fistfights help no one.

About the pictures on the Internet - no one forces you to post your picture there as a part of an advertisement. If you choose to do so, please do expect to get both positive and negative reactions. That's what being active in the public domain normally entails for anyone. My intention is not to laugh at the people posing in the pictures, just to show that it's sometimes difficult to 'see' the change - and the whole method of color analysis seems to be based on 'seeing the change'.

Of late, logging into S&B has been a bit like stepping inside a HoC infomercial. I think that's why some of us are feeling a bit anti color at the moment…

I want to reestablish the factual arguments I have against color analysis.

• Some systems seem to base their verdicts on skin tone only, not your overall coloring - however, Nature does not always follow this and you may end up having rule-breaking eyes or hair
• The theory is built on cool/warm distinctions which may be a bit artificial because many of us are a mixture of cool and warm colors
• Color analysis seems to have a strong subjective element (the 'seeing it') and different color analysts categorize people according to different principles - this is why some people end up different seasons if they get a second opinion
• Color analysts use this forum for drumming up business. They give free advice but encourage you to have paid consultations. I have nothing against brand names being mentioned here, but MN has a fairly strict anti-advertising code of conduct.

I don't think I have much more to say about this subject…

I'm sorry to hear that about your friend Kristina.

I'm also bitter about all the things I've bought in the name of them being "flattering"...like the scarves, and colours that were suppossed to suit me but I don't like. Brown is recommended for "autumns" instead of black so I bought a lot of brown things that I felt totally frumpy in. I feel much more stylish and sexy in black.

Oh come on Frugal. Just admit that the pin board was a bitchy quip that went wrong. Don't dress it up in psycho babble.

I was certainly not born a mean girl and there are plenty of other decent posters on here who don't come across as mean either, please don't tar us all with your brush.

Nooner ever said you weren't allowed to express your opinion or dissatisfaction with colour analysis. All anyone on this thread has objected to was the delivery. Frankly, it made me squirm

I was HOC'ed recently and was appalled at the colour combination suggestions, really awful 80s clown like horrors.

It was nice to be a bit indulged and ponce about with the scarves but unless a time machine is invented I won't be wearing the bright pink lipstick.

Am late to this thread but I have posted on the Autumn thread ,despite never having my colours done and never intending to.
I tend to agree with everyone who says 'each to their own' etc etc.
HOC and CMB both seem a bit dated to me tbh,that's just my observation from their websites.
The make up particularly would put me off,am more a Bobbi Brown kinda gal
Cannot say that any discussion of colour on this board upsets me though or that it has 'taken over' particularly .
Surely if you don't subscribe to it,don't click on those threads.They are usually pretty well signposted.
I like scarves,not air hostess ones though.

Please can posters stop misquoting me. I never said that a colour analyst put all middle class women together in sludgy colors.

Go back and read my post. My old CEO went to have her colors done and then came back positively convinced that all women of her age should wear sludgy colors. I'm not quoting the colour consultant or whoever the heck did it, Just my old boss.

What was scary was the evangelical way she came back, the colors have spoken, they are right, everyone else was wrong, everything must now be based around this set of rules.

I've seen less evangelicism on an Alpha course, or in a Steiner school.

The title of the thread was self explanatory. It couldn't have been clearer. I read more threads than I post on S&B and I've noticed Colour consultation being plugged a lot more.

It annoys me, and it annoys me that people might feel a bit vulnerable about their looks and pour money into doing this. Other posters are correct - go into a shop ad try on every style, cut and colour. Take a friend. Spend the money on lunch and a bottle of wine.

I'm sorry if individuals have been in sad circumstances, but I think the photos on the Pinterest board are very interesting. I'm not laughing at individuals, just observing. But hand on heart who can honestly tell which looks better in the before and after pictures?

Oh but bright pink lipstick is very fashionable these days. I'm a fan.

Do HOC have their own brand of cosmetics that they push?

I wear black. For special occasions I wear very dark grey

Im sure that Not one single person came her to make fun of other people, all the criticism is toward the whole notion of colour analysis,

Some posters have said that they had their colors done,and either found it a bit dated,or took some advice and left the rest,refused to throw their LBD...etc well,that's a waste of money I think, won't it be much better to ask a friend for a day of shopping? And get honest opinions? And not by someone who needs to look at a chart to determine what's ok for me, I find it a bit mediocre,and very mechanical,it certainly takes the joy out of fashion and we end up dressing in a uniform-ish way.

I also hate the idea of being labeled, by someone who has no prior knowledge of what I like/hate.

I used to work with colour ( interior design ), its impossible to determine what can be done to ,for example a sitting room in one session, you have to sit with the client,hear their thoughts,visit the site,have a look and try to visualise what it can be transformed to,( in a unique way) ,show the clients mood boards ...etc,its a very long process,and you can't give a verdict till the end, so this idea of a style/color day for £100+ is a bit too much IMO,
Sorry for linking interior design with color analysis, but I found both to be a bit similar,
AFWIW,most of the colour "rules" we learned from texts books are completely ignored in the industry,