“People think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony,” Coco Chanel said once.

There are five primary colors but when blended and polished, we get more hues than ever. No color is incomplete or unnecessary. Each has their own significance when it comes to dressing up and personality. Each shade gives a message of itself. It’s up to our understanding and smartness that we blend it in our appearance. There isn’t a hard and fast rule these days; fashion has evolved enough to allow us swap colors for different occasions. For formal occasions one would want to go for a neutral color and vibrant color for casuals.

Now, wearing a Chartreuse yellow shirt for your business meeting wouldn’t be much of a problem – you want to look friendly and calm, go for it, but sporting on a gray attire would make you look powerful and hence have domination over the room. Or at least allow you to communicate your ideas without any interruptions.

As much as preferred colors of a human reveal a lot of behavioral traits of the said; one can bring the revelation to one’s terms and choose what and how much to reveal. For example, instinctual choice of the color red would say that you have a penchant for seeking attention and adventure. Perfect choice for a first date or a cozy get together. But wearing the same color code to a job interview would either win you the job because the interviewer finds you interesting enough, or makes an impression of a loud person –depends on your content too.

Like Carl Jung said, “color is the mother tongue of the subconscious”, color intelligence is also one factor that adds up to our body language. Colors in our clothing divulge our mental state of mind to the world. So let’s have a look at some color matching known to please mankind’s eyes:

Monochromatic colors

It is simply the usage of the single color but in different shades. One could go for any color and hop around its various hues and generate an impression of self-awareness.

Complementary colors

These are the colors that always on the opposite sides of the color wheel. And one more trait of this scheme is that the complementary colors always match. Normally, colors placed at equal distance are used, but sometimes designers also play around the space and use colors further from the center and create the same satisfying look. But we’re here for more every day wear.

This scheme either employs a primary with a secondary color (red and green; yellow and violet; blue and orange) or two tertiary colors (red-orange and blue-green; yellow-green and red-violet; yellow-orange and blue-violet). Having complementary color harmony in your apparel brings out the vitality in you and vibrancy as well.

Analogous colors

These are the colors that are seated next to each other on the wheel. For example the blues and greens, reds and orange, are parallel colors that create harmony and peaceful effects on the onlooker. It creates either warm or cool spectrum depending on what grouping it is. Green-Yellow, one of the smooth analogous combinations radiates springtime-like lightness. Blue-Green exudes serenity and friendliness; Blue-Violet, one mishmash that makes you look trendy and cool. Red-Orange inclines towards the warmer band, branding you as inviting and passionate, also relaxed.

Incorporating these colors in our outfits would give likewise meaning to our exterior. The trick is to pick a dominant color, a supporting color and using white, black, or gray as an accent.

Tetradic Color Harmony

In this scheme, combinations of four colors that consist of two sets of complementary colors are used. It is the richest of all the schemes because of its arrangement. This is the same feature that makes tetradic color schemes the riskiest and hardest to harmonize since one color is supposed to dominate all the other three colors. These “colors” can be discovered by looking for colors positioned as a rectangle shape or square shape on the color wheel.

For example, Red-Orange-Blue-Green, Red-Blue-Yellow-Green, etc. are some colors that are situated on said shapes. The usage of tetradic color scheme in an attire would solely be for aesthetic purpose rather than a revelation, therefore, not much of a daily practice.

 

Compiled by Abhigya Subedi