Home for the Holidays

Posted by David Zyla | Filed under News and Updates

Heading home for the holidays? If so, avoid overpacking and ensure looking and feeling great by creating a capsule holiday travel wardrobe in your True Colors!

We all possess in our natural coloring a unique set of True Colors. These are the tones found in our eyes, hair, and skin, which make us “pop” and look alive when we wear them. By assembling versatile pieces in a tight palette of these most flattering colors, we not only look fantastic but avoid the risk of overpacking. The best and most versatile travel wardrobe is one created with a trio of these True Colors, consisting of a neutral or “First Base, an Energy Color and a Dramatic Color.

To find out your First Base,  look at the ring around your iris. What color do you see? It will be a dark neutral, possibly even black. Some possible candidates include  charcoal, olive, navy, chocolate, or eggplant. Use this base color in various shades for the basic wardrobe pieces for your trip such as skinny jeans, a coat, dress, and heels.

The second color for your holiday wardrobe should be your Energy Color which pops your eyes. Use the darkest color in your iris. Some candidates for this color include slate, rust, grass, butterscotch, and pine. In brown eyes, it is not always an obvious color, so try putting swatches or clothing items up to your eyes to see colors like marigold, eggplant, and olive appear. Use this “energy” color in a sweater, blouse, and scarf or tie. The color makes you look friendly and approachable and takes little effort to wear.

Finally, to add a bit of pop to your basic wardrobe pieces, employ your Dramatic Color. This color is the greatest contrast to your skin, and therefore the most dramatic. It is found by looking at the veins on the inside of your wrist and identifying the dominant shade of green, blue, or purple. This color can range from shamrock to emerald, turquoise to periwinkle, and royal to grape. This is the perfect shade to employ for your most festive “look at me” attire and great to use in a dress, sweater, or jewelry.

On a side note: I am often asked about employing  traditional holiday colors such as orange and brown at Thanksgiving, and red and green at Christmas if they are not our best colors. I say: wear YOUR versions of them. We should only wear the colors that make us look and feel our very best, so honor the spirit of the holidays and opt for your very own versions of these colors! If your version of green is jade, wear it and have a most happy holiday!