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TRUE COLORS

Before you can coordinate the colors of any outfit that you wear, it’s important to determine what those colors truly are. And the process begins when you buy the clothing. To do that properly takes more effort than most people expend, but it’s worth doing.

When folks try on clothes, they usually check themselves out in a 3-way or 5-way mirror. It’s good to see how everything fits from all angles, not just the front. But there’s often an additional concern that isn’t taken into account. That is the fact that incandescent and florescent lighting can alter the appearance of fabric colors, giving a false impression of what they are and how they coordinate together.

Fluorescents are worse than incandescent lights in this respect. That’s because they emit light in a discontinuous spectrum, making it impossible to correctly color balance the overall light. Some fluorescents, such as the “daylight type” lights, attempt to provide more balanced illumination, but cannot do it completely. Other types of fluorescents are terrible, with clothes having weird color shifts.

Incandescent lights, unless they’re special photographic types that are color balanced near 5500 Kelvin, don’t provide much output in the blue side of the visible spectrum. This also alters how colors appear.

Fitting rooms are lit with either florescent or incandescent lights, or both. Often, the lighting is also dim, making it even more difficult to discern true colors. There is only one solution. Look at the garment in full direct sunlight. (It’s also an ideal time to check for fabric blemishes, bad sewing, mismatched seams, and other irregularities.)

For example, I once bought what I thought was a very tasteful sport coat. In the store, it was soft yellow and charcoal herringbone tweed with a muted slate blue windowpane overlay. Happy with my purchase, I took it home and was astonished when I took it out of the car. In sunlight, the true colors were much different. The coat was now garish maize yellow with a robin’s egg blue windowpane. Needless to say, I returned the sport coat to the store.

Full sunlight also works best to see if your coat, shirt, tie, and pants color coordinate well. What can seem like a wonderful coordination scheme may not pan out. Other times a color combination that sounds strange can work beautifully. Always check for true colors if you want to look your best.

One last cautionary note: 1 man in every 17 men is red-green color blind. If you’re in this category, you may need someone with full color vision (like your significant other) to assist you. There are techniques for labeling clothes and arranging your closet to ensure good color coordination. Google “color blind support groups” for more information.

James F. Brown is a business consultant, writer, and expert on professional attire. His e-mail address is jfbrown@LookingGoodForLotsLess.com copyright 2008 James F. Brown.