Many of you know me from before my 12 Blueprints Color Analyst training, and know that I helped many many women find their style types before I was a Color Analyst. Until my training, I had only witnessed one draping in person – my own. Having now seen many, whole worlds of understanding have cracked wide open. One of the most amazing things I have learned during and since my training is how much my perception of a persons features, and to some degree the feeling of the person as a whole, changes when I see them in their correct season.
This effect plays out in so many different ways, depending on the type and season of the person, and also what they were presenting when they walked in the door. One person’s bone structure may soften from mostly sharp to mostly blunt, a Soft Summer Yang Natural in black compared to her own colors, for example. Another person may sharpen up and lose the impression of bluntness, a Bright Winter Yin Dramatic in her colors compared to the Spring colors she walked in wearing. Yet another person changes in ways that escape specific description, except to say that True Spring transformed her from an “Autumn” Yang Gamine who was sort of a cute tomboy into the effervescent pixie she truly is.

It can be really hard to see these effects in a photo, but if you get just a whiff of what I’m talking about from them, I’m happy with that.

This is E, cute, huh? Not sure what season this top is in real life, but it looks warmish. She’s worn her hair dyed various shades of red over the years, as it is in this picture. The natural color has shifted more than is usual during her life, and as is typical for bright seasons is a bit hard to describe, but essentially it’s a light brown. I think it would be easy to see this person as a Yin Natural in this image. The face feels broad and somewhat flat in topography, it’s pretty but I don’t think one would call it exotic or dangerous.

I know you’ve probably seen this image on my homepage, but I’m pretty infatuated with it so here it is again. This is the face of a queen, so much more than just “pretty”. All the bone structure has sharpened up and the topography of the face appears more dynamic. They eyes which you probably already don’t remember from the last picture are utterly captivating, they have a sensual, exotic quality. The sheer magnificence of a person who is both Winter and Dramatic (the Yin variety in this case) and fully wielding the power that comes with that is jaw-dropping.  This woman walks into the boardroom and people beg her to take the reigns, just because she looks like she was born to hold them. I just want to be clear that Yin Natural is a very excellent thing to be if that is what you are. Here, the colors reveal the truth to be otherwise. Let me just belabor the point a bit more with one more image. 

Can you even believe this creature is real? Which adult is the logical owner of this baby picture? Bright Winter Yin Dramatic is inherently outside the normal, beautifully alien.

Here’s C, my TSp YangG mentioned above. (Client images always posted with permission, but please don’t pin or otherwise repost them) No one could say she’s not beautiful and and adorable, in any style or any color. I know you’re going to ask, so I’ll just tell you – Yes, this is 100% natural hair color.

 I just find this face so amazing, I could stare and stare. Suddenly everything about this face seems full to bursting with life, just like the Spring season itself. I had a treasured book when I was a child called Christine’s Faeries, about a little girl who went all around the English countryside meeting different sorts of faeries, who all had little jobs like putting the dew drops on all the petals. I can imagine their faces, peering up from under the poppies and tall grass, looking about like this. 

Literally every face I drape becomes different to me somehow than it was before. Usually, it’s not substantial enough to change my perceptions of a person’s image type, but on occasionally it may be. This is why I pretty much insist that a PCA, whether done by me or one of my amazing colleagues, is the essential first step to amazing personal style. Once we see what your face *really* looks like, we can begin to know how to match it to clothing styles.