“Colour is a means of exerting a direct influence on the soul.
Colour is a keyboard, the eyes, the hammers and the soul is the piano with many strings.”
- Wassily Kandinsky
Social psychologists studying the impact of imagery have determined that 30 seconds is how long it takes for someone meeting you for the first time to form an impression about your character and abilities, 62-90% of which is based on colour.
First impressions are based on the following determinants:
Personality
Level of sophistication
Trustworthiness
Sense of humour
Social heritage
Educational level
Career competence and success
In addition to our posture, facial expression and grooming, these elements are expressed by our clothes: their cut, their fabric and their colour. Personality, level of sophistication, trustworthiness and sense of humour are especially expressed by colours.
Colours are a visual stimulus and they can inspire and energise, or calm. Some even believe that we don’t just see colours, but that they have such a significant impact on us that we feel them too.
Ever felt on top of the world while wearing your favourite top, or dress? Or out of sorts with a particular t-shirt on some other day?
Even though I have streamlined my wardrobe to only pieces I absolutely love and wear regularly, I have noticed that I don’t feel the same wearing them depending of the day. Sometimes, I really crave blue, while some other days, the only thing I feel good in is pink or red.
This attraction to these shades is in fact based on how I am feeling emotionally or mentally at that present time.
Learning to pick the colours that best express your personality can quickly help improve your appearance and give your self-confidence a boost.
How to find out which colours suit your personality best?
My favourite method is to do a mood board.
Fear not, you don’t need to be a designer to make a mood board. This should be a super quick exercise. From a selection of 1 to 2 magazines, peruse them quickly and tear the pages that appeal to you. Only pick pictures that you’re instinctively drawn to, try not to over think or analyse your choice. Stick to lifestyle, deco, travel or food magazine; no fashion please as shapes and prints will influence your choice. Once you have about 5 to 8 pictures, paste them onto a piece of paper. You should be able to see a common colour theme there. Pick the 5 main colours, and pull up some key words from the mood and atmosphere of these pictures.
This is a big clue to some aspect of your personality. You may find the result confirming what you already knew or suspected, but you could also be surprised by the result. It could be an aspect of your personality that you subconsciously repressed.
How to improve on your weaker traits with colours?
We can be subconsciously attracted to people because they’re wearing colours we like, or to the contrary we can be repulsed by someone because they’re wearing a colour we strongly dislike.
It could be that this particular colour is the opposite of our personality type.
If you have a strong dislike for a colour, it is often because that colour is a representation of a weakness, so you hold negative associations towards it.
You can improve your weaker traits by wearing more of the colours representing that trait.
For example, if you strongly dislike orange, red and yellow, and if one of your weaker trait is fear of standing out. In that case, you could choose to implement a small amount of red, orange and yellow, so you can begin to break down the fear. You can also start with more subdued tones of these colours, no need to directly jump into bold, saturated hues. A little goes a long way here.
When you understand colours, you can learn so much more about your dreams, your likes and dislikes, your fears, your weaknesses and your strengths. You can balance your emotions by choosing an array of colours that reflect not only how you are feeling now, but also how you wish to be feeling. You can become the professional whose outfit matches the way you want to be perceived.
Step out of your comfort zone with colours and get ready for a more confident and empowered version of yourself!
About Rim Jarbouai I Founder of Rim Studio
Rim is a French and Tunsian fashion and textile designer and colour specialist, now based in Shanghai. After 13 years experience in the Fashion industry across London, Paris and Shanghai, she has launched Rim studio, as a creative design studio bridging fashion, textile and decorative art.
With a pointy eye for style and a strong sense of colours, Rim loves helping people connect with their beauty and getting empowered by fashion. She believes that true style is the result of knowing oneself and expressing our identity.