What I Learned About Color in My Wardrobe Through Wonder Wardrobe’s Colour Harmony Class

About a month ago, I took an online class on color harmony and wardrobes. It’s part of the Wonder Wardrobe Season 2 course, and I was offered the spot for free by Daria Andronescu, the creator of the program. At first, I was a little skeptical because I’ve never taken an online class, but the preview was compelling, and I appreciated Daria’s preference for ethical brands.

Once I got started on the Colour Harmony class, I was immediately hooked. Daria is a charming host and, more than that, she knows her stuff. The class I took consisted of eight lessons, which included videos, PDF guides and worksheets.

Going through the modules with Daria gave me a far better understanding of colors in general, and how they work together. For example, I’ve always known there are cold and warm colors, but I never realized there are variants of warm and cool tones within a given hue. There are warm and cool shades of the color blue, same for the color brown. Before, I’d just chalked them up solidly as a ‘warm’ or ‘cold’ color.

Why does this all matter?

This brings me to the next big concept I learned about – my own coloring and how it ties into what works well in my wardrobe. I’ve long known I am a person with warm coloring, but it was fun to dive into the specifics through this course and analyze my skin, hair and eye color. I learned through exercises in this course that colors from a warm (yet extensive) palette work best for me. This explains why I’ve always been so drawn to wearing cream tops (warm), and why I’ve often felt lackluster in gray (too cool). Further I learned why some shades of blue work well for me (they skew warm) and some don’t (too cool).

Help with outfit building.

All of this color knowledge has helped immensely with outfit building and potential purchases. I’ve learned that my outfits look the most cohesive when the colors all skew warm or are neutral. I haven’t come anywhere near mastering this, but it’s really expanded the way I look at potential combinations in my closet. I see options I didn’t see before. For example, pairing warm tones with statement brown pants instead of sandwiching them between neutrals. Understanding my personal coloring and what works best on me has helped lead to greater outfit satisfaction.

I think I was hiding.

For so long, I’ve worn mostly neutrals, such as white, black and navy, because they seemed a lot harder to ‘get wrong.’ I was afraid of colors because I was unsure of how to group them. Color did/does feel like the ‘wild, wild, west’ compared to the safety of neutrals. That means I usually ended up ‘hiding’ in neutrals. There are a lot of people out there who make neutrals look amazing, but I’ve realized for an outfit to look best with my face, my hair, me, it has to have warm elements. I see it so clearly now when I look back at past outfits on the blog, and study which outfits were successful and which were not.

Creating a color palette and understanding what colors make me happiest also makes it a lot easier to narrow down clothing options when shopping. Most of the time I can rule out shades that skew cold because they don’t work with my overall closet color palette.

Finding my color palette.

At the end of the Colour Harmony class I used one of the worksheets to create a virtual color palette for my closet as it currently stands. I am not sure if I put all the colors in the right spot, but this is a pretty close interpretation of what’s hanging in my closet. Can you see how it looks cohesive because all the colors skew warm, even if they come from a cool ‘parent’ color?

So what do you do with the items that don’t fit the ‘rules?’

I’ve thought through this a little bit since completing the course. In fashion, I believe rules are meant to be broken, with intention. You could say the same about art and photography. Beyond the rules is a place ripe for statements. But you have to understand the rules to do this well.

After the course, I looked through my closet with new eyes. Sure enough, there were some items that didn’t fit within the scope of what I learned works best for me.

To deal with them I asked myself:

Does it bring me joy?

>> If yes, keep them, and pay close attention how well they work in future outfits.

>> If no, move them to the back of closet for awhile. After a month or two, reassess their status.

In some ways, this course has left me with more questions about my personal style. I decided to create a Pinterest board of favorite outfits I’ve worn in the past to see if studying it reveals any clues. I’m noting warm elements in all the outfits I’ve pinned and, most surprisingly, I’ve realized I like light tones over dark ones. In the last few years I’ve worn a lot of black, and now I find myself considering my footing with the dark neutral.

This class is also causing me to think through my overall approach to style and getting dressed. In my pursuit of well-curated style, I don’t want to cross the line into too outfit focused, I’d rather be focused on a holistic wardrobe that brings me joy. I don’t want to be super styled; I want to be smartly styled.

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface on the merits of the Colour Harmony class. You can learn more about the full Wonder Wardrobe course here, it’s regularly about $228* USD, but Daria is offering a 20% discount for Seasons + Salt readers, which brings it to about $182 USD. The single Color Harmony class is about $103 USD, and after the discount comes to about $82 USD . I highly recommend you check out Daria’s YouTube channel, it’s packed full of helpful videos. Happy wardrobing!

*Price is approximate and depends on exchange rate from Euros to USD. Use code SEASONSANDSALT to receive discount. Offer expires November 11, 2018.

This post is not sponsored, but I received free access to the Wonder Wardrobe Colour Harmony class.