Clare Maxfield

Where Image Matters

What the colour of your tie means

What the color of your tie means.

There is no denying that colour speaks volumes that language alone cannot.
Did you know that the colour tie that you chose to wear is communicating exactly what your intentions are whether you do it consciously or subconsciously? In fact, the meaning of all of these ties can extend into all garments.

The basic rules when it comes to colour are

  1. The lighter a colour is the friendlier it is
  2. The darker a colour is the more serious or formal it is.
  3. Neutral colours are the easiest to wear and co-ordinate with all other colours- Black, grey, navy, charcoal, chocolate and denim.
  4. Primary colours are the most acceptable and easy to wear-Red, Yellow and Blue
  5. Secondary colours are playful, creative and often mistrusted – Purple, Orange and Green
  6. Bright colours are playful and soft colours are relaxing
  7. Never wear more than two colours with a neutral to look and feel balanced.

Colour Meanings

Black – formal and intense. Black suits are good but dark navy and charcoal are better.

White – Professional and formal. With white shirts buy the best you can afford in a thick rich fabric. A flimsy white shirt will always look cheap.

Red – Powerful – Wear a red tie to be taken notice of.

Light blue – Friendly and approachable. blue collar shirts stand for someone who is a team player.

Dark blue – A good navy suit will make you look professional, trustworthy and respectable.

Yellow – is a fun and playful colour. It is also a colour which connects men and sales.

Orange – Another fun colour – nothing serious here folks.

Pink – When you want to communicate with women, pink will have them listening. It is a soft communication colour.

Purple – So you might choose lilac or lavender in a  shirt or purple stripes in a tie. It says you are modern, fashionable and progressive.

Green -Deep greens are old worldly, bright greens are fun and creative. Deep greens are OK for knits and polos, not ties.

Brown – What are you thinking of old man. Get some colour. Brown will work in a leather jacket or rugged jumper…not in the office.

Grey – Can be exciting as you rise above the mainstream or really dull as you hide away. Greys must be in great fabrics for suits, the darker the more serious. Light grey will work in summer, and when worn in a tie, it had better be really good quality to make you shine.

Don’t let colour scare you. Consider the event, the people you are meeting and the impact that you want to have. It can be the difference of supporting everything you have to say and winning that contract or competing with your words and losing credibility.

Should you want to know more about what colours suit you call Clare to organise your own colour analysis session. these can be done in person or via skype. Discover for yourself the colours that will ensure you win that contract, that promotion or that girl.

If you would like to know more about your clothing style and personality do the quiz here.

The Colour Teal

The colour Teal - showing a boat on a teal oceanTeal is a blend of blue and green.

Together blue’s tranquil stability melds with green’s optimism and healing properties. In deep shades, teal has a natural dignity that is not contrived or “in your face.” Its understated elegance encourages a calm, reflective mood. Brighter shades are unique and smart.

The lover of teal often has an even temper and a thoughtful disposition while also having a talent for mediation and finding a compromise. With the trusting combination of blue and the natural tones of green teal is easily liked and trusted by most.

Individuals who wear teal are naturally creative and think for themselves and are perceived seen as reliable and independent.

Teal is a natural skin intensifier and as such will suit most women and men. It can be used in large or small amounts to make anyone look fresh and alive.

A colour analysis will discover all the colours that suit you best.

Book your colour discovery session today.

What the colour of your tie says about you

The meaning behind your tie

 

There is no denying that colour speaks volumes that language alone cannot.
Did you know that the colour tie that you chose to wear is communicating exactly what your intentions are whether you do it consciously or subconsciously. In fact, the meaning of all of these ties can extend into all garments.
The basic rules when it comes to colour are
  1. The lighter a colour is the friendlier it is
  2. The darker a colour is the more serious or formal it is.
  3. Neutral colours are the easiest to wear and co-ordinate with all other colours- Black, grey, navy, charcoal, chocolate and denim.
  4. Primary colours are the most acceptable and easy to wear-Red, Yellow and Blue
  5. Secondary colours are playful, creative and often mistrusted – Purple, Orange and Green
  6. Bright colours are playful and soft colours are relaxing
  7. Never wear more than two colours with a neutral to look and feel balanced.

Colour Meanings

Black – formal and intense. Black suits are good but dark navy and charcoal are better.

White – Professional and formal. With white shirts buy the best you can afford in a thick rich fabric. A flimsy white shirt will always look cheap.

Red – Powerful – Wear a red tie to be taken notice of.

Light blue – Friendly and approachable. blue collar shirts stand for someone who is a team player.

Dark blue – A good navy suit will make you look professional, trustworthy and respectable.

Yellow – is a fun ad playful colour. It is also a colour which connects men and sales.

Orange – Another fun colour – nothing serious here folks.

Pink – When you want to communicate with women, pink will have them listening. It is soft communication colour.

Purple – So you might chose lilac or lavender in a  shirt or purple stripes in a tie. It says you are modern, fashionable and progressive.

Green -Deep greens are old worldly, bright greens are fun and creative. Deep greens are OK for knits and polos, not ties.

Brown – What are you thinking of old man. Get some colour. Brown will work in a leather jacket or rugged jumper…not in the office.

Grey – Can be exciting as you rise above the mainstream or really dull as you hide away. Greys must be in great fabrics for suits, the darker the more serious. Light grey will work in summer, and when worn in a tie, it had better be really good quality to make you shine.

Don’t let colour scare you. Consider the event, the people you are meeting and the impact that you want to have. It can be the difference of supporting everything you have to say and winning that contract or competing with your words and losing credibility.

Should you want to know more about what colours suit you call Clare to organise your own colour analysis session. these can be done in person or via skype. Discover for yourself the colours that will ensure you win that contract, that promotion or that girl.

If you would like to know more about your clothing style and personality do the quiz here.

Top and Tailing

Top and Tailing

As you will know where you place colour can have a huge impact on whether it works or not and where it can take your eye to. This is also called Visual Grouping. As the placement of a colour can bring harmony to an entire outfit or completely throw it out. Generally speaking the focus should be on your face. So everything that you place on your body needs to direct the eye backup to your face.

Consider the fashionable nude shoe. It looks amazing on a blonde as the light shoe reinforces the light hair. I personally find the nude shoe not so great for a brunette, unless they want to extend their leg line. There is no harmony with the shoe though.

Just as a blonde wearing a black shoe with a coloured dress is out of harmony. There is no where for the eye to go to pick up the colour. So the effect is that the eye stays low on the outfit especially if the dark colour is noticeable.

With this in mind, staple shoes for a brunette are black, for a red head are bronze and for a blonde are nude.

Top & tailing 2If you look at these two images. The top one is the original footwear the models were wearing. I think only the first model was styled correctly.

In the image below you will notice when I changed everyones shoes around, while the light blue shoes work on the blonde, the rest of the  girls, in my opinion, look much better. This is especially more noticeable after I have removed their facial features. The hair becomes a greater feature.Top and Tailing

It is my belief that everyone’s nude or should I say neutral shoe be their hair colour.

Brunettes look best in black and dark shoes.

Blonde’s look best skin tone, light shoes and silver or gold(depending on whether their hair is ash or golden blonde.)

Red heads glow in bronze, amber and gold shoes.

If you want to read more on your personal colour and how to make it work for you, you can download my e-book, Every Woman’s guide to her personal colouring here.

You might also enjoy discovering what your colour personality is with this quiz.

What to do if your colouring is neither warm, cool, light or dark. You are muted.

Muted

Muted Colouring

 

This is an often overlooked colour group. This is where you find people who are neither light or dark, they are not truly overly warm or cool and especially they are not pure. It is one of my largest colour groups that I work with as well. As it can be cool and muted, warm and muted, light and muted and deep and muted. They just cannot be pure and muted.

When you look at these colours you will notice a muted tone to the colour. They are toned as opposed to shaded. They are neither light nor dark.

They will have a medium contrast.

This is due to either the ageing process which does soften our colouring or the mixing of races and the resulting blending of normally strong colouring patterns.

The muted group are a colour group which will be hard to pinpoint in magazines as they are often airbrushed to lighten or brighten their colouring.

    

Best Colours – Any shade which is soft. Like your colouring it doesn’t have any harsh edges to it. Teals, Sage, mushroom, light olive even apricot and turquoise feature in this group.

Hair tones will be high lighted. There is a natural leaning of this group to having multi tonal hair. The softness of their colouring lends them to blonde and caramel and auburn highlights. These women can and will be a version of warm and cool. They will not be cut and dried with their colouring and, if this is you, will be really undecided which way suits you the best. Be cautious of the warm, giving warmth to your colouring. Look at which soft colours make you look alive and give clarity to your eye colour and softness to the whites of your eyes.

Best Jewellery -You will suit mixes of gold and silver more than wearing just one or the other.

Best Neutrals -As you will see, anything which is softer in its colour. 

Males in this colour group will often find they wear stronger colours than necessary when working in the corporate sector otherwise they can appear to fade away. Many Natural Personality men will embrace this colour palette without caring if it suits them or not.

intriguing male

 

If you would like to know about your personal colouring contact Clare for your own personal colour analysis. This can be done in person or via skype.