Q. The color analyst told me I shouldn’t wear white. EVERYONE wears white! Why can’t I?

A. Do you just want to do what everyone else does? You’re more creative than that or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Let me explain. It’s WHITE white that is troublesome because it is a strong “color” that can look harsh or overpowering on people whose skin is relatively fair. When Jake Gyllenhaal wears a white shirt the shirt is the first thing we see, not Jake. In the gray shirt we see his face and eyes first. That said, white can be quite stunning on people with bright or darker skin tones–like when you get a tan, or if you’re a bright Spring or a classic Winter, like Lupita Nyong’o below.

The other issue with white white is what it can do to the appearance of your teeth. Few of us have bright white teeth, and because human beings automatically look for color repetition, they look up from your white shirt and by comparison your not-so-white teeth your teeth seem dingy. Lupita’s bright white teeth bring your eyes right up to her beautiful face.

Q. What can I substitute for white?

A. Depending on how warm or cool your underlying skin tones are, you may successfully wear some version of off-white, like ivory, cream, buff or pearl. Your palest skin tone is a particularly flattering “white.” Various shades of “nude” or “blush” are still ubiquitous in the stores, and make you look approachable, friendly, human. On my Pinterest page I have a specific board (Instead of White) addressing this very issue.

Here’s a short cheat sheet from a handout I give students in my color classes describing the symbolic meanings and usage of various popular colors. If you’d like a copy of it let me know on the contact form below.

Positive Symbolic Meanings: Purity, clean, neatness, freshness, hopeful, goodness, enlightenment, spiritual, virginal, innocence, forgiveness

Negative Symbolic Meanings:: Clinical, cold, colorless, neutral. In many parts of Asia it signifies mourning.

When to wear white:

For strong contrast against dark colors, to project authority, to direct the eye to the contrast line.
To project impeccable standards of hygiene (assuming it’s clean), as in traditional medicine, technical clean rooms.
As an entire outfit for an attention-getting image. Especially dramatic on someone with darker skin tones (for whom it is their version of black!)
As a first-time bride. (But if it doesn’t look good on you, by all means choose a different pale hue)

When not to wear white:

If there’s a chance you’ll get dirty and you want to look put together, like in sooty urban environments.
If your teeth aren’t very white.
In the evening it can look gauche unless you’re in a warm climate.

Now you may be curious about wearing black. Here’s that link.

If you want to know more about color analysis or are ready to have your colors done, you know what to do:

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