Using a Color Wheel to Get Dressed

So today, I wanted to talk about color. I know most women feel a little intimidated when it comes to incorporating color into their outfits. There’s hundreds of thousands of colors out there, it can feel confusing on knowing which colors go with each other in a complimenting way. But I’ve got a little handy tool that I like to use that makes wearing color less scary. A color wheel!

Before we dive in, I’m Emmaline Chappell and I’m a certified personal stylist. I have my own business here in Richmond. I help busy women elevate their style by rediscovering the joy of dressing to look and feel luxe.

So a color wheel can be a really helpful tool for anyone wanting to use color in their outfits. You can get these color wheels at michaels or amazon or art supplies retailers. In color theory there’s several color schemes but today I’m gonna cover three.

So here’s the basics, there’s 12 colors on the wheel. The best thing about the wheel is that it literally shows you how to combine colors so you can use it as your own color cheat sheet to create colorful bold outfits that look effortless. If you look in the middle of the wheel, it lists the names of the different color combinations with arrows that point to the color you’re landing on, you’ll just follow the arrows to see where they point to tell you which colors go with which.

So let’s say you want to use two colors in your outfit. You would do a complementary color scheme which just means you’re taking one color and look at the color that’s directly across from it and boom you have a complementary color combination. So here’s blue green and if you look, there’s the arrow, you can see it says complementary, follow the arrow and there’s red orange which is directly across. Just take colorful piece in your closet, look on the wheel and see what’s directly across from it and you’ve got a complementary color combo. Simple right?

Okay so let’s say you want to play with three colors in your outfit. You could do a triad color scheme. These are colors that are equally spaced by three. So maybe you have a purple blouse, you’ll go on the color wheel, move it so the top arrow is pointing to purple and follow the arrows that point to triad which we can see are green and orange. So you could pair a pair of green pants and finish the look with an orange clutch and viola, you’ve created a triad color combination in your outfit. And you can see that these three colors are evenly spaced from each other, they’re three colors apart from each other.

The last color scheme I wanted to cover is the analogous color scheme. These are the set of colors that are right next to each other. So you could do red, red orange and orange. Or blue, blue green and green. This color scheme is the least bold out of the color combinations we’ve covered because you’re using shades that are similar in hue. It can create a really serene visual in your outfits and it’s great when you’re just starting to incorporate colors into your outfits.

So again, these are just three color combos that I’ve covered but there’s also monochromatic, tetradic and split complementary. And on the color wheel, it’ll list all these schemes. I just wanted to give you three that you could try.

I hope this video has helped you see mixing colors in your outfits can be fun and easier than you think. If you have any questions about this video please leave a comment or send me a direct message and I’ll answer you asap or if would like any help with your personal style or your wardrobe, reach out through my website.

Work with me! As a personal stylist and style coach, I believe you deserve to feel amazing in your clothes and have a wardrobe that you love to wear. With my guidance and expertise, you’ll have a closet that works and a style that makes you feel confident and fabulous!