Crafting A Rainbow

Of course!

Your colour palette can change for a lot of reasons:

• you might prefer cooler colours as your hair greys
• changing seasons or moving to a different climate can make your best colours get darker, lighter, warmer or cooler
• dyeing your hair, changing your preferred makeup or getting new glasses can change the amount of contrast in your face, or adjust your undertone
• your tastes change! Maybe you go from goth to preppy, or vice versa.
• fashion trends – right now fabric stores are full of dusty warm colours, and that can impact your purchases

I’m sure there are many more reasons your wardrobe colours might change – let me know in the comments what I missed!

Let’s look at my own colours palette for example:

Here is the first palette I ever made, just a few months after I started sewing in 2012. Looking back, the essence was there but the colours are too pale!

By the next year, I’d figured out what is my classic wardrobe colour palette. This has been the basis of my wardrobe and fabric purchases for 7 years, and I think it is what I’ll return to again and again over time.

The doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy experimenting! In 2017 At one point I tried adding in some purple, royal blue and black. I like those colours, but they never really “stuck” in my wardrobe.

In 2017, I tried using the Pantone colours of the year to make a capsule wardrobe. Some of the pieces were existing, and some were made with my Cali Fabrics budget for the season in return for writing a blog post. I still have the jeans, teal shirt, dusty rose floral tank, and grey cardigan, and everything else was passed on because it wasn’t right for me.

And now, finally, the colour palette I’ve made for Spring/Summer 2020! I started dyeing my hair auburn in October last year, and over the winter I realised that I definitely suit warmer colours better than I used to. Some of the really cool magentas and mint greens don’t suit me as well any more – they look good with my face but jarring against my hair, and I want to look harmonious! (I’m not saying YOU need to look harmonious, it’s just what I like for myself.)

It’s easier to see the difference between my classic colour palatte and my new warm one by seeing them both together. Handily enough, the header of my blog matches my classic colour scheme!

Similar but different, right? The red, coral, grey and white have stayed the same, but the other colours are a bit darker and more “fall”. Denim blue instead of navy, pine instead of mint, peacock blue instead of periwinkle. In truth, buying warm coloured fabric is a lot easier than buying my classic cool tones these days, and a new palette gave me a great excuse to buy fun new fabrics for spring! That’s as good a reason as any to change a wardrobe palette, right?

I hope that’s been useful to explain that the colours your love wearing can change over time. You aren’t “stuck” with what you chose now! Just pick colours you can’t wait to wear every day, and you are on the right path.