Color in Dress

 

Color draws attention, elicits an emotional response, and directs the consumer to the product (Brannon, p. 117). Color is frequently a primary reason why a person is drawn to and purchases a particular item of clothing. Year after year, a new T-shirt in a different color can help transform the appearance of a product. Color draws a viewer's attention because it is both recognizable and distinctive. We frequently use color to describe clothing, such as "a blue suit."

Color research is complex, involving light, vision, pigment, science, technology, and art. Furthermore, colored pigment differs from colored light in its behavior. Although there are numerous color classification models, the Munsell color system, with its numeric notation for each color, is widely used and accepted to describe color pigments and color properties related to clothing.

Color Dimensions

Color is described in three dimensions by all pigment color systems: hue (the name), intensity (brightness/dullness), and value (lightness/darkness). Every color contains all three dimensions, and every color begins with hue. Value and intensity are adjectives used to describe color variations (light bright green, or deep dull red, for instance).

Hue

The name of the color as it appears on the color wheel is its hue—for example, the visual sensation of blue. Each hue has its own physical characteristics: the primary pigment hues are red, yellow, and blue. They are not created by combining other colors, but they are created by combining these colors. Orange, green, and violet are secondary hues that are mixtures of the adjacent primary hues; orange is a mixture of red and yellow, and violet is a mixture of red and blue. The hue spectrum extends from red to violet and is typically represented as a circle of hues, with the primary hues separated by the secondary. Tertiary hues (also known as intermediate hues) are created by combining a primary and a secondary color, such as red-orange or blue-violet.

Color families are groups or categories of colors that have similar sensory effects. Related hues (also known as analogous) such as blue-violet, violet, and red-violet are adjacent on the color wheel and form a color family. On the color wheel, contrasting colors are separated from one another. Color schemes that contrast include complementary and split-complementary. Yellow and purple-blue are complementary hues because they complete the spectrum; each contains primaries that the other does not. Complementary colors can create an afterimage of one another. When you look away from a neutral surface after staring at one color for several seconds, you will see an image of its complement. In a split-complementary scheme, the color on either side of the complement is chosen, for example, green, red-orange, and red-violet.

Value

Each hue has a unique normal or home value; yellow's home value is close to white or light gray, while violet's home value is as dark as very dark gray. Color combinations are affected by values. Red and green, for example, have similar values and thus provide hue contrast but not value contrast. The complementary hues of yellow and violet at normal value, on the other hand, provide both hue and value contrast.

Contrasting values can influence how adjacent surfaces are perceived to have edges. When a light value surface is placed next to a dark one, the difference between the two surfaces has a strong visual pull. The value contrast between a white shirt and black trousers, light skin and dark hair, or dark hair and skin and pastel suit are all examples of applications.

Intensity

The intensity of a color, also known as chroma, is its relative purity or saturation. The intensity of a color is described by this dimension. On the color wheel, saturated colors are primary and secondary hues at their purest and strongest. Each hue has a saturation range ranging from full intensity to neutral gray. Intensity gives hue its vibrancy or neutrality. Intensity can be expressed in a variety of ways. A saturated color is intense and usually elicits feelings of excitement or energy. 

Less saturated hues range from nearly bright to nearly muted, incorporating a wide range of moods. Low-intensity hues are neutral colors that are frequently used as the foundation of a wardrobe. Complementary colors can vibrate when used together at full strength. The addition of a hue's complement reduces its saturation to neutral gray and can improve its livability.

Surface texture influences intensity. Minor surface irregularities reflect minute areas of light, casting miniature shadows, dulling the intensity of a color. If a fabric with a distinct weave or surface was dyed in the same dye bath as a smooth fabric, the color would appear duller due to the softening effect of the napped texture. A smooth, shiny surface, on the other hand, will highlight a soft color (Goldstein and Goldstein 1960, pp. 184-185).

Psychophysical Effects of Color

Color characteristics can have psychophysical effects. Perception can be influenced by the temperature of a hue, the space from which it is viewed, and the color combinations used to create it.

Color for the Individual

Color packaging for individual selection has been used to market color (Jackson 1981; Pinckney and Swenson 1981). Color selection for clothing is based on groups of colors that are easily remembered, such as nature's seasons. Summer and fall colors are described as clear, vivid, and bright, whereas winter and spring colors are described as less intense. Colors in the winter and summer are cool; colors in the spring and fall are warm. Personal color analysis systems range from small pre-packaged color palettes to colors that are specifically selected for each individual.

The Color Key system divides color into warm and cool overtones that include all basic hues, values, and intensities (Brannon 2000). Color Key 1 is made up of cool, clear colors, while Color Key 2 is made up of warm, earth tone colors; each has a corresponding color fan of paint chips that can be used to coordinate paint for interiors and apparel colors. This color key system implies that when people are surrounded by colors that reflect their personal coloring, they will look and feel better.

Warm and Cool

Warm colors, light values, and strong intensities appear to advance, while cool colors, dark values, and desaturated colors appear to recede. Colors that advance expand a shape. Warm and dark values are perceived as dense or solid, and they are frequently associated with muted earth tones such as brick or red-orange, ocher, or golden brown. Cool colors appear to shrink a shape. Cool colors and light values are associated with air, distant mountains, and water, and can give the impression of distance, depth, shadow, coolness, and lightness.

Warm tones, light values, and saturated colors like bright orange or shocking pink can make a room appear loud or noisy. In comparison, cool tones, dark values, and desaturated colors like deep taupe or dark violet are quiet.

Spatial Position

When colors are viewed separately, they can produce an afterimage, which affects the colors on the body. When the viewer focuses on a clothing surface and then moves their gaze to the face, the skin may appear to take on tinges of the complementary color to the clothing. Thus, after concentrating on a green sweater, a viewer who looks up at the face may notice that it is tinged with the complement, red.

The perceptual effect of a hue is influenced by whether it is directly surrounded by another hue or separated in some way. When individual colors are separated by black or white, their singleness of character and interplay are somewhat suppressed. Black makes adjacent colors appear lighter and more brilliant; white often appears to darken them.

Visual Mixing

Colors appear to mix visually when combined in small patterns or woven together. When two or more colors are interwoven onto one surface, the end result can be more vibrant than a single color surface. When complementary colors or black and white threads are woven together, the surface appears gray or neutral when viewed from a distance. A salt-and-pepper effect is created by increasing the size of the black and white threads.

Color and the Body

Color and dress interact with color and the body. Human coloration, as a composite of colors, can be analyzed in the same way that other pigments are to predict the effects of color in clothing. Any similarity of color attributes placed on the body can form a powerful visual relationship with the body.

The appearance of a person is a combination of the surfaces on the body and the individual's personal body coloring. The body colors of skin, hair, and eyes are included in appearance. What surrounds a specific color influences how it appears. Because the pre-existing colors of the body are influenced by other colors placed on it, the body colors affect the surfaces placed on it, and vice versa. Furthermore, the colors of the surrounding environment and lighting effects can have a significant impact on the clothed body.

An individual can begin to understand color relationships by matching, naming, and locating personal body colors. When it comes to body colors, intensity is a difficult dimension to describe because the skin surface necessitates noting small and subtle differences. "Highlights" in one's own coloring can refer to areas of the hair, skin, or eyes that appear more intense than others. The term "undertone" refers to the underlying colors of skin and hair. Identifying an individual's highlights and undertones aids in the placement of colors on the body that are related by similarity or contrast.

Color as a Source of Association

Color is associated with many natural objects of similar color and, as a result, can take on similar meaning based on that association. Sunshine is warm and yellow: yellow is warm. Blue is as cool and far away as mountains and water. Red, like fire, is exciting, and in many cultures, red denotes danger. Mood is also associated with color; we have "blues" or are "green" with envy.

Colors can be associated with specific peoples or historical periods. Psychedelic colors were symbolic of the 1960s in the United States, and included intense hues of pink, yellow, blue, green, and purple. Because of its traditional association with pottery and ceramics, Koreans prefer celadon green, a pastel blue-green, and white is used for mourning clothing in Korea (Geum and DeLong).

Color Preferences

Color preferences can be measured and identified collectively as well as individually, and psychologists have studied the formation and reaction to color preferences. In 1941, Eysenck (Brannon 2000) published a study that revealed a consistent order of color preferences in adults: blue, red, green, purple, yellow, and orange. According to Itten (1973), people have subjective individual preferences that include hue, value, and intensity dimensions. The Lüscher Color Test (1969) establishes a link between personality and color preferences. Subjects are asked to arrange color chips in their preferred order, and the results are analyzed to consider both the meaning and impact of the colors as chosen.

Color Marketing

The most important aesthetic criterion in consumer preference is color (Eckman, Damhorst, and Kadolph 1990). Because color is a complex phenomenon, marketers can present merchandise in coordinated colors to assist consumers in making purchasing decisions. When a clothing line is color coordinated, the consumer may find wardrobe planning easier. Colors can be coordinated within a season or from one fashion season to the next by designers and manufacturers, so that the colors of a suit from one season will coordinate with a shirt from the next. Cosmetics choices are part of color coordination of the body in a clothing ensemble and may be related to personal coloring or wardrobe colors.

Fashion in Colors

Color has historically been fashionable. Editors of contemporary fashion frequently use a color for a season to market clothing. Colors or color combinations popular at the time are frequently used to identify historical events. Raspberry pink and lime green from the mid-twentieth century, or pastels and 

filmy light tints from the end of the nineteenth century, are examples.

Forecasters capitalize on the importance of color by advancing a color palette for a specific season. Color forecasting began in 1915 and is based on an analysis of cultural demographics and color patterns (Brannon 2000). Color coordination follows a cyclical pattern from High Chroma to Multicolored, Subdued, Earth Tones, Achromatic, Purple, and then back to High Chroma (Brannon 2000).