Peggy Sagers: The human brain associates warm colors-- such as red, orange, and yellow-- with a range of feelings including passion, comfort, anger, and power.

Cool colors such as blue, green, and purple have the opposite effect, creating a calming atmosphere.

We love it when we hear, "Oh, that is your color."

Roxanne Carne, a personal stylist, deals with color every day.

She's here to guide us and show us a few tricks.

Join us as we talk color, today on "Fit 2 Stitch."

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♪♪♪ Peggy: When we talk about clothing, when we talk about fashion and color, we should talk about variety.

All of those words should be in the same breath.

Roxanne Carne is here today, and the whole reason Roxanne is here is to give us an idea of how we can expand our colors, because I think I stay to the same three colors all the time, but I don't want to, especially, like, when I see a color like that on you that looks so amazing.

Roxanne Carne: Thank you, thank you.

Peggy: It's beautiful.

Roxanne: Thank you.

Peggy: So can we actually do this on a live person?

Roxanne: Let's do it real-time.

Come on.

Peggy: Really?

Okay, so we have Karen here.

And Karen's agreed to be our person.

Roxanne: Absolutely, and you know, colors are so important because as you were saying before, it evokes, you know, feelings of either calmness or wanting to be fiery.

Peggy: Power, strength.

Roxanne: Right, and in also how you're perceived.

But when you're looking at determining the best colors for yourself, you really want to see how colors look against your skin, your hair, and your eyes, okay?

Those three things are important, so-- Peggy: So, a couple of questions.

Just, hang on, before you get started.

Would you know your colors, or tell me, do you feel like you need help with colors?

Karen: Well, I do now because before COVID, I was blonde, and during COVID I went natural.

So now I'm white and pale so, yes, I don't-- Peggy: So it is confusing, I think, 'cause we change over the years.

Do we stay the same color our whole lives?

Roxanne: No, so Karen brings up a good point.

As we get older, our skin tends to get a little bit lighter, actually, but for the most part, your undertone should remain the same.

The only time where I've ever seen a major difference is if you move to maybe a different continent and you're there for a long time, that can change your color.

But a lot of the time, your undertones should not change.

Peggy: Undertones.

But we should really review this whole process every once-- it can't be one color for life.

Roxanne: No, no.

Peggy: No, 'cause that's kind of what I thought, and I found that the same colors aren't working anymore.

That's really what I found.

Roxanne: Right, and I think, too, as seasons change, I mean, this happens with me in the wintertime, I get a little bit more pale, as pale as I can get, but then when I'm out and about in the summer, I kind of turn to, like, a coppery bronze.

I even have a little bit of a tan right now from the sun we've been having.

But I think it's-- that's why it's just-- so important to understand where your base colors are and what you can play with at one part of the year versus another.

Peggy: Well, I'm really excited.

And I know you're excited, so let's get started because I really wanna understand this.

Roxanne: Absolutely, so what we want to do first with Karen is determine her undertone.

So you're either going to be a cool undertone or a warm undertone, and so we're gonna start out-- I'm gonna show you some cool versus-- Peggy: "Cool" meaning blue or ocean?

Roxanne: Yes, blue, ocean, sky.

Warm would be sun, fire, earth, okay?

So, let's start out with a cool.

So I'm gonna put black right up to Karen.

Is--yeah, you see Peggy's reaction.

Exactly, it's too harsh.

Peggy: It makes-- yeah, I won't say that.

It's not the best.

Roxanne: It's not the best.

Peggy: And I never thought-- I thought everyone could wear black.

Roxanne: Well, here's the thing: Not everyone can wear black.

There are some seasons that we have within this color system where there's no black.

And for some people, they're just like, "Oh my goodness, I love black."

But black--the thing is, black can make you look sickly.

It can age you if it is not your color.

But, again, when we put it right up to her, it's just too much.

So, for contrast, we're gonna compare a warm color.

This is a lovely mahogany, so you see-- Peggy: You look so pretty.

It brings out her skin.

Roxanne: It does.

And so when I'm analyzing clients' colors, again, I'm looking at their skin color, their hair color, and their eye.

What was really interesting about Karen is that her-- she's turned gray after COVID, right?

But even in her gray, it has a touch of honey and yellow to it, and then when I look into your eyes, it has kind of like a greenish-blue cast outside but she's got brown specks all throughout.

So that's the warmth, and her eyebrows-- that's her natural color eyebrow-- and guess what?

They're brown, right?

So that's why I'm not surprised to see that the warm brown looks better than that harsh black.

Peggy: Black, so if she's gonna wear black, keep it to the bottom.

Roxanne: Keep it to the bottom half, okay?

Peggy: Got those instructions?

Are you-- Karen: I have 'em.

I understand.

Roxanne: So I like to test it, though, because there are different colors within each palette here.

So I wanna look at it again.

So let's just look at silver, which is cool, okay?

So this is silver.

Peggy: I'm so surprised.

Roxanne: Can you see?

This isn't-- Peggy: I thought everyone with gray hair should wear silver.

Roxanne: I know, right?

Karen: I did too.

Roxanne: But let's look at the gold now.

Let's compare the metallic gold.

Peggy: Oh, that's so pretty.

Roxanne: And you see, she feels-- she comes to life a little bit, especially her eyes.

In her eyes, right?

So that's why it's really important to understand whether you are a cool or warm undertone, right?

Now that I know that she's warm, we're gonna look at the season to determine which season you are.

So with the seasons, spring and autumn are our warm seasons in terms of color.

Summer and winter are our cool seasons, again, in terms of color.

So now that we know that she's warm, I'm looking at-- Peggy: You only go for those two?

You wouldn't jump back to the other--okay.

Roxanne: I'm not going to the cool season.

Peggy: So those go to the side?

Roxanne: Yeah, so summer and winter are automatically kicked out, 'cause we know she's not a cool undertone.

Peggy: It's almost like a process of elimination.

Roxanne: Exactly, that's exactly what it is, Peggy.

Peggy: Yeah, I like this.

It becomes easier to me.

Roxanne: Logic, right?

So then when we're looking at the colors, so here is autumn and this is spring.

So I'm gonna take a color from autumn-- so this is really pretty fuchsia.

Peggy: That's very bright on her.

Roxanne: See, look-- Peggy's reaction gives it all away.

Peggy: No, again, you know what?

She just looks so faded.

She looks tired.

Roxanne: Yeah, this overpowers her.

Peggy: It does, it overpowers her.

Is it too harsh a contrast or just the wrong color?

Roxanne: It's a little bit of both.

Now, she--in her palette, you can have pinks, but saturation, hue, comes into play, right?

Peggy: I see.

This is much too saturated.

Roxanne: This is much too saturated.

So now we're gonna compare-- this is from spring.

So, a terracotta.

So you see there's more balance, again, looking at her eye color, her hair, and actually when you have this up to her, I see more of the yellow in her gray.

Right?

It's beautiful.

Peggy: In her skin as well.

Roxanne: Right?

Karen: Interesting.

Roxanne: So we're gonna do it one more time with this pink, so it, you know, it's kind of just-- Peggy: It's still faded.

I mean, it's not as bad as this, but it's not as good as this.

Roxanne: It's not as good as that, so now we're gonna just compare it with this salmon.

There's more harmony.

So you see how there's more harmony in this color, versus that one?

Peggy: I can see that.

I was so worried I wouldn't be able to see this, but I can actually see it.

Roxanne: But it makes a difference.

So, from this, I know now that Karen is definitely a spring.

Remember, this was her spring palette, and then this was her autumn.

She's definitely a spring.

So, now the third phase is when we're trying to determine which area of spring she is, okay?

So this is taking that season and we're breaking it down one more level, because-- and here's the thing, just because you are one season and you have a friend like-- Peggy, you and I, we're the same season.

We're both autumn, but we have different best colors.

Peggy: So that means everything you are tired of, you can give to me.

Roxanne: I can give to you.

Peggy: And I'll take that.

Roxanne: And most of them probably would work, but there are gonna be some nuances where it doesn't.

And that's why I love this system.

So right here, we have our pure-- some colors from our pure spring.

This is our tinted spring, so what that means is if we take the pure color and we add white to it, we get tinted.

If we take the pure color and we add gray to it, we get toned, so this is the toned spring.

And if we take the pure color and we add black to it, then we get shaded.

That's shaded spring.

Peggy: So we guess which one she's gonna be?

Roxanne: So, do you wanna guess?

Peggy: Well, I would think if you add black to her it wouldn't look good, because the black didn't look good.

Roxanne: So, that's right.

Peggy: And I would add that the one you put gray to wouldn't look good, 'cause the gray didn't look good on her either.

Roxanne: Actually, well, we didn't test gray.

We did silver.

We tested silver, right?

So, Karen is actually a toned spring, so I'm just gonna show you a quick example.

So we're gonna take the pure.

This is a pure red.

Put that on her, whoa.

Peggy: Yeah, it's too harsh again.

Roxanne: Overpowering.

It's harsh again, okay.

Peggy: It completely fades her out.

Roxanne: It does.

Let's play with the tinted.

The tinted?

Whoa, that is not a good color for Karen whatsoever.

Peggy: It's too much.

Roxanne: If we do the toned, here we have a little bit more balance, so far, comparing the three.

Let's do one more from the shaded.

And that's a little rich.

Peggy: That's the black.

Roxanne: This is a little bit rich, so out of the four, we like this one the best.

Karen: Good, I like those colors the best too.

I do, I like those colors the best.

Roxanne: So I'm gonna just grab this, and I'm just gonna show kind of all four colors.

There's more balance here, you know?

The colors are so beautiful.

They do have a certain degree of brightness.

The pure is absolutely brightest, but it has-- it's toned down a little bit because with her coloring coupled with her undertone, we need to tone it down.

We can't do anything too bright, we can't do anything too deep, and we don't wanna do anything that's too tinted, right?

So this hits the spot.

Peggy: So with that color, like, let's say you can't wear black.

Does that drive you crazy?

Does that bother you?

Karen: No, I think I just-- if I wore something black, I think I'd wear something in my season with it, on top.

Peggy: So, do you think it's important for you, 'cause it's up to everybody, that you'd wanna follow those colors?

Do you think you'd just say, "Ah, I'll wear whatever I want"?

Karen: If it's something that I really, really like, yes, I would probably wear what I wanted, but, otherwise, I do try to stay within certain colors.

There are certain colors that I just gravitate to naturally.

Peggy: Look.

Roxanne: And you know that don't work for you.

Peggy: That's it, man.

Follow the cards.

Roxanne: Those are your 60 best colors, Karen.

Karen: Thank you so much.

Peggy: Thank you for being here.

Roxanne: Yeah, thank you so much.

Peggy: Thank you so much.

It was so interesting, just to learn--it just makes-- it's so logical, it makes so much sense, just-- Roxanne: It is, and I think-- and that's why doing the swatches is so helpful, because you really see.

You had the gut reaction of, like, "Whoa, that's not a good color," right?

Peggy: And again I thought everyone with gray hair could wear silver, but it's not silver.

Silver's not gray.

Roxanne: Correct.

Peggy: So would this follow your tonal-- tone of your jewelry as well?

Roxanne: Exactly.

So there are a couple of tips in terms of determining your undertone on your own.

One of the quick ways is jewelry.

So you can wear--you can put silver-toned jewelry on and put it next to gold and see which one looks better.

Peggy: On your skin.

And is your wrist gonna be basically the same as your face?

Roxanne: You can--it depends, 'cause if you're, like, out driving a lot, you may be a little bit darker, right, than in your arm.

Peggy: But, naturally, if they're both natural.

If your face is natural and your arms are-- Roxanne: Then it should be the same.

But I always try to, in terms of coloring, I like to have it from the neck up, right?

Peggy: Got it.

So I'm gonna be a little selfish now, since I know our colors are the same, and I wanna talk about colors on you.

'Cause this color that you have on, what would you call that?

Roxanne: This is teal.

Peggy: Teal, it's beautiful.

Roxanne: Teal green, yeah.

Peggy: It's, like, amazing on you.

And I don't think I have anything teal in my closet, but it's gonna change tomorrow.

Roxanne: But that would look good you.

Time to go shopping, Peggy.

Peggy: So let's talk about this.

Roxanne: Yes, so I brought this because this is an example, Peggy, of a color that does not work for me.

This cobalt blue, if you-- so, okay, so just look at me.

Absorb me with this color, that does work for me.

So, now, I want you to take a look and just look at this against my neck.

Peggy: It turns your skin a different color.

Roxanne: Almost kind of a different color.

Gray, exactly, it is not-- it doesn't resonate with me.

It's not a complement.

Peggy: So this enriches your skin, and this kind of fades it out?

Roxanne: Absolutely, so even standing next to it, you can probably see a difference between number one, number two.

Number one, number two.

Yeah, this is not a great color for me.

Peggy: Interesting, let's find out what is, 'cause I wanna start copying your colors.

Roxanne: So, this, on the other hand, is an amazing color, or set of colors, for me.

It is warm.

So, again, we've got the sunshine.

We've got the fire.

So if we look at my wrist.

Peggy: It's so pretty.

Roxanne: You see?

Yeah, do you see how this is more congruent?

Peggy: It's beautiful.

Roxanne: Compared-- look at this over here.

Completely different, right?

And that's why it's important to know your best colors because I don't wanna walk around looking sickly or looking, you know-- sometimes when you see someone wearing something and you can't quite put your finger on what's wrong with it?

Peggy: Oh, all the time, even for myself.

Roxanne: Right?

A lot of times it's the color.

It really is.

Peggy: Makes a big difference.

Even though it's beautiful, sometimes it's the color.

Roxanne: Sometimes, it's--exactly.

Peggy: All right, so let's talk about this.

Roxanne: Yeah, so I brought this because this happens to be in my color palette, the skirt, but I brought this because-- Peggy: What color would you call this?

Roxanne: This is kind-- I would call this kind of like a deep fuchsia.

Yeah, I brought this because there's some-- for some people, there are going to be colors-- Karen was actually saying the same thing-- that you love but aren't the best for you, and you still wanna wear it, but they don't love you.

So one hack to get away from that is that, just wear that color on the bottom half of your body or bring in an accessory, whether it's a belt, a bracelet, handbag or shoes, because that way, it's not right up against your neck 'cause that's what counts, okay?

So just, you know, put something else in the middle to break it and then you can still enjoy the color.

Peggy: Yeah, so the white looks great on you, so you could go with the white.

Roxanne: You know, white-- so, it's interesting.

From a technical standpoint, pure white is not my best white.

Soft white is my white.

But sometimes I do wear pure white, depending on the occasion.

Sometimes the contrast is really, really nice, but I find, for me, if I go with a white, it just needs to be a little bit softer than this or going into beige or ivory.

Peggy: How interesting.

Roxanne: That's a sweet spot for me.

This white is just a little too, too harsh for me-- and for you too.

Peggy: Okay, so let's talk about the-- it's okay, like I said, I'm just gonna follow your lead.

Let's talk about this color wheel a little bit.

Roxanne: Yeah, so this is such a handy tool.

Such a handy tool, and you can get this anywhere.

And it's so inexpensive.

But the reason why this is important is that the color wheel is broken into two categories.

One half of the color wheel is cool--cool colors.

The other half is warm.

Peggy: Cool is the ocean, the blues.

Roxanne: Ocean, the blues, right.

Peggy: Warm is the sky, the reds, the oranges.

Roxanne: Fire, volcano-- exactly, you're on the right spot.

So, the reason why this is a helpful tool is that, you know, when we're putting our outfits together or coordinating, you want-- sometimes you wanna know, like, is this a combination that can work for me?

Do these colors look good together, right?

So, once you've nailed your palette, then you wanna figure out what colors are gonna be complementary.

So, for example, if we look at the color that I am wearing today, so we'll say-- we'll put it in kind of the blue-green category here.

If you go directly across the color wheel, a great color that would look good with this would be a red-orange.

So if you envision that with this, like if I had a red-orange necklace, right?

That will look really, really great.

The other thing I wanted to point out is that you can also do what's called a split complementary.

So, if you go-- Peggy: This is really interesting.

You're talking accessories now or what about shoe color?

Roxanne: Accessories, jewelry, shoes.

Peggy: You could do shoes too, so if you look at this teal that you have, you could do, like, a brown shoe like that.

Roxanne: A brown.

I can do a lovely-- I have a shoe, actually, this exact color: red-orange.

That would be a good complement.

But I could also play, Peggy, with the colors that are next to that complement, so that's called a split complementary.

So I could go all out and do a full-on red, like a cherry red, okay?

Even though this is not in my palette, again, if I'm doing it with an accessory, it's totally fine.

But I wanna show you something really cool.

So we-- again, this is-- the color I'm wearing today is right in this category.

There's also the triad.

So the triad is gonna be kind of an exact triangle, right, an equilateral triangle from the original color.

So I could do yellow-orange with this, or I could do anything in that purple-red-violet as well.

So this purse would be a great color to pair with this, 'cause it's in that triad.

Peggy: Okay, now is that a color that you could wear?

Roxanne: This is actually in my color palette, yeah.

But this is why it's important to maybe invest in a color wheel because now you can truly see how colors go together their best for you.

Peggy: Okay, so let's talk about this color wheel a little more, 'cause I wanna make sure I understand it.

Is this a season-- is this is a-- is my color wheel and Karen's color wheel the same color wheel?

Roxanne: No, so a color wheel's gonna be different to the seasons.

Peggy: Okay, that's what I wanted to know.

Roxanne: Yeah, this is a really great question.

This just gives you an idea of what colors pair well together.

Peggy: Okay.

For you?

Because this color wheel belongs to you.

And Karen's color wheel is gonna be a completely different color wheel?

Roxanne: No, her color wheel's gonna be the same.

Peggy: Because you're the same.

Roxanne: If, no, mm-mm, this is for everybody.

You can use this regardless of the season because here's-- so let me-- I think this is gonna help you understand.

For each of the seasons-- so we have our four seasons and then we have our subcategories.

So that means there are 16 different color palettes, right?

Within each color palette, there are both cool and warm colors that we can wear.

I'm a warm undertone, but this is a cool color.

But this is my cool color, okay?

Remember, our color wheel-- Peggy: This is my cool color.

Roxanne: Yeah, this is my cool color, right?

But our color wheel has both cool and warm, so they're gonna be-- so you see how there are different degrees of satur-- like, it's darker in here, then it gets a little bit lighter?

Peggy: I see.

So your color is this one.

That's why you put it here.

And then you get to do all of-- this kind of helps you get dressed.

Roxanne: Completely.

This is a game-changer, the color wheel right here.

So everybody can use it, but that's why it's important first to understand your best colors and then when you find your best colors and you put it on, now you unleash and say, "Okay, how can I accessorize it?"

Peggy: That's really true because I think that I, again, you know, when I get tired of the same colors I'm wearing and I say, "Okay, I need a new pair of shoes," and I go buy the same darn color shoes.

I only have 40 pairs of black shoes.

I have no beige and, you know, nothing on the color wheel.

Roxanne: Right, and so this is the great part of style because this is where you can have fun and take a little bit of risk and buy something that is gonna be a little bit different for you.

Peggy: Okay, so I have a question for you.

If the blue dress-- be it good, bad, or indifferent-- if the blue dress, using the color wheel, you wear the blue dress, 'cause I've seen women who will wear a dress and the shoe color's horrible.

Roxanne: It's horrible for it.

Peggy: But this will actually help you choose all those accessories?

Roxanne: Absolutely.

Peggy: So what color shoe color does she wear with a blue dress?

Roxanne: So if we set the color wheel here.

There we go.

So we're starting here.

So we can do an orange or a nude here.

If we do the split complementary, we can do that red-orange which we talked about, actually, that would pair with this.

I love the idea of doing a nice yellow as well.

That's a really great color for this-- Peggy: But you're more-- I noticed it's personality too-- which one you choose, because I noticed your-- I love your shoes but-- I love your shoes, but your shoes are more gutsy than my shoes.

I wanna grow up and have your shoes, but I love the difference.

So you can-- your personality will dictate, but it won't-- it'll still fall within the colors and you won't ruin the outfit by having the wrong color.

Roxanne: Right, you're still making the right selection, but it's gonna be within what you feel comfortable wearing.

Peggy: Sure, I'm gonna grow up and have shoes like you.

I promise.

Okay, I love that.

That helps.

Roxanne: So you see how that's helpful to see what options we have for pairing for accessories?

Peggy: Well, this is where, you know, I think that it's really fair to say that we really have--can have a lot more fun with our clothing than what-- I mean, I love clothes.

I have fun with clothing, but I feel like I could just break out and have a little more fun.

Roxanne: And have more fun, but you're able to do that because once we have those pieces in place-- exactly, the confidence comes naturally.

Peggy: It's the confidence with the colors.

It does, it really does.

And I will even buy a purple handbag, I think.

So, because--tell me what color, just quickly, what do you pair this with?

Roxanne: So, when I wear this-- Peggy: You go to your color wheel.

Roxanne: Yeah, you go to the color wheel, right?

But, no, you know, this is a great color.

I--when it comes to, for example, denim, I love a good high-low look.

So having something that's dressy and pairing it with something that's a little bit kind of more casual.

For denim, I love dark washes because you can dress it up or dress it down.

So this would look great with a denim-- just a dark-wash denim bottom, and then up top, you can do, again, a complementary color here.

Peggy: Just like a clean off-white.

Roxanne: Oh, my gosh, that's my favorite, right?

Peggy: Yeah, 'cause it's so clean, and then this is your pop of color.

Roxanne: So classic, and then that's the pop of color.

Peggy: I've learned so much-- just, thank you.

Roxanne: My pleasure, Peggy.

Peggy: Thank you.

Every time I meet with you, I get a little smarter.

Thanks so much.

Bye-bye.

A necktie can make a statement.

It is often the focal point when it comes to traditional menswear.

Next time, our guest is from one of the largest tie companies in the world and has a lot to teach us.

Join us.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors.

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