While spring cleaning my closet, I cringed at the purchases that I rarely or never wore. A baby blue tank top worn only on laundry days, and a matching vintage khaki pants-and-shirt set that I haven't donned since I put it on in the dressing room.
Something about them just wasn't right. At the same time, however, I've begun gravitating toward warmer tones, like burnt orange and mustard yellows.
I confirmed these fashion choices are on the right track after getting a personal color analysis done by four local stylists and color analysts working under the international franchise House of Colour.
Spoiler: In the words of Gilmore Girls' character Richard Gilmore, "I am an autumn."
While in the show, Richard consults a magazine quiz to determine his most flattering color palette based on each of the four seasons, today the most accurate determination is through an in-person test by a certified color analyst.
"The palettes are named after the seasons of the year because the colors are reflecting what's happening in nature," says Haley Zizzi, a House of Colour stylist based out of downtown Coeur d'Alene.
The test, trending on TikTok, involves placing precision-dyed fabric drapes of the seasonal palettes on the client in natural lighting to see what best complements skin tone, eye and hair color. Personal color applies not only to clothing, but also makeup, hair and nail colors, and jewelry metals.
"It's based on your undertone, which we can't even see, but we can see the evidence and the shifts it's making with the different drape process," says Sammie Schaefer, a stylist and color analyst based out of North Spokane.
More simply, summer and winter have cool, blue-based undertones, while spring and autumn have warm, yellow-based undertones.
"A lot of people have a hard time looking at themselves objectively," says stylist and color analyst Meg Martens, who operates her House of Colour franchise on the lower South Hill. "We get to be that objective outsider who wants good things for them, who wants them to feel their best."
While self tests have also become popular (considering that the price of a professional color analysis averages around $300), they're not as reliable. These at-home tests might provide a starting point, but without a trained eye and honed techniques, subjectivity, inconsistent lighting and other factors can get in the way.
Though personal color analysis tests were popularized in the 1980s with books like Carole Jackson's Color Me Beautiful, according to Zizzi, color analysis as we know it starts with 20th century Swiss artist Johannes Itten.
"When he was painting, he figured out that every single color in the world fits into four different categories," Zizzi says. "He created this very intricate color wheel demonstrating just that."
Carolyn Miller later founded House of Colour in the U.K. in 1985, adjusting Itten's rigid season-based color system to account for skin tones and making it easier to use for personal color analysis.
In 2010, the franchise expanded to the U.S., but it wouldn't be until 2023 that personal color analysis touched down in the Inland Northwest with Martens becoming a franchisee. Zizzi, along with stylists Schaefer and Sarah Cramer, then followed suit, establishing their businesses in other areas of Spokane and Coeur d'Alene.
Entering Martens' studio on lower South Hill, there's a color wheel framed on one wall. Dozens of colorful fabric swatches hang on a rack near the window, and a vanity is decked out with makeup products.
For color analysis appointments, clients are told to arrive with a clean face, free of makeup. The analyst first gives a brief education about House of Colour's process. Then, the fun part: You'll be draped with numerous precision-dyed swatches to figure out if you have a warm or cool skin undertone.
As Martens sits me down in the chair, she starts with shades of whites and other neutrals.
"The right colors are going to make your skin look more lifted, even, and a healthy color. The wrong colors tend to make people either go jaundiced yellow, like [overly] yellow or gray blue," Martens says.
Just as she says, certain shades noticeably make my skin glow while others make me look sickly. It's pretty easy to see that I have a warm undertone, which surprises me since I thought that cooler colors suited pale skin.
The biggest shocker, however, is learning that black doesn't complement most people, as it's highly contrasting and tends to drain color from the face. When Martens drapes a moss green swatch across my chest, however, I involuntarily smile and immediately think of a T-shirt I have in the same shade.
"This one's a super tricky color to pull off if you're not warm. It tends to be the one that makes people do the most jaundiced yellow, and you're pulling it off beautifully," Martens says.
Color analyst Cramer, based out of uptown Coeur d'Alene, steps in to help further narrow down which of the warm-toned seasons, spring or autumn, best match me. With a full session, the analysis goes even deeper to determine what shades within a season are most complementary.
"So you are an autumn," Cramer says. "What that means is that you really show up your absolute best wearing the colors that are a lot more soft, blended and muted versus the colors that are bright, punchy, splashy."
While some people might question the objectivity of these color analyses, the four local House of Color stylists emphasize that there's science behind color theory.
"We're not making you a season, we're allowing the drapes to reveal the season that you are," Cramer says.
The analysis confirms that the colors I love suit me, but Cramer says other clients sometimes walk out with a season they're not hoping for.
"The whole point being is that everything that we talk about in an appointment is a tool, not a rule," Cramer says. "You have to give yourself grace to transition your closet out."
Another common misconception about color analysis is that people think it limits their clothing options.
"You're investing in a lifetime of knowing your best so that you don't have to waste a single dollar on something that does not serve you," Cramer says. ♦
MEET THE COLOR ANALYSTS
SARAH CRAMER
Uptown Coeur d'Alene, [email protected]
Cramer became interested in personal color analysis after a friend told her about it. Not realizing that there were three other color analysts nearby, she flew to California to have her colors done.
"There's nothing that you need to physically change yourself to feel more confident, that you're already beautiful, but the colors that you wear and the style of your clothing can enhance that beauty," she says.
MEG MARTENS
South Hill Spokane, [email protected]
Martens opened her studio in June 2023, operating out of a private space on the lower South Hill. She first got her own color analysis done in Seattle with her family.
"When we got our colors done, it was sort of mind blowing how helpful it was in all areas, like not just clothes but picking out makeup colors and hair shades. And so I wanted to bring that to Spokane," she says.
SAMMIE SCHAEFER
North Spokane, [email protected]
Schaefer opened her North Spokane studio in September 2023.
"I've always had a creative side," she says. "So seeing how this dovetailed beautifully with working with people one-to-one on a personal level with the color aspect was the perfect fit for me."
HALEY ZIZZI
Downtown Coeur d'Alene, [email protected]
Zizzi started working as a House of Colour franchisee in March 2024 after hearing about a friend's personal color analysis experience, and booking her own session with Martens.
"It was the perfect rebirth to my new identity as not just a woman, but a woman and a mother," she says. "It's like, I just want everybody to feel this way."
