Feeling Out Soft Winter (Zyla)

It’s been awhile since I’ve written in here. Lots going on in the ol’ personal life, of course. That hasn’t stopped me from thinking about colors and style at all, though, let me assure you!

Recently, one of the wonderful women on the Facebook color and style groups offered to make vision boards for people, and I asked to be signed up. She did a wonderful, fabulous, AMAZING job…and now I wonder how I could ever have doubted Zyla’s Soft Winter for myself! So much so, I’d be highly surprised if I saw the man myself and got any other answer.

I’m not going to post the entire board, as it’s secret still, but I just waned to share a few of my favorite pins from it. I saw some things in the board that I’m frankly not too surprised about, especially in the colors. I’ve already recently figured out (and making a pinterest on it, of course!) that my primary, best colors are in the split complimentary color scheme. Reds/pinks. Cool greens that go very deep. And the one I struggled with for a long time: purple.

I won’t lie. I love lace. Love love love! I would do this with leggings since it looks well over the knee.

Antique-looking jewelry. I love this purple. I could do it in garnet too, I think (which would be sweet since it’s hubby’s birthstone!).

I must say…I love ankle boots. So hard. And these are adorable. Though I don’t know if I’d be daring enough to do them in purple. Shoes are so expensive when you’re buying good ones. I’d be more likely in real life to buy them in charcoal, so that they match more things. But if money were no object…yes.

I love the idea of a coat with a hood attached. I feel like…when I’m feeling sensitive, I could hide in it.

I just love everything about this dress. In real life, it would drag on the floor soooo much, because I’m super short. But I could hem it. Also adore the slight puff sleeves and the elbow length.

Mary janes? YES. Tights? Double YES!

I love the idea of this. The top may be a bit too revealing for me personally, but I love the drape and the slight asymmetry and the gentle details. I could make this modest enough to wear in real life pretty easily. Also…charcoal. One of my best neutrals.

Love the little nod to the SGness in me. I would absolutely wear this collar.

I love this particularly over the shirt. Looks Edwardian styled, without going into the frilly poet shirt type of thing, which I know is no good on me (and really, I do feel ridiculous in a frilly shirt). This, though…just perfect. Love the sleeves. Love the neckline. Adore that fabric. I feel like my patterns must be kept monochrome, which seems to be a SW thing anyhow. Busy patterns are distracting and overwhelming on me.

One of my personal best colors. Pine green. Love the velvet. I would do this in a longer length, and definitely with both sleeves instead of this asymmetrical type style. That’s all I need, to have one arm be hot, and the other freezing all day! lol

Don’t know if they call this wine or burgundy. I love the color. I love the waist. Love the flow. I’d have to figure out how to cover up my chest and arms…but it would be worth the effort. This is a color I’ve always been a little shy of. I’m always afraid to go too deep, because often deep gets vampy…and while I did a stint playing goth girl in high school, that’s really so not me. So I’m having a difficult time drawing the line between soft enough, deep enough, but not bite your neck enough. Ha.

Feeling out Soft Winter…

I’ve been into seasonal color analysis for quite a long time and have run the gamut where it concerns how *I* lie in the seasonal color system. Lately, I’ve been dabbling in Soft Summer, particularly DEEP Soft Summer. My coloring in some respects seems to fit there; the muted, soft tones suit me because loud, vibrant, jarring ones tend to overwhelm all of my features.

I went at one point to one of these seasonal color forums, posted some photos of myself, too, but I didn’t come out with much help in that arena because the lighting on all of them was dramatically different. Some suggested to me I may be some kind of clear summer (no, clear is too bold for me…), but one did suggest a Winter type. I had an immediate, visceral reaction saying NO, NOT WINTER, because a Winter is supposed to be that girl that looks fabulous in stark black or white, and I’m neither.

Of course, I suppose that doesn’t always hold true to EVERYONE. Black and white on me are fairly horrid, I think, but I was told that while the black wasn’t The Best on me, it wasn’t TERRIBLE, either…which made me want to take a look at winter again.

I’ve been looking into the new-ish 16 season color system, as opposed to the 12, and I think I may have found my match in Soft Deep Winter. Before, I thought the best I could do is Soft Summer on the deep side, sticking to all the darker colors which suited me better than pastel.

The below is the ONLY image I’ve ever been able to find of a Soft DEEP Winter color palette. Unfortunately, it also shows EVERY OTHER palette, too.

So, in response to this HUGE file, I made the following, a nicely sized color palette JUST for Deep Winter SOFT:

In this palette I can see many similarities to the Soft/Deep Soft Summer palettes. However, I can also see that the colors tend toward slightly darker colors overall.

I’m definitely happy with the graphic. Regards whether this palette is suitable to me…the verdict’s still out. I’m happy with everything EXCEPT for the yellows, which usually are pretty horrid on me. We’ll see. More research today, as I’m able.