As a professional speaker, your appearance is crucial in gaining your audience's trust. Looking fresh and radiant on stage isn't just about vanity—it's about projecting confidence and credibility. One of the most effective ways to achieve this without breaking the bank is understanding and applying colour theory to your wardrobe.
What is Colour Theory?
Colour theory is the science and art of using colour. It explains how humans perceive colour and the visual effects of how colours mix, match, or contrast with each other. At the heart of colour theory is the colour wheel, a visual representation of colours arranged according to their chromatic relationship.
The Colour Wheel Theory: Your Key to Looking Radiant
The colour wheel is divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary colours:
Primary Colours: Red, yellow, and blue. These form the basis of all other colours.
Secondary Colours: Orange, green, and purple. Created by mixing two primary colours.
Tertiary Colours: Formed by mixing a primary colour with its adjacent secondary colour.
Understanding the colour wheel theory helps you choose clothing colours that complement each other and enhance your natural features.
The Three Dimensions of Colour
To truly master colour theory clothing, you need to understand the three dimensions of colour:
Temperature: Warm, neutral, or cool
Value: Dark, medium, or light
Saturation: Low, medium, or high (bright to muted)
ColoUr Temperature: Warming Up or Cooling Down
Imagine the colour wheel divided in half, with orange on one side and blue on the other. Colours lean warmer or cooler depending on which side they're influenced by:
More orange-yellow = warmer
More purple-blue = cooler
For example, a neutral green or red can become warmer by adding orange-yellow tones, or cooler with more purple-blue tones.
Color Value: From Dark to Light
Value refers to a color's lightness or darkness:
Darker colors have more black mixed in
Lighter colors have more white added
Picture a deep red gradually becoming lighter until it reaches a pastel pink. This transition demonstrates the range of values within a single color.
Color Saturation: Vibrant to Muted
Saturation describes a color's intensity:
High saturation = bright, vibrant colors
Low saturation = muted, subdued colors
To mute a color, add grey. The more grey added, the more muted the color becomes.
I WILL ALSO SHOW YOU SOME EXAMPLES FROM REAL LIFE.
I went around the house and collected a few different things.
In this image, these are two different shades of pink. They're both quite bright. The top one is warmer and the bottom one is a cooler pink.
Now let's look at these two fabrics:
The top one is very bright, but it's also darker. And the bottom one is much, much lighter as it has loads and loads of white added into it. Both of these pinks are cool shades. They don't have any orangey-yellow mixed into them. So they remain very cool if we talk about their temperature characteristics.
And on this page, we've got a very, very light pastel pink and we've also got a very muted pink on the bottom half of the image.
It’s not only muted, with added grey, but it's also much warmer with added yellow. Can you spot the difference?
I encourage you to explore color theory in your own environment.
Gather items of the same color from around your home and compare them. Can you identify differences in temperature, value, and saturation?
Understanding and applying color theory can significantly impact your stage presence.
By choosing colors that complement your natural coloring, you'll appear more vibrant, confident, and trustworthy to your audience.
Start experimenting today, and watch how the right colors can transform your speaking engagements!
I hope this has been helpful- if you want more advice on how to wear bright colours- why not try my colour analysis, conducted through my years of experience as a personal stylist ;)
You may also check my free colour quiz for speakers.