"I've been 'color-typed' several times with varying results, including: Light Spring, Warm Autumn, Soft Autumn and even Soft Summer. I need help selecting wardrobe colors--help!" --Catherine Recent Clothesline Question

The MyPersonalStyle Color Quiz

Check your Color IQ

Since Carole Jackson's Color Me Beautiful popularized seasonal color analysis, our perceptions of color and personal coloration have never been the same. Millions of women were "color draped," and many (especially Winters) were thoroughly satisfied. Nearly every woman came away from her color analysis with a new appreciation for what color could do for (or to) her. Designers and retailers suddenly had to contend with a more sophisticated consumer armed with the supremely frustrating phrase, "sorry, it's not my color."

The greatest strength of seasonal color was its simplicity. However, it became clear over time that its greatest strength was also its greatest weakness. It was simple, yes, but it was also overly simplistic. Grouping the millions of colors discernable to the eye into four airtight compartments required several unsound and even dogmatic generalizations. Many understood intuitively that the thirty or so swatches in their swatch books could not adequately represent their share of the millions of colors available, and most important, that those thirty or so colors could not possibly be their absolute best, most flattering colors. In other words, four categories could not provide the precision of a custom color analysis, and yet custom color analysis was deemed too complicated for mass marketing. A compromise was needed.

In response to this, various "inter-season" systems were devised to refine the four-season approach, but since they were typically based upon the original seasonal concept, the underlying misconceptions of seasonal color persisted. Competing systems contradicted one another, complexity increased, and yet many of the original shortcomings remained. Add to this a hundred and one magazine articles by freelance magazine writers with no color training whatsoever, and what had been simple was now, for many, a hopeless muddle. It's little wonder that many women felt that they had climbed halfway up a mountain but were still unable to reach its summit. (A recent Clothesline question perfectly illustrates this kind of confusion and dissatisfaction).

If you have been color draped, or have read anything about color analysis, you have no doubt been exposed to many ideas about color that simply do not hold up to unbiased scrutiny. Since color is a physical (and biological) phenomenon, any theories about it must withstand scientific analysis or they are quite simply wrong. While color is not always simple, it is always logical. Always.

The following color quizzes are short ten-question tests of your color knowledge. You might think of some of them as "trick" questions, because the wrong answers are commonly held as correct, and vice versa. But the purpose of the quiz is not to trick anyone; It is to explode common myths about color and color analysis, and to help you past some of the most prevalent misconceptions. If you have your swatch books handy, go find them, as you may want to make some corrections.

Color Quiz I

Color Quiz II