Wondering how the 4 Seasons Color Analysis system compares to Dressing Your Truth?
If you’re like most women who have been through both systems, it’s common to compare the two.
When I see this happening, I encourage women to put aside their former experience and look at Dressing Your Truth through new eyes without that filter.
Why the 4 Seasons color analysis system failed me.
Many years ago, I was told I was a winter season due to my dark hair and more olive skin. I tried this system, but it was short-lived.
First of all, I didn’t intuitively relate to the color palette that had been created for me. And now that I know my colors in my Dressing Your Truth system, the winter color palette I was instructed to wear was completely wrong for me!
But more importantly, the system didn’t require any personal inquiry of myself or who I am as a woman. I was just told what colors to wear—everything else was left up to my own discretion.
Color analysis tells you only some of the information you need.
Without the guidance of knowing what textures, patterns, design lines, and fabrications looked best on me, even if the winter colors had looked good on me, I would easily still end up with a closet full of clothes I didn’t love. I still was tempted to buy what was trendy or popular at the time.
I remember the year that cowl necklines, flouncy collars, and flowing skirts were all the rage. I tried them, but I could not stand how they felt on me. They made me look heavier and older.
In fact, you can see what soft fabrications did to my appearance in this video—don’t say I didn’t warn you!
What was I doing wrong? I concluded that I was flawed when actually it was everything I was putting on my body that wasn’t working.
You need a system that includes more than just color.
If you come from the world of Color Analysis, allow me to broaden your experience and introduce you to a system that includes:
- Color
- Design line
- Textures
- Fabrication
- Pattern
I call these the 5 Elements of Dressing Your Truth.
When you’re dressing in at least 3 of the 5 elements true to your Energy Type, it feels like your clothes are your second skin. When you hit all 5 elements in your outfit, your beauty truly comes alive and you have incredible energy to feed off of all day long.
Dressing Your Truth is effective for every woman.
With these 5 elements, it’s possible to build a wardrobe of items you can honestly say you love. You can enjoy more with owning less. You feel good every day as you can look in the mirror and say you look good.
Just see what Colleen, a Type 3 rich and dynamic woman has to say:
When you discover your Energy Type, you learn more about yourself as a woman than you ever knew or understood. You might have come to DYT for a wardrobe change, only to discover that it’s much more! Paulette, a bold and stunning Type 4 woman, shared with me recently:
“DYT is 10% about clothes, y’all…maybe less! I’m happier than I’ve ever been. And my happiness is just what you’d expect a Type 4 happiness to look like: deep, solid, grounded and reflective. I’m not a giggler. I have found the shape of my contentment.”
Looking good supports you in feeling good. Feeling good empowers you to be available to yourself to do good in the world.
How has Dressing Your Truth empowered you with your wardrobe choices and your life choices?
Are you a veteran of the 4 Seasons color analysis system or other color analysis systems? What was your experience with them?
This article was actually a bit of an a-ha for me. When Carol said she didn’t intuitively relate to the color palette, it made me finally rule out T4. I definitely see T4 in me in some ways but it’s probably a secondary that’s been overdeveloped (my Mom is a T4). I just feel physically drained even thinking about wearing T4 clothing, let alone wearing it, plus I never received compliments in it. I just kept thinking I might be T4 because the person who initially told me about DYT thought I was a T4 and I do see aspects of it in me but I could make an argument for any of the types. I really feel more drawn to the T2 and T3 colors, design lines, textures, etc. and that’s what I’ve always been drawn to in everything, interior design, art, landscapes, you name it, I can’t stand perfection, straight lines, clean, stark, etc. I love details, comfy, soothing, curves, softness, but also rich jewel tones, I like gold sometimes and silver other times, my skin is neutral and looks good with both. I get compliments wearing the 2/3 crossover colors like the 2/3 reds and greens. I know I’ll get bored only wearing one type though, I don’t like the confinement of only being one type.
I also have dark hair and more olive skin and in Color Analysis I am a Winter-Type. That’s one of the reasons I thought I was a T4. My style type is romantically natural and I noticed that it doesn’t match the more classic T4. So I felt much too stiff in the T4 clothes. Carol helped me see my T1/S2. Since then I stick to the 5 components of style and to Yang/Yin/Yin/Yin…. 🙂
I’m an autumn but a T4. I still prefer the warmer side of the T4 palette, like the reds, lime green, and orange, but now I also wear fuchsia.
I had a lot of colors in my wardrobe that are mostly on the T3 side (burnt orange, olive green, browns and bronzes). That may be my secondary, but I’m not 100% sure whether I’m a 4/2 or a 4/3.
I had the same dilemma for years- am I 4/2 or 4/3? All I can suggest is to study Deborah (4/3) and Liz (4/2) and see which one you most identify with. I realised I’m not a flowing person like a primary or secondary 2. I definitely like to move forward and I’m not good at staying connected to people, so I decided on 4/3 in the end 🙂
Thank you so much for quoting me here! It is an honor.
Did this in my 30’s I was a winter, which actually with the system I did had a lot of T4 colors, I was told however NEVER WHERE YELLOW … I have always been drawn to t4 colors. I made a dress in school that was T4 Neon pink, I wore that to death and got tons of comments, that and bright white. I did see after the color analysis that I started to feel when color was not right. That said, I mostly dressed in the t4 available colors now that I look back at pictures. I can really see to day how the missing parts make a difference. I just went for the color and often hated the outfit wondering why. I love my colors so much I have to check myself, because I just pick up things for color. I am single 61 and my apartment is not as T4 as I would like it to be. My kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, totally t4 and I notice I am in my bedroom more than the living room which has carry-over from my t3/4 husband (bookshelves in brown, and electric Fireplace in brown, Kitchen table, sideboard, brown. Recliner, brown I never got much choice he picked furniture and for now don’t want to spend the money on new furniture. I love DYT and I love being a four today, I see and feel myself since the divorce living my truth is som many more ways! Thanks Carol, and I am grateful for having done the other color analysis, it at least work me up ot the fact we are different, even if it didn’t get it quite right. .
I remember doing the Color Me a Season back in the 80s. My sister was classified as a Winter and my mother and I were classified as Summers. My mom proceeded to dress me in lots of navy and and pastels. (I hated both!) I rebelled by wearing black ALL the time! My coloring was VERY neutral but I gravitated towards Olive Drab and mustard yellow, both of which my mom and sister despised. lol! Now I know my mom was most likely a T1 (Why she loved bright navy and pastels) and my sister is most likely a T2 which is why she always wears gray. Me on the other hand have settled into a happy T3 land where I can wear my preferred military style jackets, clogs and the rich autumn shades I wanted to wear all along.
At 14, I did something called chromacolor that was a little better than just the 4 seasons, I think. They did go into some fabrics, design lines, metals, personality traits, etc. And she finally convinced everyone to wear makeup (thank you, color lady). But I was told I was a summer. I thought I loved pastels, so that’s what I had assumed I was anyway. True to my T4 nature, I had researched it all thoroughly. In retrospect, I didn’t believe in it enough to buy into it all. I tried it for a while, but I still wore a lot of black and white, bright colors, and T4 styles even if they were summer shades. I was living a lot of my T4 truth in high school and college. I also watched many draping sessions and took a lot of classes with her, even tried doing it unofficially for other people, but I just kept thinking that something was missing, that the system was lacking information. I took color classes and makeup classes with modeling and cosmetology training also, but it always felt like something was missing. During my 22-year marriage I totally lost myself, and definitely spent a lot of time hiding out in my S2. All the women on my mother’s side were color-coded by my aunt’s friend, a certified analyst. Almost none of us were correctly aligned with our true DYT Types. Although she did say my 5-year-old, very fair-skinned, blonde-haired baby sister was an “autumn.” Guess who is actually a T3? That does kind of make me laugh in hindsight. She totally missed my fireball T3 grandmother. I wonder how much more it might have facilitated healing for everyone if DYT had been around then, and we had found that instead. Grateful it’s around now.