When you think about the value of someone with a darker skin tone, usually they have also darker hair which makes their overall value down the deeper darker end of the value scale. But what is their value contrast and colour contrast?
Frequently their colour contrast is monochromatic – one colour – dark brown eyes, skin and hair. But sometimes they may have a more coloured skin, which throws more yellow or orange tones which means they actually look best wearing a colour, rather than just neutrals.
Just wearing neutrals can look boring, and in fact with many darker skins a one colour outfit works really well, enough colour to add life, not too much that it overwhelms.
Let’s look at some examples.
Viola Davis – Deep Value, Neutrals Plus 1 Colour, Medium Low Value Contrast
Photo 23574820 | Viola Davis © Featureflash | Dreamstime.com
Photo 23574820 | Viola Davis © Featureflash | Dreamstime.com
Viola has medium dark skin with dark hair and looks best in medium to darker colours overall. That’s her ideal value.
When she wears a multicoloured dress that is overall lighter (left) this wears her, even though most of the colours suit her warm complexion there are too many colours in the dress and they compete with her.
But when she wears a darker dress (the burgundy) this harmonises beautifully with her skin and is overall darker so works well with her ideal value. Because she has one colour in her colour contrast a one colour outfit works well.
What I’ve illustrated here, as her overall value is deep, when she wears a predominantly light dress (third dress) even though it has elements of dark, it’s just not enough and the dress feels to extreme in contrast with her. It’s a high value contrast that wears her.
Now, as Viola is best in a monochromatic or neutral plus 1 colour at a time kind of colour contrast, she still needs to take into consideration that the colour she chooses is one that matches her undertone. The final outfit on the right works as the black jacket is in her ideal value and this covers up the yellow-orange dress making it feel less value contrast and working neutral with one colour.
Oprah – Deep Value, Monochromatic or Neutral plus 1 colour – Medium Value Contrast
© Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com
© Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com
You see with Oprah, when the contrast is too high like the brown and white outfit on the left, because the white is next to her face it’s in too stark a contrast to her and the value contrast is overall too high.
Now in the 2nd outfit from the left, it’s mostly dark with just small elements of a medium light colour in the necklace which works so much better with her value contrast.
The ecru dress (third pic) is overall too light, though adding in the belt does add a good element of darkness that she needs for her ideal value, it’s just not enough or close enough to her face.
The final blue dress is great as it’s dark enough to work well with her ideal value and just one colour which works with her neutral + 1 colour contrast.
Zoe Saldana – Deep Value, Neutral + 1 Colour or Monochromatic, Medium Value Contrast
ID 25133701 © Sbukley | Dreamstime.com
© Sbukley | Dreamstime.com
Zoe Saldana has a medium value – her skin is similar to Oprahs , and just like all these lovely women, she’s better in wearing an overall dark outfit rather than a light one as you can see with the pale blue dress on the left.
The orange-red dress works both because it’s a great warm colour for her and because it’s medium in value, and everyone no matter their colouring can carry off medium value colours. Because it’s just one colour this also works well with her colour contrast unlike the following dress (third from left) which is overall too light and the value contrast is too high for her so you see the dress before you see Zoe.
Our final dress on the right is gorgeous on her because it has enough depth to match her skin with the green, then the brown brings in her value contest and matches her hair and so is in harmony with her colouring overall.
Lupita Nyong’o Deep Value, Monochromatic or Neutral + 1 Colour, Low Value Contrast
© Featureflash | Dreamstime.com
@Featureflash Dreamstime.com
Lupita has the darkest skin and lowest value contrast of our lovely celebrity examples. Again she’s better in overall darker colours and just one colour at a time rather than multiple colours.
This is why the picture on the left which is overall light wears her (you see dresses not person).
In the second image which is multicoloured, it has some depth in the sleeves which is great, but it’s still higher value contrast than her and more light than dark, with too many colours. To make it more harmonious she’s wearing multiple colours in her makeup – a coloured eyeshadow as well as a coloured lip that helps to raise her colour contrast (this is something you too can do if you want to wear a garment that is more colourful than your natural colour contrast).
The third dress in green is again too overall light and the value contrast even though the value contrast is low, but it’s at the wrong end of the value scale for her.
Our final damson coloured dress works well, it’s overall dark and just one colour, then the pearl necklace repeats and harmonises with her pearly white teeth. If she wants to wear dark colours with light, because she has such lovely white teeth, it should be in those same proportions, so mostly dark with just a pop of light rather than more light than that.
Priyanka Chopra – Deep value, Neutral + 1 colour or Monochromatic, Medium Value Contrast
Photo 102193780 | Priyanka Chopra © Starstock | Dreamstime.com
Photo 102193780 | Priyanka Chopra © Starstock | Dreamstime.com
Priyanka Chopra, again has overall deep value and looks great in just one colour at a time when she’s wearing colour (like in the dress on the right which is neutral plus 1 colour and a great value contrast that matches her hair and skin, unlike in the cream and blue outfit on the left that is overall too light and without enough value contrast for her.
When she wears a high value contrast like the black and white dress the white flowers in the dress grab attention and take away attention from her lovely face.
If you’d like my professional opinion on your colouring, value and contrasts, then why not do my 7 Steps to Style program which includes this (plus so much more).
Got an Asian skin like Lucy Liu? Well, she’s very similar in colouring to the other high contrast Caucasian’s like Anne Hathaway – so have a look at these posts to get more tips on choosing the right contrast for you.
Getting Your Head Around Value and Contrast – the Celebrity Version
Discover the 4 Nifty Low Colour Contrast Dressing Tricks Used by Princess Mary
Thank you so much for sharing this! You chose great photos to illustrate your points and explained everything clearly. I’ve wondered for a long time about value/contrast for people with dark hair and skin. Glad to find out there are so many ways to flatter one’s coloring.
Fantastic and useful information not readily found on the internet.
Lots of new things to learn here about contrast – even for those of us not specifically addressed in this post. I hadn’t thought before about ‘stepping through’ being important if our hair and skin tones include values in the middle …. nor about the proportion of dark(er) to light(er) also corresponding with the proportions in our coloring. Explains why I always like some pops of light – but not a whole garment’s-worth of it. Much to think on, thank you Imogen!!
Was waiting for you to do one with deeper skin tones. So thank you for this incredible post. I had a couple of observations, please let me know if they are right.
To me Viola Davis has cool undertones in her skin. And I think the second outfit, with black and nude (a cool pinky nude) replicated this and harmonises the best, amongst all her outfits.
I think something similar happens in the last picture of Lupita Nyong’o, who also has cool toned skin. The yellow in the black and yellow dress reads too warm and therefore pulls focus. or Am I just seeing things?
In the second set of pictures of Zoe Saldana, the second from right picture, she is wearing a black and white printed shirt. The print is small in scale and close to each other, making the shirt appear more grey toned, or looks like it blends. Only the edges of white seem to stand out. Would this be considered, stepping through the contrasts?
In Priyanka Chopra’s last outfit the value contrast seems to work for her, but are the colors too muted or soft for her? They are also quite cool, including the black. So is black a bad idea for someone of her warm coloring, despite her black hair? Or since she has black hair, she can get away with it and choose warm and clear colors to pair with it?
Most black hair is brown black – not black black – so it’s a warmer black.
I see Viola as warm not cool – she has a golden glow.
The black and white print because of the white border makes it higher, without the border it would appear a lower contrast most likely as it’s so small.
Yes Priyanka’s last outfit is too muted for her – she’s better in brighter colours.
Thank you Imogen for being an awesome and patient teacher. So the things I have learned are:
1. Deeper skin tones, with brown black hair can get away with black. But warm and bright colors are a good pairings with it. (if they have warm skin)
2. If zoe’s shirt had white and grey print, the stark white border would not have been high contrast?
or the border should have been in grey and then it would have been stepping through the contrast levels
3. Lupita’s black and yellow dress, would have worked better, if the yellow print was smaller or more sparse.
Hope I have it right. Thanks again for this post.
As with all skins – there will be some darker skins that suit brighter colours and others more muted, and like other skins it will change with age. There is no one rule for darker skin tones, as there is none for lighter!
yes Zoe’s shirt would be stepping through if the border was grey not bright white.
Lupita’s dress – smaller proportions would have been better.
It’s that the proportion of light to dark is too much light – but it’s all I could find to illustrate. Lupita is warm not cool http://www.instyle.com/news/lupita-nyongo-age-birthday-hair-chameleon see how the orange looks good – a cool undertone could never pull this off!
The reason why the beige and black works for Viola is that when the contrast is right – it’s easier to wear colours that aren’t quite as right – and often a neutral will be less obvious than a colour anyway. Look at the warm yellow dress she’s wearing in the top image – that looks good (and it’s really warm!)
Great, Imogen!
As a darker-skinned person, I thank you for doing this post. It was very helpful!
Pleasure!
So grateful for this post! I’ve never seen other advice like it. Variation among women with darker skin is often ignored; thanks for this analysis, Imogen! Couple questions:
When do the whites of eyes and teeth matter for contrast? When skin is level 3 and darker?
For women like Oprah/Zoe, does having black-brown eyes v. light brown eyes impact their ideal contrast?
Would you say that Zoe and Priyanka have neutral or colored skin tones?
The darker the eyes the overall deeper value they are playing with. So if it’s deeper than hair colour it may up their value contrast. If it’s around the same, then not really any impact.
I see them all as having more coloured skin – it’s a bit hard to tell as I’ve not seen any of them in real life! So photos vary – but most have some golden or bronze appearance rather than neutral brown.
Whites of eyes and teeth matter when you see them a lot – so they need to be obvious – large smile with open mouth (some people’s lips cover teeth or they tend to smile with mouth closed so you don’t see them much). Whites of eyes – eyes need to be large, whites need to pop.
Thank you – I am relieved to see that there is a value/contrast post with women of color; I felt excluded when I saw the all-white women one first.
What I don’t see is the high-contrast woman of color with pale brown skin and dark black hair, as well as white eye whites and dark dark eyes, such as Lisa Bonet who does well in black/white patterns yet does not have white skin – where would you place her? that would be very helpful to know.
Looking at some pics she is similar to Priyanka Chopra – her eye whites are not obvious and her skin is not particularly light (I would suggest in some photos it has been photoshopped to look whiter than in real life) – if you do a big search you will find in most her skin is maybe one shade lighter at most than Priyanka’s skin. She is still only medium value contrast.
Thank you for this post. It really helped me to understand the value contrast better and color contrast. From what I see here most women of color that have medium to lighter skin tones would fall into the medium value range, unless they dye their hair blond, or light brown, then they would be in the lower value contrast range. Is this correct? This is such a relief because I did not think I was low contrast as my hair is very dark almost black and skin tone is very close to Oprah’s, maybe just a little more golden understones.
For color contrast it seems that most women of color with colored skin, dark hair and medium to dark brown eyes have low color contrast and would look better in monochromatic or neutral plus one color. Does this also mean we can wear more than one neutral plus a color? For example, can I wear tan and navy plus blue or black and grey plus red? Also with color contrast for black women who have hazel, green, or blue eyes, does this raise the amount of colors they can wear together?
For black women who dye their hair red or reddish brown does that also increase the color contrast? I know quite a few medium skin tone black women who have died their hair red.
The more colours you add the more colours you can wear well. So coloured (blue or green etc) eyes adds a colour, changing your hair colour (copper, red etc) also adds a colour. This will increase colour contrast.
Value contrast – yes – medium skin, dark hair – medium value contrast.
As skin and hair are different neutrals, then happily wear a combination of neutrals with your colour – such as tan and navy with a colour – does this make sense?
Yes, Imogen, thank you for addressing women with a darker skin tone. Judging by the comments, you have clearly hit upon a somewhat neglected/misunderstood group when it comes to color analysis, etc. I fit into that category with a twist thrown in; I have quit dyeing my hair and my formerly dark brown is now mostly silver/white. What hair is still dark is steel gray. My hair is very “stripey”. My skin tone would be very close to that of Halle Berry and I have dark brown eyes. Does the silver hair put me into high contrast as opposed to my formerly very low contrast? How does this affect what I wear?
Thank you again. I always learn so much from your posts/videos.
Yes your white hair will up your value contrast (I have an example of a grey haired dark skin woman on this post https://insideoutstyleblog.com/2014/11/real-life-examples-of-dressing-to-your-contrast.html/11 ) though her hair is only mid-tone grey – if yours is more white it will be a higher contrast.
I am from the UK, I want to thank you for taking the time and effort to put this post together, it was so enlightening and informative. At first I was very confused in trying to understand how the info on value/colour contrast in your previous posts in relation to Caucasian woman could relate to me, but was pleasantly surprised to come across this post on woman of colour. You explained and clarified this concept in a way that finally made sense to me and I commend you for doing such a brilliant job.
Very glad to see this post, thank you! Having had to extrapolate style advise designed for different depth, color/value contrast than mine, I’ve ended up with too many light neutrals, especially light grey and white. For reference, I’d say I’m like Priyanka but a shade darker. So is there a way I can salvage these light and medium value neutrals? If not, what would be the most versatile color for jackets and shoes for me? Thanks.
Wear your light garments with overall medium-dark outfits. You could also consider overdying these light pieces https://insideoutstyleblog.com/2015/03/guide-to-overdying-garments-to-a-fabulous-new-colour.html https://insideoutstyleblog.com/2017/03/overdyeing-white-beige-navy-orange.html https://insideoutstyleblog.com/2016/10/everything-you-need-to-know-to-overdye-your-clothes-at-home-and-get-a-brilliant-result.html
I’d suggest you go more for deeper burgundies, navy, and browns instead
Thanks, I’ve been wondering if I should just dye them and these tutorials might just be the push I need –even if the 40+ minute agitating time required makes me balk! In the interim, how do I avoid making the high value contrast mistake Priyanka makes in the middle picture if I were to mix my light neutrals with overall medium-dark outfits?
Thanks, also, for the jacket/shoe color suggestions. I’m off to find your posts that has advice on what to wear with burgundy, navy and brown jackets/shoes. I hope I’ll extrapolate better this time though! If you’re not already inundated with future post suggestions, I’d like to see one that tackles how to come up with medium-high value contrast outfits that incorporates color for deeper skintones, especially for summer and spring where there aren’t enough layers to play around with color and contrast.
Hi Imogen! I need HELP finding women of color who are a Shade 6 skintone (especially Latina or mixed race black celebs). Lisa Bonet is still a little too far on the dark end of shade 6 for me, plus she is cooler toned (deep winter/ deep autumn). Furthermore, she is Shade 6 by way of being pale brown, while I am Shade 6 because I am a lighter brown (my skintone could be described as a “toasted” brown or golden caramel… in the winter I lean more “sand” colored). I have Spring coloring, and Spring people tend to naturally have more lightness in their skin & features (think Madeline Mantock or Carla Hall). Which is why it’s hard for me to identify with Lisa Bonet skintone, even though I know we have the same Shade 6 depth.
That being said- I have a Spring tan coloring that lands on shade 6, brighter warm brown eyes, shade 9 leaning 10 hair color, saturated/brighter lip color (though it’s relatively subdued compare to the rest of the brightness on my face), and I am medium contrast. I would really appreciate any suggestions of Spring (or at least warm toned) celebrities of color who are Shade 6 that I can refer to. It’s frustrating because when I want to color my hair, do my makeup, or create an outfit… I either end up looking at white celebs who are a little bit lighter than me OR I look at WOC (like Priyanka) who are brown & brighter skinned like me yet they are still too dark skinned for me to replicate their looks.
Hope to hear back soon! Thanks so much for this content as is. I greatly appreciate this post for WOC… much needed!
Oh! And Meghan Markle too- where does land on the scale, color/value dominance, etc?