Color Chart

Color Family

ThreeAsFour 08FW backstage

Backstage

Color Families

The followings are the color families of Asfour(01SS-06SS) and threeAsFour(06FW-09SS) collections. From these families we found out several points:

1. From the previous collection we can see that although sometimes AsFour collections use a lot of high value color, they would use a few high chroma/ low value (ascent) color to balance the collection and look more harmony and interesting.

However, the color combination is totally different in 06SS collection. This is because Kai (one of the designers) left Asfour in 2005 and their separation was not a happy one. This affected the remain designers(Kai, Ange, Adi) to use this kind of dull and grey tone color to reflect the sadness between their relationship.

As this is a special case so the color combination of this season could not be used to identify the way of using color of this brand. Therefore, I would not use this season to evaluate and forecast the coming season.

2. The value of color keep decreasing from season to season. Could this be used as a predition of the coming season?

3. Every season has some main colors and ascent colors. Main colors usually related to the theme of the collection. Ascent colors usually reflect the trend of that season.

For example:

The theme of 08Ss is 'the ideas of movement with wind and feathers'. Therefore, they chose beige, light grey and light brown colors as main colors to achieve the look of 'wave

, 'crescent' and 'windmill'.

They chose sharp yellow, red and orange these kinds of high chroma colors as the ascent colors.
It is because the trend of 08SS is 'flower power' and those colors indicate the colors of petals and stamen.

4. They keep using some colors like purple and grey from season to season with the changes of value and chroma.

p.s. might have some color differences due to the resolution of the monitors

Class Works

Principle Used:

1. Emphasis of Color

2. Principle of Resemblance

3. Monochromatic Color Scheme

Principle Used:

1. Emphasis of Color

2. Principle of Resemblance

3. Monochromatic Color Scheme

Principle Used:

1. Balance of Color

2. Principle of Novelty

3. Analogous Color Combination

Principle Used:

1. Contrast of Color

2. Principle of Novelty

3. Analogic and Complimentary Color Scheme

Hermès 09S RTW

Hermès 09S RTW

My image of Hermès is a brand that 'play safe' in her designs and never shock you in any categary. The term 'Classic' is always used to discribe this kind of large brand. Sometimes you may think they are so boring as the designs do not change much from season to season. The colors they use are always more or less the same as usual. However, it is not easy for a brand to only use their brand colors but still keep alive and gain profit in the market for such a long time.

Like Burberry Check, it is not the matter of what colors you use, but how you use the colors.

From this season collection, you can easily find out how the brand 'play safe' with the color combination.

1. Achromatic Color Scheme

Some of the outfits use only black & white colors and it's belong to achromatic color scheme.

We always say that black and white color is 'the safest' color for matching. The only thing you need to consider is the proportion.

1:1

9:1

Achromatic colors can also easily match with other colors.

Black+White+other colors

White+other colors

Black+other colors

2. Monochromatic Color Scheme

The following outfits use the same hue but with slightly different in the brightness and saturation to achieve differnt shades and tints. This can help to achieve a harmony feeling.

For the first 4 outfits, they also use the Principle of Resemblance, which means the differences between the colors are less.

3. Triaddic Color Scheme


These 3 outfits use red, green and blue colors with the same low chroma as the main color which make them match with each others. They are at 120 degree around the color wheel and this is called the triadic color scheme.

4. Others...

The following outfits use different shades and chroma of strips to acheive different visual effects.

For the first 2 outfits they use the same strip pattern. However, it seems there are slightly difference between the shades of the strips. Why is that?

Fashion is made for human to wear. It interact with the skin color in a sophisticated way.

People with different nationality have different skin color. Yellow for Asian, white for European and black for African. Even in a small area, every people may have slightly difference in the tone of skin color.

If the fabric is light and semi-transparent, the skin color of the wearer may affect the tone and shade of the garment. Like for these 2 outfits, the garment on the model with a deeper skin color look deeper than the other one on the model with a lighter skin color. This is an interesting point in choosing the right outfit for different people.