Red is important not only for clothes, says Jones, but for lipstick, which I admit I don’t actually wear. Then we reach Jones’s “passion” – finding my best red: a pinky-orange shade and terracotta. My best neutrals are decided upon (charcoal, soft white, pewter) as are blues (light navy, aqua, turquoise and teal) purples, periwinkles and browns. We’ll know them, says Jones, because the first thing we will notice will be my eyes. Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi/The Guardianįor the next stage I am issued with a pink leather wallet containing colour swatches, each of which is held up to my face while we pinpoint my very best hues. I am also a bit “cool” (grey eyes), although the final verdict is “warm”, “deep” and “clear.” Which, let’s face it, means I have a bit of everything apart from “light” and “soft”, so further information is needed.ĭeep purple … Hannah Marriott with Angi Jones. I am a “warm” person, with red hair and pinky skin, but a slightly tricky one. Sure enough, this experiment has had clear results – and Jones makes her analysis. In pink, ice blue, pale yellow and stone, the colour drains from my face like a Disney princess who has been Frozen. In a bib of chocolate brown, deep red, teal and aqua I look as though I have had a good night’s sleep. Next, colour palette bibs are placed on top. She welcomes me into her lounge (light mustard walls with plush little ochre sofas) and assesses me while Radio 3 plays soothingly in the background.įirst, a large white collar like a nun’s habit is placed over my clothes, which Jones has politely not mentioned (a sludgy grey top with dark blue jeans – pretty standard for me). Jones is a “soft” and “warm” person (copper-coloured boots, fern-green jeans, apple-green jumper, avocado and charcoal-striped scarf). Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi/The Guardian A few do it for themselves, simply to take their girlfriends shopping.” One of her top consultants is Angi Jones, based in Highgate, north London, who will be analysing me. “One does it to pay for her children’s school fees another to pay for her family’s holidays. Very often, consultants are mothers looking for a second career or supplementary income sometimes, they are also life-coaches or trained teachers of neuro-linguistic programming and Pilates. Of 200 consultants, says Henderson, only one is male. Consultants pay to be trained and accredited in the system (£1,295 for a five-day course), then run their own businesses locally, targeting parents’ groups or the WI for business and charging from around £100 for services from colour analysis parties to one-on-one personal shopping. If CMB sounds like fashion tips from a different era – before Rachel Zoe took Hollywood styling advice to the mainstream before texting a changing-room selfie to a fashionable friend was an option – the business model is old-school too. Within the first system: “Any person of colour would be categorised as ‘winter’ whether they were Middle Eastern or Indian,” says Henderson, “and I’m sorry but that just doesn’t work.” The new theory (based on the Munsell colour system) hinges on the idea that as well as suiting different shades, people need varying levels of brightness, or contrast, to look their best. Originally, CMB customers were either categorised as spring, summer, autumn or winter, but in Europe and the Middle East – where Henderson holds the franchise – six new themes have been developed: light, deep, warm, soft, clear and cool, with 42 possible palettes, when sub-divisions are taken into account. Colour me blue … Hannah Marriott with Angi Jones.

Color me beautiful spring swatch