Gamine’s Best Colors

Gamine’s best color is (kind of) all of them.

With their angular, expressive features, Gamines personify creativity, fun, boldness, and, arguably, color itself.

So Gamine’s love of color-combining transcends its preference for any individual shade.

Below we explore:

1. Gamine’s absolute best colors

2. How these colors can work for any season

3. How to combine your colors for captivating results

Part 1. Your Best Colors

Gamine’s absolute best color?

Yellow (if really forced to choose!)

Especially medium, sunny versions, though pale and dark also work.

Like Gamine, yellow symbolizes joy and energy.

Gamine’s runner-up best colors?

Oranges, reds, and pinks.

Especially your season’s brightest, most pigmented versions.

Pale varieties also work, though their calmness makes them slightly less ideal.

And very dark shades work, though they can feel somewhat serious for Gamine.

These are the colors of tropical fish, ripe fruits, and company logos. Specifically restaurant logos—warm, energetic colors promote desire, interest, and pursuit of reward!

Other flattering hues?

Purples, greens, and blues.

These stereotypically calm colors aren’t Gamine’s first choice.

But if you wear your palette’s greenest green or bluest blue in a Gamine silhouette, then it can still feel energetic.

Gamine also loves pairing green, blue, or purple in the same outfit as red, orange, or yellow, to make both colors pop.

What about in-between hues?

Orange-yellows and red-oranges work well.

But Gamine also loves primary or “pure” colors, since they feel especially bold.

Gamine’s best neutral?

Black, dark gray, dark brown, or whatever your season’s darkest neutral is.

What other neutrals work?

Really any!

In fashion, dark neutrals tend to feel bolder—better for Gamine—than lighter ones.

But neutrals are also versatile, precisely because they’re so understated. So neutrals typically assimilate into the vibe of whatever you’re wearing. They’re kind of like the easy-going friend who’s up for anything.

And this means that medium and light neutrals flatter Gamine, too.

Light neutrals can also be useful for adding contrast to an outfit (discussed below).

Is Gamine best in color or neutrals?

Overwhelmingly, color!

Color better evokes Gamine’s liveliness.

Even the gentlest hues, like pale blues and greens, tend to suit Gamine more than any neutral.

Any colors to avoid?

…not really!

Gamine loves color so much, even its least iconic ones will work—as long as they’re worn in a Gamine silhouette or print.

Do Gamine’s best colors differ based on seasonal palette?

Nope—regardless of your season, Gamine prefers yellows, oranges, reds, and pinks.

Part 2. Season and Gamine

The great thing about Gamine’s creative, open-minded nature is that the essence easily gets along with any season:

Gamine and Autumn: Mellow Gamine

Autumn and Gamine is a warm, welcoming match.

What Autumn and Gamine have in common is warmth; where they differ is that Gamine feels high-energy and bouncing-off-the-walls, whereas Autumn feels gentler and more grounded.

So, Autumn emphasizes Gamine’s friendliness and can make Gamine feel calmer overall. Which is a great thing: bouncing-off-the-walls Gamine is great, and so is mellower, still cheerful, Gamine.

There’s really just two main issues in making this pairing work:

1. The obvious hurdle is that Autumn is muted, and Gamine loves brightness.

   • But more than brightness, Gamine wants boldness—a quality that Autumn’s rich warmth and depth can easily evoke.

   • Plus, Autumn’s warmth can create the illusion that the season’s colors are brighter than they really are—even bright enough to feel quintessentially Gamine.

2. Another issue is that while Gamine loves color-combining, Autumn color-combining can easily feel earthy (Natural).

   • But if you have Natural, then this isn’t an issue, since earthy color schemes do connect to your beauty.

   • If you don’t have Natural, you have two main options: 1. Create earthy color schemes, accepting that this might make your vibe a bit earthier than the stereotypical Gamine. 2. Avoid earthy color schemes—essentially, avoid wearing large amounts of brown, orange-brown, green, or blue together in the same outfit.

In summary, Gamine and Autumn get along well! Besides the above considerations, there’s really not conflict.

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Some of Gamine’s best colors for each Autumn:

• Soft Autumn

• True Autumn

• Dark Autumn

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Gamine and Winter: Edgy Gamine

Gamine and Winter is close to an ideal match.

Both the season and essence prefer brightness, boldness, and high-contrast.

So Winter amplifies Gamine’s already bold feel, making the essence feel even more daring and edgy—a powerful pairing.

The main potential conflicts are:

1. Winter is cool-toned, and Gamine’s best colors are stereotypically warm. But that’s not really an issue, since Winter palettes still have many energetic-feeling colors (including figuratively warm ones like yellow, red, and hot pink).

2. Winter’s overall serious, sophisticated vibe doesn’t perfectly match youthful Gamine whimsy. But the Bright Winter palette, with its Spring influence, can easily read as fun-loving and Gamine. Similarly, you can create a Gamine effect with True and Dark Winter by choosing Gamine’s iconic colors.

3. Gamines don’t tend to be their absolute best in very dark shades. Wearing high amounts of dark colors can also sometimes create a Dramatic impression. So, since Winter palettes get quite dark, Winter Gamines might want to be conscious about choosing their more mediums hues. Alternately, you can wear high amounts of your darkest colors and just accept that this will create a bit of a more intense feel than the standard Gamine look (this can work very well if you also have Dramatic in your blend).

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Here’s some of the best Gamine colors for the individual Winters:

• Bright Winter

• True Winter

• Dark Winter

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Gamine and Spring: Pure Gamine

Spring and Gamine have a remarkable amount in common.

Both the season and essence evoke qualities like energy, vibrance, and elation.

Plus, Spring has the most stereotypical Gamine colors of any season—warm and bright, with many yellows and oranges.

This is particularly true of Bright Spring’s intensely vibrant, high-contrast palette.

And True and Light Spring also work well, especially since these palettes don’t get too dark overall. So you don’t have to worry much about the colors feeling too serious for Gamine.

It’s really hard to think of problems that arise with this season/essence pairing.

So here’s some of the best Gamine colors for the Springs:

• Bright Spring

• True Spring

• Light Spring

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Gamine and Summer: Cool Gamine

Of all the seasons, Summer is Gamine’s least obvious match.

Gamine prefers warm, bright, and energetic. In contrast, Summer colors are cool, muted, and calm.

But, paradoxically, this can be a perfect pairing.

That’s because Gamine is really flattered by juxtaposition.

If you’re a Spring, your vivid palette is a natural fit for Gamine’s electric energy. Which is great.

However, seeing Gamine outfits in vibrant Spring colors is also pretty expected. And Gamine thrives on the unexpected.

So, Gamine is an amazing match for Summer precisely because it’s not an obvious match. Wearing Summer’s calm colors in playful, energetic Gamine silhouettes is a fascinating twist, just the sort of surprise that Gamine loves.

Plus, Summer palettes still have Gamine’s iconic colors like yellows and pinks. And wearing large amounts of your palette’s brightest versions of these colors can look bold and lively on you in the context of your season.

You might find it helpful to wear high amounts of warmer-feeling colors (reds, oranges, yellows), since these are most iconically Gamine. Or, if you wear high amounts of cooler-feeling colors, you might want to ensure they’re in iconically Gamine silhouettes, and/or paired with red, orange, or yellow accents.

You might also want to avoid gentle-feeling color combinations, especially pairing large amounts of cool-toned hues that are very similar, like light purple with light blue, since that can sometimes feel Ingenue or Ethereal. But, if you have Ingenue or Ethereal in addition to Gamine, then it’s not an issue if you end up creating a gentle color scheme.

Overall, there isn’t a huge conflict in making Summer harmonize with Gamine. This is a case where opposites do attract.

Some of the best Gamine colors for the Summers:

• Soft Summer

• True Summer

• Light Summer

Part 3. Color Combining

We’ll explore general guidelines for Gamine color combining below, but they really are guidelines, not absolute rules. Especially since Gamine enjoys breaking rules.

In fact, a good strategy as a Gamine is to choose two colors from your season that you’re not really sure go together and then try wearing them in the same outfit.

If that sounds extreme, then here’s some guidelines for easing into Gamine color-combining:

Colors or neutrals?

• Given Gamine’s love of color and challenging convention, one option is to base your outfit around colorful fashion and choose neutrals in much smaller amounts—“accent neutrals.”

• But neutrals can also be a great canvas for showcasing color. And since Gamine is so versatile, you can even do highly or fully neutral outfits. The key is simply to choose Gamine silhouettes.

• If you’re wearing a mostly neutral outfit, you might want to add color near your face, such as a jacket or necklace.

How to combine colors?

• There really aren’t rules for which colors to combine. Experimenting is key. Combinations that Gamine loves include pairing two warm-feeling colors together, like yellow and orange, or adding a cooler-feeling color to contrast with the warmer color. Complimentary colors, like orange with blue or yellow with purple, are also great.

• Color-blocking is amazing for Gamine, like wearing a top in one color paired with a pant in an entirely different color. Or wear a striped tee with stripes in markedly different colors. Or add pop-of-color accessories, like wearing a dress in one color with shoes and accessories in completely different colors; etc.

• Neutrals can be a good canvas for making colors pop. This is particularly true if your neutrals are notably darker or lighter than some of the colors in your outfit.

• High-contrast color schemes flatter Gamine, including pairing lighter and darker colors. But if your personal contrast is medium or low, you can also achieve a contrasting effect by pairing colors of similar darkness that are far apart on the color wheel, like red and green. This can feel gentle enough for your season while still creating an energetic Gamine feel.

• You can wear three or more different colors in a Gamine look. If that feels like too much, you could start with two colors and a neutral:

If you have a lot of blue clothing, as many people do, then a good strategy as a Gamine could be to wear accessories in accent colors, like a yellow purse and/or shoes!

Pairing yellow, orange, or red tops with blue jeans can also work well.

This outfit here would be cool for a Gamine who also has notable Natural, Classic, and Dramatic!

• Makeup will be a separate topic, since fashion guidelines don’t always translate directly to makeup. But Gamine does tend to be great in colorful eyeliner and pop-of-color lips!

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Upcoming posts will explore the best colors and color combinations for the remaining essences!