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Writer's pictureEleganceredefinedbysejal

Value and Value Contrast:what it means for clothing ideas.

Updated: Jun 12, 2020


What is VALUE? The darkness or lightness of your personal colouring (i.e. the colour of your eyes , hair and skin tone)and lightness or darkness of the clothing/accessories and even make up!


Lighter colouring like the tints are Light Value and darker deeper colouring like the the shades are Deep Value.

In the personal colouring, skin tone and eyes are what we are born with and have to live with! It is only the hair colour that in recent years have had the advantage of changing it as per our liking to enhance and harmonize our overall appearance.

Illustration of Value in the image below:


Similarly, Value (the darkness or lightness) in your clothing ,accessories and makeup ranges from pastel/tint at one end to deep dark shades at the other end.

The idea is to harmonize the value of your outfit with your personal values.

Illustration of Value in the image below:

If we understand what is value, we will be able to understand the concept of Value Contrast ,firstly in our facial colouring and then in in our clothing.


What is Value Contrast?

When one colour is placed next to another colour, it creates a contrast. The Contrast created amongst the values of your personal colouring and/or in your clothes, accessories and make up is called Value Contrast.

Colours create illusions to our benefit if we understand them well and therefore It can be used to our advantage. When a dark colour is placed next to a light colour, it creates a deeper contrast compared to a dark colour when placed next to a medium colour. It makes the darker colour look more darker and lighter colour look more lighter in the first instance compared to the second one.

Illustration of Value Contrast in the image below:



The idea here is to realize and understand that any change is made in value, be it your personal value or the outfit value, the value contrast also changes. For example in our personal value (colouring of our eyes, hair and skin) only the hair colour change is possible. When the hair colour changes, the values of your outfit and the contrast in your colours also undergo a change.





The value contrast of your outfit can make or break your look!

The right Value contrast with the right hue and intensity can elevate your look and the wrong one can drain you out.



Priyanka Chopra... A beauty , someone who would look fabulous in absolutely everything. Yet, the concept of Value Contrast holds true for her too. In the right Value contrast of her outfit colours( that is not the only factor to be considered) she looks just perfect . Be it in ordinary chinos and shirt or a dress for the red carpet!!


How to find your Personal Value Contrast?


1.Think of value in term of a scale from light to dark where light is number 10 and dark is number 1.

2.Put each of your feature against a number.

3. Find out the difference as a range.

The closer they are, lesser the Value contrast and further they are, more the Value contrast.


The clothes and lipcolours do not do justice to her beauty . Either the Value contrast is too light or too deep amongst other factors.


Do read blog on Colours, Skin Undertones and Itensity for better and deeper understanding.

*Images taken for reference purpose only.

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