Royal purple, shell pink, peacock green, tangerine.
Wendy Jacobs changes people’s lives, one vividly described color at a time.
As one of just five American consultants with the London-based House of Colour company, the Tisbury businesswoman is making a career of helping people look and feel their best. And during two recent weeks, she was instrumental in training others to follow a similar path.
Founded in 1985, House of Colour uses color theory—employing the same color wheel kindergartners and art students alike use to learn about hues—to develop individual style plans. The wheel is broken into four quadrants, named for the four seasons of the year. A color analysis uses specially dyed drapes of material to determine which of the seasons—and which hues within each season’s spectrum—best suit an individual. Every person has a different skin tone, and thus will look different in different colors; the same shade of blue that highlights one person’s rosy cheeks could make another look sickly.
The principle seems a basic one, but “people almost take it for granted,” said Alison Riches, one of House of Colour’s owners, in a Gazette interview. “It’s a skill.”
Ms. Riches, along with House of Color consultant trainees (and mother-daughter duo) Candy and Kate Gould and Mrs. Jacobs, had set up shop in the Harborview for two weeks of what could be deemed Color Theory 101. During the process, Ms. Gould and her daughter learned to develop a critical eye for subtle differences in tones while mastering the steps of conducting a color analysis. The Edgartown Room of the Harborview, with beautiful, even light flowing in from two walls of windows, resembles a salon; over the two week period, some 30 volunteers sat in front of mirrors and watched as colored drapes of precision-dyed nylon are looped beneath the neckline. It can take anywhere from 10 to 25 drapes before the “a-ha” moment of determining a color type.
“We never give up,” said Mrs. Jacobs.
Mrs. Jacobs went through the training two years ago, before she opened her own House of Colour studio. On learning that the company was hoping to create more American franchises, she jumped at the chance to include the Island in the process.
“I said, ‘I can help,’” Mrs. Jacobs recalled. She recommended Martha’s Vineyard as the base for future training sessions, recognizing that bringing the company to the Island would in turn bring business for local merchants (in addition to using businesses such as the Tisbury Printer and Frame Center to produce promotional and training materials, the training has also brought customers to clothing stores. Those who’ve had analyses and learned “their” colors often want to go create a wardrobe based around the new hues).
Commitment to the Vineyard was part of what drew Mrs. Jacobs to the House of Colour path. She had been in the corporate world for 25 years, and was a telecommuter for a Washington, D.C., based company. But her schedule was such that she spent most of her time traveling to and from the nation’s capital, and virtually no time on the Island.
“I wanted to be part of the community,” she explained. After a business trip in which she herself did color analysis (learning that she was an Autumn), “I knew that was going to be my next ticket.”
Because of the dearth of American locations, Mrs. Jacobs traveled to London to complete her own training. Since opening her Vineyard Haven studio, she has relied almost exclusively on word-of-mouth for the business.
“It has been so great,” she said. “Everybody who sees me [now] goes ‘Oh, you’re the color lady.’”
And she now hopes to help the Goulds—former clients of her own—become color ladies in a new Manhattan location, passing the color torch, as it were.
“There’s something really wonderful about giving people these tools,” Candy Gould explained.
Harborview reservations agent Chelsea Hess, a volunteer during the training process, agreed (Ms. Hess learned that she is a Blue Autumn, a color type much more common on the Vineyard than in England, according to Ms. Riches).
“It was really cool,” she said. “Some colors completely change your eyes; my eyes went from blue to green in some of them.” After the analysis, she said, “I bought makeup, and went with my colors.”
“You can just see people going ‘Oh yeah, I get it,’” Mrs. Jacobs said.
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