Getting Our “Colors Done” By The Color Analysis Queen — Dallas’ Tatum Schwerin Shows Us What Looks Best

In high school, I asked to borrow a “vintage” pair of jeans from my mom’s closet. She laughed, saying, “Someday, you’ll be old enough to see a trend circle back and say, ‘I lived through that the first time.’” Sure enough, this happened to me recently. A Gen Z girlie complimented my Fendi Baguette, and I replied, “Oh! I bought this in 2006… the first time it was cool!” 

One popular trend from the 1980s that experienced a resurgence in 2024 and is still going strong? Color analysis, a.k.a. “getting your colors done.” Color Me Beautiful, Carole Jackson’s bestselling 1987 book, presented the idea of the four seasons as color palettes to inspire your wardrobe.

The concept is simple. One’s hair color, eye color, and skin tone determine their ideal color palette (divided into the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall) for clothing, makeup, and accessories. Autumns look best in the rich colors of autumn foliage! Winters look striking in icy blues and silver!

TikTok made this trend popular again, as videos of color analysis sessions went viral. Compelling bite-size videos of normal-looking people going from hideous to glowing, all with the swipe of a colorful bib, flooded my feed. Color me skeptical, but curious.

The Color Analysis Queen’s Process

Based on a friend’s recommendation, I scheduled a session last spring with Tatum Schwerin, a color analyst and the Frisco-based founder of Curated & Clothed. When Schwerin added color analysis to her arsenal of personal styling offerings, her business skyrocketed to TikTok fame as she shared content from the sessions. Schwerin, who goes by “The Color Analysis Queen” on social media, has more than 277,000 followers on TikTok, where some of her color analysis videos have been viewed more than 30 million times.

With brown eyes, olive skin, and raven-colored hair, surely I was a winter. So confident in my knowledge of my own season, I texted my mom before I arrived, “If she says I’m anything other than a winter, I’ll know she’s a hack.”

Here’s how an in-person session goes — fresh-faced and makeup-free, with hair pulled away from your face, you sit in front of a brightly lit mirror as the analyst drapes colorful bibs around your neck and shoulders. Updated since the 1980s, there are now 16 possible color flows. The entire session takes 90 minutes, so there’s a lot of swishing and swashing of the bibs and changing of the guard.

At the end, and with the level of pomp and circumstance of an Extreme Makeover reveal, the analyst shows what you look like in a flow that’s very obviously not your season, followed by the grand reveal of your season’s color flow. One minute you look ugly, the next minute you’re, like, really pretty. Magic!

Before they leave, Schwerin sends clients home with a little book of fabric swatches in their season, so that they can reference it while shopping.

How We’ve Applied Our Color Analysis

In the car driving home, my mom called. “Well, what are you?” she asked. “I’m a Deep Winter,” I answered, smiling. “Well, duh!” my mom said. Six months later, I can attest that my 90-minute, in-person color analysis session significantly impacted how I shop.

It started with small observations. People complimented my outfit significantly more often when I wore a dress in my color palette, particularly reds and jewel tones, which are winter staples. Whenever I disliked a photo of myself or thought my skin looked washed out, I’d pay attention to what color I was wearing. Of course, it was a color *not* in my palette. I scrolled through my Instagram feed. My favorite outfits all happened to be when I was wearing emerald green, hot pink, or a deep amethyst.

I am still drawn to colors that aren’t part of the deep winter flow, but I now question the investment. Do I really want to buy an expensive dress if, ultimately, I’m not going to like how it photographs on me? When I make a purchase, I now take the time to consider whether it will make me feel my best and be around for the long haul. The session also inspired me to rethink my jewelry, as silver — out of style in recent years — simply looks better than gold on winters. Soon, I want to invest in a watch, and it will have a silver face, which will be better for years to come. Now I know!

In the past six months, I’ve bought less, but I’ve bought better. Certainly, I’ve saved more than $599 (the price of a color analysis session) by not buying clothes that simply don’t work. Worth it, after all.