Value contrast is fundamental to creating outfits that harmonize with your natural appearance, yet there are so many misconceptions about it. In this article, I’m debunking those myths and revealing why understanding your value contrast level might be the most important styling knowledge you’ll ever gain.
Have you ever noticed how some people can wear stark black and pure white together and look amazing, while others wear those colors and look like waitstaff? That’s value contrast at work, and it’s one of the most misunderstood concepts in personal styling.
Want help figuring out your own value contrast? Begin your journey today with your Essential Signature Style Guide.
Value Contrast Myth-Busters
Let me start by clearing up what value contrast actually is. Value contrast refers to the difference between the lightest and darkest elements in an outfit or in your natural coloring. It has nothing to do with color saturation or brightness.
The biggest myths I hear about value contrast that need to be debunked:
- Myth #1: If you’re not high contrast, you can’t wear black or white.
- Myth #2: Only people with dark hair and light skin have high contrast.
- Myth #3: If you are low contrast, all your colors need to be in values close to your inherent values.
- Myth #4: Your contrast level is fixed and can’t be adjusted with makeup or hair color.
- Myth #5: Value contrast is the same as color brightness or saturation.
A few years ago, I found this cute fit and flare coat at Goodwill—blue, green, and black plaid with really boring buttons. I thought about my own contrast rule: I have light yellow-white hair, light orange-beige skin, and hazel eyes that can look dark. So I’m low contrast with a touch of high. I decided to change the buttons to a shiny yellow-white to match my hair.
Then I went to an outfit review session and got completely shot down after I’d already done the work of changing those buttons! It wasn’t until recently, after contemplating this topic long enough and working with clients with similar color patterns, that I figured out the nuance around the approaches that work.
Understanding Your Natural Value Pattern
Your natural value pattern is essentially a mathematical equation of light and dark elements in your appearance. Here’s the formula to identify yours:
- Step 1: Look at the values of your hair and skin individually. On a scale from light to dark, where do they each fall?
- Step 2: Measure the difference between these two elements – this difference is your primary contrast level. If the difference is large (like black hair with fair skin), you’re high contrast. If the difference is small (light brown hair with light beige skin), you’re low contrast. If it’s somewhere in between, you’re medium contrast.
- Step 3: Next, examine if any features fall outside this primary hair-skin value range – typically eyes, whites of eyes, or teeth. For most people, eye color will fall within the value spectrum created by hair and skin.
- Step 4: If you have small elements that fall outside your primary contrast range, you have a “touch of” that value – for example, “low contrast with a touch of high” or vice versa.
Understanding value contrast is not about limiting your choices but about understanding why certain combinations look more harmonious on you than others.
When you replicate your natural contrast level in your clothing, you’re essentially creating a visual echo that feels intuitively “right” to observers. It’s why some people can wear head-to-toe black and white and look striking, while others shine in subtle tone-on-tone combinations.
Special Cases: The “Touch of High Contrast” People
Some people fall into a special category: Low contrast with a touch of high.Â
Here’s how to identify this unique pattern:
- Light coloring overall but with noticeably dark eyes
- Dark coloring overall with noticeable eye whites or sometimes teeth.
For these special cases, you have two powerful styling options:
- Option 1: Replicate your natural pattern exactly—for example, mostly low contrast outfit in your dominant value range with one small high contrast element.
- Option 2: Wear a low contrast outfit in your “accent” value —if you have light coloring with dark eyes (like me) and you want to wear darker colors, you would wear them in low contrast combinations without needing the touch of high contrast, since the contrast between your inherent lightness and the dark clothing already creates that effect.
If you are dominantly dark with a touch of light, you could wear darks with just a touch of light as an accent, OR wear light colors together in low-contrast combinations.
Both approaches work beautifully.
Putting Your Value Contrast Together
Once you understand your value contrast level, you’ll find that many style “rules” that never made sense before suddenly click into place. A color that should work for your season but somehow doesn’t or an outfit that follows all the “rules” but still feels off? Check if the contrast matches your natural pattern.
Understanding and replicating your natural value contrast level is the most powerful styling technique for letting your natural beauty shine through regardless of color choices. It works on a level beyond conscious awareness, creating that elusive “put-together” look that many strive for but few understand how to achieve.
Here’s something simple you can do this week to integrate these principles into your wardrobe: Take a selfie in natural light without makeup. Convert it to black and white using any photo editing app. Now look at the range of values from lightest to darkest—this is your natural value pattern. Choose one outfit this week that intentionally matches this pattern and notice how it feels to wear.