How to Select the Right Colored Dress Shirt

Have you ever considered that there is a hierarchy/level of formality between color hues?

There is and knowing it makes shopping for the dress shirts (solid coloured and patterned) that will best support your role/image a whole lot easier.

HUE

Highest in the hierarchy is achromatic white followed by the hues blue, red, violet, green, orange.

VALUE

Value is the degree of lightness or darkness of a colour.

When considering the level of a colour it needs to be taken into consideration. The close a colour is to white the more formal it is – white, icy blue, pink, violet and green etc. 

Value is second in importance making an icy or very pale shade of green (mint) higher in the hierarchy than a medium value yellow.

INTENSITY

Intensity is how grey/muted or how clean/clear the colour is. Clean, clear colours are higher up the hierarchy scale than greyed/dull and muted colours.

BUYING DECISIONS

This information becomes very useful when considering which patterned shirt to purchase.

First, consider the background colour followed by the colour/s within the print. A white background shirt with a light blue vertical stripe is more formal than an icy blue background shirt with a white stripe.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

The type of pattern is also important – see my post, Colour & Stripe Basics which I’ll post tomorrow. 

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