Color for Flappers: 1928 Color Harmony

How was color theory, or harmony used in vintage fashion? During the flapper era in 1928, this charming booklet was published to show women how to select personal colors based on their hair and skin tones. This booklet has several wonderful color illustrations to show exactly what fashion colors a girl should choose to look her best.

This color wheel is the reverse side of that page shown above. By turning the color wheel, various dress colors appear in that illustration. Here on the back side, basic color theory is shown.

This page is part of a series of color groups that are based on skin tone and hair color grouped into "warm", "cool" and "intermediate" skin tones. Clearly, this publication is based on the hair and color of middle class women from European heritage and lacks the diversity we are familiar with today. However it does give us insight into a new type of color theory that would grow in popularity during the century, with the publication of such personal color theory books as "Color Me Beautiful".

The final illustration shown here comes with the following description:
This page suggests ways in which the principles explained in the Color Dictionary herewith may be applied in planning color schemes for dress.

If your inner Flapper is wondering what to wear next, you can take a cue from this to know that color in fashion was bright, rich and varied by the late 1920's, and women had begun to realize what specific colors for them looked the best!