Trends from the 1980s are making a huge comeback and becoming popular among younger generations. There's a whole section of TikTok where you'll always see videos of people “picking their colours”. Typically, professional colour consultants have people wear scarves of different colours until they find the colour combination that suits them best for their “season” – deep vibrant jewel tones for winter, warm earth tones for autumn, etc.
Guessing someone's color season has become a popular game on the internet, and it's also a growing business for people looking to improve their professional image and the entrepreneurs who help them do so.
One of them is Ashley Dworak, who is like a rainbow come to life. “I'm spring,” she says, “so the bright, cheerful, warm colors of the world suit me best.”
On her Instagram feed, tens of thousands of followers have commented on Dworak's outfits, which are made up of vibrant coral, lemon chiffon, Kelly green and other thrift-store finds.
But her style wasn't always so confident: As an exhausted mother of four young children, she says her wardrobe was mostly black, basic and a little sad, so six years ago she went out to get some color, just like she'd seen her mom do in the 1980s.
“I felt like what I did was superficial and selfish,” Dworak said, “but I quickly realized it was complete nonsense. There was nothing superficial about it. It had a huge impact on me.”
She now works as a color consultant at Papillion (named after the French word for butterfly) just outside Omaha, Nebraska.
“We have people coming to us from all over the world who want to feel better about themselves and present an outer self that reflects who they are on the inside,” she said.
In late May, Lauren Kreutzberg, 26, brought her mother, Debbie O'Keefe, to Dworak for a color analysis.
Dworak sat them down in front of a mirror and began draping them.
“When you paint it this cool, rosy, icy pink, it kind of kills your color,” Dworak told O'Keeffe.
Together, they paid $510 to find out whether their skin tone was warm or cool, muted or light, and ultimately which of four color seasons and 16 subseasons they fell into. Through the theory of color analysis, the palette was expanded to encompass a wider range of skin tones.
“Your skin, your eyes, everything loves warm colors,” Dvorak said, as he bathed Kreuzberg in a deep auburn-orange hue.
The color business was far from a sure bet in early 2020, when Dworak emptied his savings account to pay for color-theory training and the upfront costs of $13,000 for a franchise with British company House of Color.
Since then, franchise prices have nearly doubled and House of Color has grown with the popularity of color analysis from a few dozen consultants to more than 300 across the United States.
“People used to think I was crazy to pay for a color palette, but now they know what I'm talking about,” says Cedar Boshan, who has had multiple color-and-style consultations, estimating she's paid about $4,000 for the service over the years.
“In the four seasons, I was classified as winter. Then I was classified as bright winter or clear winter. Then I went from winter to spring. I am a vibrant spring,” she explained.
When we spoke, she was wearing an emerald green dress, a navy shawl-collar blazer, and classic red lipstick. She runs her own forensic accounting firm serving the entertainment industry, and told us that cultivating a strong personal brand is key to her business.
Americus Reid, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said in the age of social media, everyone has a personal brand.
“People are starting to use these technologies to construct their identities and project them out into the world, and color is powerful,” he said.
Today, the global image consulting market is worth about $4 billion, and these services are appealing to a wider range of people than ever before, beyond women of a certain age or class. Reid said the services fill an age-old need: “I think we're hardwired to figure out deeper questions about identity, who we are, who I am.”
Back in Papillion, Nebraska, Lauren Kreutzberg and Debbie O'Keefe have the answers.
“Yo, guys, fall's in the house!” Dworak exclaims. In the House of Color system, Kreuzberg is classified as the more neutral “Dark Blue Autumn,” while her mother, Debbie O'Keefe, is classified as the more classic “Autumn Leaf.”
As for the house that Culler built, Dworak said that five years ago he had no money in his bank account but recently made enough to purchase and renovate a historic building in downtown Papillion, and moved his studio there in June.
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