Complementary color scheme (Fashion collections) - Fall 2006 RTW

The Theme
Christian Dior's Fall 2006 RTW collection is inspired by French revolution in 1789-1799, mixing with Metallic and Rock and roll music.

The color family of whole collection

The main color of this collection is bloody red. This is how designer present the image of violent and trigical "Wars" in French revolution.
So how the designer present the story? First, there are very little light grayish green and white at the outfits at beginning, represent peace and pure, which act as a contrast to the violent Bloody red at the later part of the collection. (Green and Red are complementary matching).
Moreover, all these colors are applied on shiny fabrics, to present the feeling of Metallic Music.

Beginning of the collection - Light grayish Green major
Let's take an example:

- Major color: Grayish Green. To look delicately, some parts of the body fabric was made of shiny fabric, which can reflect the lights, result a different tone for the same color. Therefore, we can say this outfit is using Mono-chromatic color scheme.

- Accessories:
* the leather hand bag - It's Deep Wine-red. with a line of light brown as a foil. This is complementary match with the outfit color.
* the "cross" necklace - It's also red in color, matching due to the same theory.


Later on - Bloody red to present violence
Let's see below example:


Although the whole collection is using complementary colors, in each outfits, he used the principle of resemblance to maintain harmony matching of colors.
***major color: Deep reddish brown. John Galliano used different materials to present the same color, to made it look different. Like this outfit - the fur, the leather, the lighter knitted blouses....reflects light in different degree.

Achromatic color scheme (Product packages)- early ages

A Christian Dior produced perfume in 1955

In earlier age of Christian Dior, BLACK color placed a important role for the brand.

Like the perfume at above image in 1955, Black and White was the main colors in the package, matching with little proportion of gold (e.g. the zipper), create elegance for the product.

Because at that time, perfume is a noble thing for women, and this pattern was highly loved by England nobles. Christian Dior used it with archromatic colors to present the symbol of "luxury" of the product.

Reference: fashion.big5.enorth.com.cn/.../003515452.shtml

Triad color scheme (Fashion shows) - Spring 2008 RTW

The Theme - Englishman in New York

Entering the 60th year of Christian Dior, John Galliano presented a new collection in the celebration, as a revival of all the patterns he has amassed through his ten-year career at Dior.

The Color family of the whole collection

We can see the atmosphere of 40’s fashion in colors. Archromatic BLACK and WHITE as the main colors obviously, applied at the beginning and the end of the collections at some unisex outfits (like hats, pantsuits...) regarding to the theme- Englishman. These two colors sometimes applied in stripes, which was a popular pattern in 40’s fashion.

There are also RED-ORANGE, LIGHT GREEN and LIGHT VIOLET applied at the middle of the collections with feminine evening gowns. Red, green and violet are Triad related on color wheel. But designer tried to switch down the value of green and violet to be lighter, made them not contrast too much. Otherwise, i think the whole collection will be too fancy for this theme.

Trial Color scheme (Fashion show) - Fall 2008 RTW

Fall 2008 RTW collection - using Trial color scheme



Theme - Valley of the Dolls
John Galliano used "Valley of the Dolls" as the theme of this collection, brought fashion elements in Sixties to the designs.. Like Mary Quant's styles - shape colors, mini skirts, Twiggy's gigantic eyes make up....

The color family of whole collection
There are 3 shape main hues in this collection- Bright violet, Shinny lake blue and orange. This color combination are using Trial scheme (three colors equally spaced with each others on the color wheel)
Besides, to make the outfits more interesting and variable, designer tried to add in different minor colors to the collections, matching the major colors.

- Violet match with shape greenish yellow (complementary method)... see below example

- Violet and Yellow green dress
- Match with a Shape violet bag (that violet almost the same, but they are in different value)
- Shinny silver accessories at belt, bag handles, the heels of the high heel - adding attractiveness to the outfit.


- Lake blue match with Green, a little bit brown and yellow. (Analgous color)


- Main color : Lake blue
- Create pattern by using anaglous color scheme (Deeper Lake blue, yellow, a little bit green. )
- Accessories: For the Yellow Hand bag: even the diamonds can still match the garment's main color. - i.e.: Blue and green


-Pink match with red-orange (Also using analogous color scheme)


- Main color - Red/ Orange
- Accessories also match
* The Head Band - In pink color (i think even orange/ Violet will work as both above colors has been appear on the dress colors)
* The Hand Bag - In Violet. Again, Diamonds are the nearby colors in the color wheel - blue and red.

Analogous color scheme (Fashion collections) - Spring 09 RTW

Spring 2009 RTW Collection

Theme - The Eighties
John Galliano wants to bring the mood of this collection back to 80's, when the brand of "Christian Dior" was first developed.
So, he used Shape colors - Yellow, orange and pink as the major color. These colors are very popular in 80's , also give a vintage mood for the outfits. Although colors are bright and in high value, they are match with each others as they are analogus colors (next to each other on the color wheel ).


Mono-chromatic color scheme in each outfits
Although the whole collection is using different hue, designer applied colors on each outfits following the rules of mono-chromatic. This is also a popular form of color combanation in 80's. Using one particular color, but switch the tones, value and saturation to create varies matching colors in the garment, make it harmony with each others. Here are some e.g.s..

Main color of the whole dress: Bright Orange
Fabric pattern: little circles with deeper orange/ purple


Main color of the whole dress : Chocolate brown
Leather Belt : Leather color- same hue but lighter brown to match with the dress ; The animal skin pattern - "Zebra pattern" with dark Brown color ; To look more delicately, the belt buckle edge is made of , which is in cream color....

So the color family is composed by differnt value of Brown - create harmony but not bored.

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Color Trend Analysis 2000-2003 RTW
Spring 2000 RTW: Complementary colors (Blue violet, yellow orange)Fall 2000 RTW: Monochromatic color scheme (Reddish Grey)


Spring 2001 RTW: Analogous colors (Red, orange, yellow…)Fall 2001 RTW: Split complementary colors (Indigo, brown, army green…)Spring 2002 RTW: Triad (Red, Blue, and Yellow)Fall 2002 RTW: Triad (Pink and Deep Blue)
Spring 2003 RTW: Complementary colors (Red and Green)


Fall 2003 RTW: Complementary colors (Pink and Green)

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Collections Analyasis - Fall 2003 RTW

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Collections Analyasis - Spring 2003 RTW

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Collections Analyasis - Fall 2002 RTW

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Collections Analyasis - Spring 2002 RTW

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Collections Analyasis - Fall 2001 RTW

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Collection analysis - Spring 2001 RTW

Exercise 3 - Observing CULTURE of different people...

Today Robert ask us to find 5 persons after lesson and try to "guess" their personal culture by using theory.. Then i had took the following pictures in the MTR( Although Robert ask us not to do so... because i afraid that i will forget what they wore)


This girl is wearing a suit set..White shirt and black suit skirt with black high heels. I think she is a professional and working in financial area. Her face is quite young, and has long light brown hair. Besides she also got a LV bag, but a simple detail one. Usually younger girls would like the more simple cutting one and mature women would like to choose detailed and delicate one.
As a result, i think this girl is about 24-25 years old and her family is in middle class (due to the LV Bag).
The second one is a foreign woman, wearing black blouse ( a little bit see through) and pink pants.

Although she is quite pound, i guess her is not American...she may from British or other European country. Because she has got some accessories like necklace, rings..which are made of crystal/ stones. She painted her toes nails in red, her finger nails in white. ..According to my personal daily observation, most American are less willing to spend time on "beautify" themselves so always wear simple. On the other side, Europeans are relatively fashionable.

I think she is about forty something...middle class, living in Hong Kong...because she is quite familiar with Hong Kong's MTR station network. I saw her sleep in the train, but most visitors will be looking around and concern where to get off. Moreover, she is traveling Ma On Shan line and get off in Shek Mun station...As i know there are no hotel in there.

The third one is this girl in front of me. I think she is about 22, She is obviously from Mainland...except speaking Mandarin, her dressing also reflect the culture of her nation.

The 1st point to focus is her shirt. Women from Mainland love to wear shirts anytime (usually match with suit pant or A line skirt which is dull color ); while most Hong Kong ladies preferred shirts only in working days.Moreover, she matched this shirt with a gray tight and mini pullover and a gray A line skirt as well. Hong Kong girls were seldom wear same-same color on their bodies.

One supplementary point is...i'm sorry to focused on her armpit...i saw some hair there... This is also what Mainland girls is different from Hong Kong's - even go out with boyfriend (next to the girl in above photo), they will not clear their armpit and do not think this is a matter.