The question I get most, after "what season am I?", is what the afternoon is actually like. People picture something stricter than it is. A white room, a set of rules, someone telling them they may never wear navy again. It is not that. It is two hours in a home studio in Ilkley, with daylight, a mirror, and enough time to see your own face change.
If you want the short version before the long one, the colour analysis page has the practical details. This is the felt version: what happens, in order, and what is worth knowing before you travel.
Before you leave the house
Come as you are. Little or no makeup is best, so your natural colouring is what we are reading rather than foundation. You do not need a special outfit, a bare face you have planned for a week, or a folder of screenshots from the internet. If you have a colour you love and are afraid it is "wrong", wear it or bring it. Curiosity is more useful than a performance.
You can bring someone. Plenty of clients bring a friend, a mum or a daughter. If you both want your colours done, book a shared session and make a day of it. If you are a group of four or more, that is a party, not two people squeezed into a one-to-one.
Consultations are in person. I do not offer them by video. Draping needs true daylight and a mirror between us. That is also why the session stays at the studio rather than coming to your kitchen: the light has to be consistent. Wardrobe edits, personal shopping and group days travel. Colour analysis does not.
Getting to the studio
The studio is in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, at Maylands on Stockeld Road. There is parking nearby, and full directions come with your booking confirmation, so you are not guessing on the morning.
Ilkley station is on the Leeds and Bradford lines and a short distance from the studio, which is why so many clients come by train as well as by car. As a rough guide, Leeds and Harrogate are about half an hour by car, Bradford about twenty-five minutes, Skipton and the Dales somewhere around twenty-five to forty, and York about an hour. If you are coming from one of those towns, there is a short note for Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate, York and Skipton. The areas page has the wider map.
Sessions run Tuesday to Saturday. You book online, pay by card, and the date is confirmed. Colour analysis is £150 for the two hours. Colour + Body Shape, if you want styling in the same visit, is £225 and three hours.
The first part is a conversation
You arrive, and we start with a cup of tea and a chat. No judgement, and no makeup needed. I want to know how you actually dress, what you are tired of, and what you would love to be different. The drapes mean more if the palette has to survive your real week, not a fantasy one.
Then the drapes
This is the part everyone remembers. I place coloured fabrics under your chin, in a considered order, in the natural light of the studio. You watch in the mirror. The wrong ones cast a shadow: skin looks duller, eyes recede, any redness or tiredness becomes the thing you notice. The right ones do the opposite. Eyes look clearer. Skin looks as though it belongs to you. People often laugh at this point, because the difference is so unsubtle once you are looking for it.
We are reading three things while that happens. Warmth: golden or cool. Depth: light or strong. Clarity: vivid or soft. Those three place you in Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter, and then in the sub-season inside it. Two Springs can both be warm and still want very different depths of coral. You do not have to hold the theory in your head while it happens. The mirror is the argument. There is a guide to the four seasons if you want to read ahead. It will not spoil the fabrics.
Makeup, metal and real clothes
Once the season is clear, we make it usable. Which lipstick direction, which metal for jewellery, which kinds of shade for work and for the weekend. Gold and silver are not a matter of taste here. One of them will usually agree with your skin and the other will not, and you will have seen which, because we test it.
This is also where black, white, navy and camel get a fair hearing. They are not morals. For some seasons one of them is a genuine neutral. For others it is the thing that has been quietly tiring your face for years. Winter, for example, is the season that genuinely wears black well. Spring usually finds ivory kinder than brilliant white, and warm navy kinder than black. You leave knowing your version, not a generic one.
If you have booked Colour + Body Shape, the extra hour is for style and silhouette: the shapes that flatter, not just the colours. If you have not, we still talk about clothes. We just do not try to do a full body-shape session inside the colour appointment.
What you take home
You leave with a personal digital colour guide on your phone. The whole palette, with you in changing rooms and in online baskets, for life. That is the object that makes the afternoon last longer than the afternoon. A season you remember vaguely is less useful than a season you can check while a shop assistant is holding two jumpers.
You also leave with permission to ask later. A question two weeks on, about a dress you have found, is part of the consultation. The appointment ends. The support does not.
Some people book a wardrobe edit afterwards, at home, for £175. That is three hours in your own clothes: keep, release, tailor, outfits photographed on your phone, and a short shopping list of the gaps. It is especially good once you know your colours, because the try-on is against your palette rather than against a hunch. If you would like both, they are £300 together.
A few worries that are normal
If you have had your colours done before, come anyway if it was years ago or the guide is long gone. Hair, grey and a tan change how shades look. A fresh analysis often shows a shift, and the new digital guide is worth the visit on its own.
If you are anxious that every favourite will be taken off you, it will not. The aim is more colour you can wear with confidence, not a smaller life. If the journey is the thing you are unsure about, ask me before the day. Directions come with the booking confirmation.
When you are ready, book the session. Bring little or no makeup, a question, and a friend if you want company. I will bring the fabrics and the daylight. Two hours later you know your season, and you can see why.