It is my great pleasure to introduce Dark Autumn, Joan Lincoln - Rochester, NY's fashion and beauty icon for decades! She lives life with style & flair and a never ending enthusiasm for connecting and collaborating with local businesses and charitable organizations. Her entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen belie a family oriented local girl sensibility and humanity that she brings to her business ventures.
I have collaborated with Joan for years. In the decades since I opened my first studio in Pittsford, NY around the corner from a fabulous boutique she managed, she has become Rochester's leader on all things involving fashion and style.
We share a passion for empowering women to be their best bymaking style affordable and accessible while lessening the impact of the fashion industry on the environment. We also share an affinity for a feminine Romantic Style and so I gravitate towards Joan's look.
Read more about Joan's eclectic and expansive contribution to helping women in this month's colorful lives blog.
My journey through the fashion and image industry has offered me a host of extraordinary introductions, adventures, and accomplishments beginning in 1978 when I was voted “Best Dressed” for my Waterloo High School Yearbook.
I started my retail career managing local The Limited, Inc. stores and moved over to running upscale niche boutiques. In the 80’s and 90’s, I also modeled on local runways and had many gigs with large corporations like Kodak, Bausch & Lomb and Xerox. Then, stepping from in front of the lens to behind it I spent a decade as a Makeup Artist working for NYC-industry giant Trish McEvoy Cosmetics. I was blessed with a reputation that allowed me to become a sought-after makeup artist in the region for decades.
Often described as a "serial entrepreneur", it was not a surprise that I decided to retire from the makeup industry in order to establish Panache Vintage and Finer Consignment and Panache Home and Design,establishing the “HAPPPY CORNER” in the 12 Corners of Brighton, NY. The Panache team specializes in empowering women to expressing their individuality through passion for fashion. At Panache we have every component of a woman’s outfit - extraordinary clothing for unique, fashionable women - we love to make Rochester our runway!
These are my favorite pink pants and some other treasures found at Panache. I really enjoy sending my clients to Panache to find unique clothing in their colors. Joan and I collaborate each month to feature the seasonal tone that corresponds. Brenda and Joan on a typical day in the shop.
Check out the pics of my successful shopping trip to Panache with a Light Spring who had just found out her colors that morning. What fun!
My passions have always focused on female-based fashion retail/resale, marketing, women empowerment and special event planning. I am a weekly Radio Personality on WARM1013.COM with host Tony Infantino. Fashion First with Joan Lincoln entertains listeners about the latest trends and tips in the beauty and fashion industries, giving a glimpse into the world of fashion from the dressing room to the runway!
I have written for the former Rochester Woman Magazine, former Fashion Edge of Healthy Edge Magazine, and was a Beauty Buzz blogger with HerRochester.
In 2010, I helped Meghan Mundy to found Fashion Week of Rochester, a three-day event including 6 runways shows that spotlights local designers, boutiques, businesses and artists while shining a light on youth homelessness.
What prompted you to have a color analysis?
After meeting Kerry, I purchased a gift certificate for a personal color analysis for a dear friend. She discovered that she was a Cool Winter and became so immersed in her jewel tone colors and icy cool look was so enthusiastic about her experience that I decided that I needed to have mine done too!
How has it changed your life?
Being in the retail industry surrounded by clothing and home furnishing all day, my color wheel has helped me define and refine my palette in my closet and what colors I surround myself with in my home. In my multi level home, I refer to my family room as the neutral room and my living and dining rooms as my soothing rooms. Both decorated from the neutral pages on my color wheel but at a different degrees. I love them both.
In what ways has it changed the way you approach your business?
Having the knowledge of my own color story, I continue to promote the need for wearing the correct colors to my clients. I encourage daily they too treat themselves to a color analysis to better understand what colors they should be wearing! It's fascinating when a client returns with their wheel in hand and shops more confidently.
What has been the biggest challenge?
I've found the biggest challenge is to not wear black as much as I used to. The fashion industry promotes black as it is easy to produce and has many myths associated with making everyone looks slimmer. While that can be the case for some like my friend above, for many including me the browns of my hair and eyes make a better neutral. While I do have a softer, warm black on my color I try to blend it with the earthy browns as much as I can...but some days, I just can't break this one color rule!
Any interesting things happen while you were wearing your colors?
Oh Baby you bet! When the color and the style is on point so are the compliments! There's a big difference when someone likes your sweater compared to when they say "you look amazing today!"
What was the biggest surprise?
When I took my color wheel and dove into my closet some of my most favorite pieces of clothing were a perfect match. So I guess sometimes, not always, we already know what colors we should be wearing...then there is all the black in my closet that I just can't let go of!
Tell me about your favorite color in your palette.
OLIVE and Aubergine all day long!!!!
Tell me about your closet
Boho Chic, Artsy, Romantic and Multi layer draping pieces. Then there are the cowboy boots, jeans with lots and lots of Dusters!!!!
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It’s a treat to introduce you to this month's colorful lives feature, Soft Autumn Tim Stich who is also my son!! Tim’s experience with shopping for clothing and wearing color is unique as I become a color analyst when he was quite young. When he and his sister Clare were little, I tried dressing them in bright colors with strong patterns as was the style then.....but even before learning about personal color harmony, I started to sense that the clothes overwhelmed them and began dressing them in softer colors and solids. I was even shocked the other day to discover when I pulled out his school photos that every single photo (even before I learned of his color palette) was taken in a Soft Autumn color. You can see how his life has evolved wearing the soft, earthy colors that suit his ruddy hair, freckles and soft blue/green eyes.
Over the years, he has mostly been very eager to wear what suits him and looked to me to help him distinguish soft autumn colors from the two seasons nearby - warm autumn and soft summer. We enjoy shopping together, especially now that he lives in Manhattan and the shopping is abundant. It can be a challenge to find his colors in sizes and style that fit but when its perfect, it feels great and he knows it. Read on to learn more about what it’s like to be a guy whose mom is a color consultant!
I am so excited to introduce you the “entertainingly irreverent” (Associated Press) Soft Summer, Valerie Peterson. Valerie is an extraordinary storyteller in a variety of media including scriptwriting, screenplays, fiction, non-fiction and book publishing/consulting. I analyzed her colors years ago in Rhode Island at a girls weekend hosted by a mutual friend (color analysis and girls weekends make a great combo!). In the years since, Valerie has embraced her Soft Summer colors in spite of living and working in New York City where black is a standard and practical.
It was a thrill when her publisher chose a photo of my family for her wonderfully spirited book, Peterson’s Happy Hour. On page 46, you can find me with my family - brothers, Mike and Tim and my parents Marcia and J. Michael Jones circa 1970. The book features many more photographic gems and recipes for a fabulous social gathering!
In this month’s colorful lives blog, Valerie shares her journey with her color palette. As with all her writing projects, she is humorous, colorful and entertaining! She has kept in great condition and still uses the Sci Art swatch book that I provided back in those days!! Be sure to check out her large body of work on valeriepeterson.net and read more in the blog:
While doing color analysis in Boston in June, I had the pleasure of meeting Danielle Burton and giving her a 12-Season Color Analysis. Danielle had recently experienced a 4-Season Color Analysis with a House of Colour consultant and was told she was a Winter. I was skeptical that she was any type of Winter (in the 12 season system, there are actually 3 Winters - Dark Winter, Cool Winter and Bright Winter). Her light eyes, natural lighter and soft brownish hair and skin tone were much more consistent with my clients who fall into the lighter seasons, especially Summer.
Since her hair had been highlighted, we covered it with a neutral gray cap to do the testing portion of the analysis, ensuring that the lighter color did not sway the results of the analysis. It was clear from the beginning that Danielle was responding more harmoniously to the cool tones even some of the lighter cool winter drapes which was consistent with her 4 season color analysis.
But, while she contrasted with any drapes that were dark and bright, she was softened and balanced by the lighter cool tones, particularly Summer. The dark colors brought out shadows under her eyes and the brighter colors overwhelmed her and brought attention to themselves. In the end, she looked lovely and perfectly balanced and harmonious in the Cool Summer colors!
"While I had a great experience at House of Colour, I do think they are missing out on a ton of research and color science by not including the 12 seasons and variants. The added layer of cool vs bright vs dark was a huge difference for me and really solidified which category I best fit”.
Enjoy reading more about Danielle’s experience with both systems and her reaction to her diagnosis as a Cool Summer:
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