Looking for your first colour analysis draping kit?
When you’ve finished your colour analysis training, here is the perfect draping kit.
You have enough on our mind after your training without having to think about how many drapes you’re going to need, or which swatch wallets to use. So to help you get started, I’ve put together some starter draping kits.
Seasonal drape & mini starter set
Here’s what’s in the Seasonal Drape & Mini Starter draping kit with 7 Big Tips.
1) Hand-held artist’s colour wheel
The artist’s colour wheel is a fundamental tool for anyone in the business of colour and you’ll find it really useful to explain how the worlds of art and colour are closely linked.
BIG TIP #1
When you’re running workshops or presentations to promote your colour services, and with 1-1 clients and small groups, use the colour wheel to easily identify the 4 Seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, and also how to mix Tonal and Seasonal to create 12, 16, or however many thousand seasons/tones you choose to work with.
BIG TIP #2
I never, ever cover a client’s hair when diagnosing her seasonal and/or tonal direction. If you do, and then remove the head scarf to discover that her current hair colour clashes with everything you’ve just discussed, you’ve wasted your client’s time AND money, and made yourself look like a total amateur. Your client’s current hair colour is fundamental to any diagnosis you make today and if she changes her hair colour later, she’ll simply need to consult you again.
BIG TIP #3
You should be booking in every client again on a regular basis to give them the opportunity to check their latest purchases, update their wardrobe for specific occasions, and ask all their questions, especially when they are considering changing their hair, skin, or eye colour.
2) Cover-up cape
Use the cover-up cape to cover over what your client is wearing so that you’re not distracted by the colours she arrived in. It will also help your client concentrate on the drapes that you’re showing her and not worry that she’s wearing the wrong colours. The cape fastens with velcro around her neck so make sure you don’t catch her hair in it – rather painful for the poor darling when you rip it off afterwards!
BIG TIP #4
I never remove a client’s make-up (except her lipstick). If you need to remove her make-up, may I suggest that you warn your client BEFORE she arrives? If you don’t have a make-up kit yourself, then she will need to bring her own to re-do her face before she leaves – we don’t want her frightening the neighbours, and, more importantly, we don’t want her leaving feeling less than gorgeous.
3) Drapes
This Mini draping kit provides 60 standard-size drapes with both Tonal and Seasonal information on the labels so if you decide to work with tonal later or to mix tonal and seasonal together, you won’t have to buy separate drapes.
4) Mini seasonal swatches
To help keep cost of the draping kit right down, this kit contains one each of the 4 Mini Seasonal Swatches (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter).
5) Transparent drape case
Designed to carry 60 standard-size folded drapes.
BIG TIP #5
I don’t have the patience to fold drapes to fit into the case so I hang all my drapes on a drape stand and yes, if I’m working elsewhere, I strap the drape stand into the car passenger seat beside me! Especially on a windy day, cover the drapes on the stand, I use a bin liner, or else you’ll be chasing flying drapes down the street as soon as you open the car door!
An alternative starter draping kit
This is the one I use – the Improvability Colour Analysis Starter Set.
This is the draping kit I personally use because it contains everything in the mini draping kit above except for the 4 mini seasonal swatches. In place of the mini swatches, my draping kit contains
- 4 Seasonal Ladies’ Fans (one for each season)
- 6 Safe Tonal Fans (one for each tonal direction)
Alongside the 60 seasonal drapes, I’ve also added 6 extra drapes:
a) The Antique Drape Pack
The antique drape pack contains 2 drapes – Antique Silver and Antique Gold, enabling you to immediately demonstrate the difference between Cool and Warm.
BIG TIP #6
Cool vs. Warm is the foundation of my easy-to-learn approach to colour analysis and with my colour analysis training course you’ll learn how to do this without a drape in sight. Then you can use the Antique Drape pack to show your client what you have already diagnosed in the back of your head.
b) The Armani Drape Pack
The Armani Drape Pack contains 4 drapes – Medium Bronze, Moss Green, Green Grey, and Rose Brown, named for Giorgio Armani who was originally responsible for making these colours acceptable for men’s suits and, later, for women too.
BIG TIP #7
The Armani drapes are elegant colours which
- work beautifully as neutrals for a Soft/muted lady’s wardrobe
- offer comfortable choices for those who aren’t psychologically ready (or don’t want) to wear too much colour
- fabulous alternative business colours for your female clients and for some of your male clients too
Create your own draping kit
Another alternative is to create your own draping kit.
Simply select the items you want from our colour supplies store – drapes, swatch wallets, fabric fans, and anything else you need to get started.
You can always add more drapes, swatch wallets, fabric fans, etc. later, as and when you need them and whichever option you go for, this is YOUR business, we don’t run a franchise, so YOU get to choose which colour analysis supplies you want to work with.

