Never mind the buzzy new Italian restaurant, the hottest reservation in town is being told the colors you’ve been wearing for years are all wrong.
Seklab — a “personal color analysis salon” — has a waitlist of more than 2,000 people, according to the Midtown hotspot’s co-owners.
Yes, the 1980s trend where women attended Tupperware-like parties to learn if they were a “spring” or a “summer” and what shades they should wear is back, thanks to social media and popularity abroad.
In New York City, there are currently only a handful of businesses offering the service, and their appointments are going fast.
“It’s like booking concert tickets,” says Lizzie Heo, 32, co-founder of Seklab with sister Lily, 29.
The two, who were born in South Korean and grew up near Philadelphia, opened the salon a year ago. Initially, appointments on the weekends booked up quickly.
Now, all their slots — roughly five analyses a day — fill up within 10 or 20 minutes of going live on the Seklab website.
Appointments, which cost $245 for an 80-minute analysis, open up twice each month.
Most of their clients are women in their 20s and 30s who come for private appointments or in groups for birthdays and bachelorette parties.
“It’s a lot from the hype from TikTok and Instagram,” said Lizzie, who returned to her native Korea, where color analysis is very popular, to train. “Most of our clients are in the early careers, so they’re trying to [look] more professional.”
Appointments begin with an intake interview about what colors a client typically wears. Next, large fabric swatches in dozens of colors are draped over their shoulders to determine what shades are most flattering against their skin tone and features. If a person has dyed hair, it’s covered up for the draping to ensure an accurate analysis.
But the verdict isn’t just limited to four seasons. In Korean color analysis, each of the four main seasons is divided into three sub groups, such as “warm spring,” “dark winter” or “dull autumn.”
Clients walk away with 10 or so reference swatches of their best colors as well as makeup recommendations and advice on which metal — silver, gold or rose gold — they should opt for with jewelry.
Christine Sachs had her colors done at Seklab last August, ahead of her 50th birthday, after booking five weeks out. She said the appointment was worth waiting for.
Growing up on Long Island, Sachs had her colors done using Carole Jackson’s “Color Me Beautiful” system. Jackson’s 1980 book of the same name sold over ten million copies, was on the New York Times bestseller list for years and launched a network of licensed consultants across the country.
According to that system, a teenage Sachs, who was born in Korea and adopted by a caucasian family, was a winter.
But, when she walked into Seklab, they immediately said that was wrong and eventually declared her a “light spring” — much to her shock.
“I was screaming, I called my mother, I called my husband,” Sachs told The Post. “Light spring is the absolute opposite of everything in my closet. My closet is typical New Yorker: white, black and gray. Light spring is all of the Easter egg colors.”
In the months since, she’s changed her wardrobe and friends and family have showered her with compliments and blunt affirmations
“My husband was like, ‘Oh yeah, the bags [under your] eyes do look less noticeable when you wear the light colors,’” she said with a chuckle. “I’m one of the only people who looks good in sea-foam green.”
Sachs, who works as an executive coach and lives in Murray Hill, changed her everyday uniform from black leggings and a black top to light blue or cream-colored jeans and a light top. For her 50th birthday party, she splurged and went on a shopping spree at Fendi.
She told the salesperson about her color journey and they brought out a pale blue frock for her to try.
“I would never in a million years have picked it out,” she said of the dress.
Seklab’s not the only game in town.
House of Colour, an Iowa-based company with “franchises” run by specially trained stylists across the country, has an outpost in Downtown Brooklyn.
The location’s owner, Fernanda Vazquez, said she does a brisk business charging $585 for a private color analysis, which runs two to three hours.
“You can get it done [more] cheaply, but you get what you pay for,” Vazquez said. “Color analysis with TikTok has become something that people think of as a parlor trick.”
On the Upper West Side, the Outfit Curator has been offering color analysis since 2020.
Founder Mariana Marques, 29, said the offering has suddenly been “very popular” in recent months. She charges $299 for a private analysis, and doesn’t have any availability until late July.
Becca Havian, a 27-year-old Brooklynite, had her colors done with Marques this past February.
She shocked her mother and aunt when she asked for color analysis for a birthday gift.
“They were like, ‘Isn’t that a thing of the past?’” she recalled
Havian, a graduate student in mental health counseling at New York University, had previously favored browns, blacks, tans and olive green.
But Marques declared her a “true winter” and suggested she wear rich jewel tones such as dark teal, magenta and forest green.
She’s been gradually changing her wardrobe — with good results.
“Every time i’m wearing one of my colors,” she said, “someone will make a comment about how it makes my eyes pop or a top is a flattering on me.”
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