It is my pleasure to introduce you to Cate Linden.

Cate is a lovely young woman who is personable, bright, articulate, and compassionate. Her desire to become an analyst was driven, in part, by her love of color and people. She understands the struggles of self-image and her desire is to help her clients find their natural beauty.

Her own journey will inspire you….

I’m sitting in my studio as I type this. It’s a warm spring day in Kentucky, and the curtain is pulled away from the window, clean light spilling across the floor. I love this space. Directly across from where I sit are the test drapes. Whenever I look at them, the colors hanging in rippling folds, my breath catches. They are so beautiful, so varied, and I have been trusted to wield them. Is it real? It is.

My love of color follows a bold line directly to my mother. She’s always had a fabulous sense of her own best colors, and as a child I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. I still do. When I was a little girl she glowed. Not only did she glow, but her projects did. She designed quilts and planted gardens with color schemes you couldn’t look away from. I remember she had her very own Dover coloring books, the fancy ones, with intricate scenes of ancient Rome. She stayed up late, carefully coloring (she had her own set of colored pencils too, off-limits to us) while she watched Masterpiece Theatre, a cup of tea within reach.

I never guessed that color would become my Thing. I can’t draw or paint, and I was rather fashion-inept as a teenager. I had no clue what colors or shapes I should be wearing, and my self-esteem was less than stellar, so I hid behind baggy black clothes. Later on, I had a penchant for deep red. I had a red wool pea coat that I particularly adored; I wore it with brown tweed ballet flats. But to be perfectly honest, I thought I was ugly. I was sad because my mother and my sister were so beautiful, and I thought it would never happen for me.

Of course, life went on. I discovered babywearing with my second child and swiftly fell in love with not only the convenience and closeness, but yes, those beautiful fabrics! I remember wanting an emerald green wrap and deciding to dye my own. Color and textiles, yes please. I loved playing with dye ratios and soon found myself offering custom dye work at Colored by Cate. I even took up weaving, but dropped it rather quickly, as I was more interested in the colors than the weaving.

Through a babywearing forum I also discovered Personal Color Analysis, specifically the 12-Tone system. I was riveted from the beginning, though completely lost about my own coloring. I thought I looked nice in burgundy and plum, bad in pink and orange, and okay in black. Of course, we all posted pictures for others to critique. It was soon determined that I was very warm and very clear, so I was instructed to check out True Spring. I bought some lipsticks and thought they looked great. The end! Happy to be done, I bought a swatch book and began living as a True Spring. I was smitten with the lush happy colors, though my husband insisted my best colors weren’t on the palette. I ignored him. Sorry, dear.

Increasingly passionate about color and natural beauty, I contacted Terry to ask some questions about analyst training. I immediately felt a great rapport with her and was thrilled when preparations for my training came together much faster than expected. When I arrived in Michigan, I wasn’t nervous about my own draping. I literally couldn’t fathom being anything other than True Spring. So what a shock it was when the Spring drapes were the very worst in the lot! My mind whirred. What could I be?

In the end, I was draped as a Dark Autumn. There was simply nothing else I could be. I had seen every drape for myself, every transformation. Terry covered the mirror while she applied my makeup, and when I was finally allowed to look, I saw my mother looking back at me. I’d always thought I had my mother’s coloring, but I didn’t know what to do with it. The experience was surreal. Back at my hotel, a man flirted with me in the elevator.

One month after my training, with several drapings behind me, I’m more excited about the 12-Tone system than ever. As an analytical person, I find the constant checks and balances comforting. If I don’t know what’s going on at the beginning of an analysis (and we never do, we’re still learning the client’s face), it’s okay. The drapes will sort themselves out. Their accuracy is astounding. With every client, every drape, I learn something new.

I grew up in a culture obsessed with picking apart women’s appearances. Our bodies, our faces, our clothing, our cosmetics. Like many women, I spent most of my life finding myself wanting. I couldn’t see my natural beauty. I didn’t know how to find it. I wasn’t sure it was even there. But it was hiding all along.

Please visit Cate at: www.CateLinden.com