Bernice Kentner

{{short description|Writer and color theorist (b. 1929, d. 2018)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Bernice Kentner

| birth_name = Wilma Bernice Tufford

| birth_date = May 23, 1929

| death_date = {{death date and age |2018|1|2|1929|5|23 |mf=yes}}

| notableworks = Color Me A Season

| birth_place = Cheyenne, Wyoming

| death_place = Ogden, Utah

| spouse = Dean George Kentner

| image = File:Oma60s.jpg

| caption = Bernice Kentner in the 1960s

}}

Bernice Kentner (1929–2018) was an American cosmetologist, color theorist, and author.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/103321605/|title=Charting Perfect Color|last=Culpepper|first=Mary Kay|date=21 August 1983|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|page=129}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.donnaglamour.it/armocromia-l-importanza-dei-colori/lifestyle/|title=Armocromia, l'importanza nella prima impressione|date=2019-12-02|website=Donna Glamour|language=it-IT|access-date=2019-12-15}}{{Cite book|title=Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women in Business|last1=Brakeall|first1=Linda|last2=Wildermuth|first2=Anna|publisher=Hawthorne Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0971020900|pages=327}}

Background

Bernice Kentner was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming and later moved to North Platte, Nebraska.{{Cite book|title=Van Buskirk: A Legacy From New Amsterdam|last=Shoemaker|first=Irene English|year=1990|location=Anderson, Indiana|pages=210|oclc=886946728}} In the 1980s, Kentner relocated to Concord, California.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/400973099/|title=A Bloom of Gold in Color Consulting|last=McMillan|first=Penelope|date=16 August 1982|work=The Los Angeles Times|page=21}}

Bernice Kentner was a leading proponent of seasonal color analysis in the 1970s and 1980s. By the 1990s, Jo Peddicord still considered Kentner's philosophy of color to be one of the most prominent color analysis systems in the United States, and Peddicord acknowledged that Kentner had an international following.{{Cite journal|last=Peddicord|first=Jo|date=1994|title=The Magic of Color|url=https://archive.org/details/looklikewinneraf00pedd/page/10?|journal=Look Like a Winner After 50|pages=11|isbn=9780881000825}} In 2003, The Register-Guard stated that Kentner's book Color Me a Season "helped spur the 1980s boom in color analysis."{{Cite news|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Lightning+doesn%27t+electrify+color+pros.-a0108288527|title=Lightning Doesn't Electrify Color Pros|date=24 September 2003|work=The Register-Guard}} In the 2010s, some authors argued that Kentner's system had become outdated, such as June McLeod, who wrote in 2016 that "today there are few people in the colour world who still follow her work by using the four season system."{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-ydDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT37|title=Colour Psychology Today|last=McLeod|first=June|publisher=O-Books|year=2016|isbn=978-1785353048|pages=17|chapter=A Glance at Ancient & Modern History}}

Seasonal color analysis

The color analysis system developed by Bernice Kentner differs from the other notable system that Carole Jackson developed in the 1980https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchType=7&searchId=3133&maxResultsPerPage=25&recCount=25&recPointer=0&resultPointer=0&headingId=26937277 publication Color Me Beautiful; Kentner's system focuses more specifically on skin color, while hair color is considered secondary.{{Cite journal|last=Fox|first=Dox|date=Fall 2010|title=The Second Generation of Racial Profiling|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/ajcl38&div=5&id=&page=|journal=American Journal of Criminal Law|volume=38|issue=1|pages=75, footnote 205}}

In the book Going Gray, Anne Kreamer dedicates an entire chapter to apparel called "It's Not The Gray, It's the Clothes."{{Cite book|title=Going Gray: What I Learned about Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Really Matters|last=Kreamer|first=Anne|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|year=2007|isbn=978-0316166614|location=Boston|pages=[https://archive.org/details/goinggraywhatile00krea/page/152 152]|url=https://archive.org/details/goinggraywhatile00krea/page/152}} Kreamer states that the seasonal metaphors of the cosmetologist Bernice Kentner's Color Me a Season system have allowed beauticians "to find the best tone and hue for clients' particular complexions and coloring and hair." Kreamer also discusses her surprise when she discovered that she herself is a Summer according to Kentner's system. In 2011, Jules Standish wrote that Pat Scott Vincent's color analysis system Colourflair was "based on Bernice Kentner's methods."{{Cite book|title=How Not to Wear Black|last=Standish|first=Jules|publisher=Soul Rocks Books|year=2011|isbn=978-1846945618|pages=7}}

In their article "Color Analysis in the Marketplace," Jo Ann Hilliker and Jean Rogers also wrote that Bernice Kentner's system "classifies individuals similar to the Color Me Beautiful approach, but she also recommends examining the iris of the eye to determine the right season. The Summer eye has a 'cracked glass' pattern. The Winter eye has 'spokes' from the pupil to the edge of the iris. A 'sunburst' surrounds the pupil of the Spring eye and the Autumn eye is distinguished by a ring of gold or brown around the pupil and brown flecks in the iris."{{Cite journal|last1=Hilliker|first1=Jo Ann|last2=Rogers|first2=Jean|date=Spring 1988|title=Color Analysis in the Marketplace|journal=Clothing and Textiles Research Journal|volume=6|issue=3|pages=27|doi=10.1177/0887302X8800600304|s2cid=110138202}}

Personal life

Bernice Kentner was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.{{Cite journal|last=Sharp|first=Marianne C.|date=January 1960|title=From Near and Far|url=https://archive.org/details/reliefsocietymag47reli|journal=The Relief Society Magazine|volume=47|issue=1|pages=72}}{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/NorthPlatteLDSBranchHistory|title=North Platte LDS Branch History 1966-1969|language=en}} She married Dean Kentner in the Spring of 1948.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/Wyoming_Marriage_Index_Brides_1941-1952_Sha-to-Z/page/n4396?q=%22bernice+kentner%22|title=Wyoming Marriage Index (Brides) - 1941-1952 - Surnames Sha to Z|year=1941|location=Wyoming|pages=4397|publisher=Reclaim The Records}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.oakparkhillschapel.com/obituary/Dean-Kentner|title=Obituary for Dean George Kentner|last=Chapel|first=Oak Park Hills|website=Obituary for Dean George Kentner|language=en|access-date=2020-02-16}}

In popular culture

Bernice Kentner is the subject of the eponymously named song by Canadian indie rock band Baby Jey.{{Cite web |date=2020-05-22 |title=PREMIERE // Baby Jey 'Bernice Kentner' : Song and dedication brings some new hues of smiles and sentiments to us all. |url=https://comeherefloyd.com/premiere-baby-jey-bernice-kentner/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228183057/https://comeherefloyd.com/premiere-baby-jey-bernice-kentner/ |archive-date=2022-02-28 |access-date=2020-05-27 |website=comeherefloyd |language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Album Review: Baby Jey's "Someday Cowboy"|url=https://thegatewayonline.ca/2018/11/album-review-baby-jey-someday-cowboy/|date=2018-11-24|website=The Gateway|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-27}} Mp3 blog comeherefloyd described the song as a "light ironic look at the 80s phenomenon of seasonal color analysis while at the same time taking Bernice Kentner’s ideas on fashion to another level."

Works

As per OCLC WorldCat.{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n83053856/|title=Most widely held works by Bernice Kentner|website=WorldCat}}

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Title

1978

|Color Me A Season

1980

|Tie Me Up with Rainbows

1980

|Fashion Line and Design

1980

|Understanding Yourself and Your Family Through Season Analysis

1980