Jan Rivers has always been coloring.
What began with crayons and coloring books evolved over time into a lifelong calling: a gift for helping people rediscover themselves through color.
Shades of Childhood
Jan grew up in a small Alabama town with pine trees, long summers, and hospital corridors bright with florescent light. Her sister was born with trisomy 13, a chromosomal disorder so rare most children never make it to their first birthday.
Jan’s sister just turned fifty.
“We spent a lot of time in hospitals,” she tells me. “I would take my coloring books everywhere. That’s what I did all day.”
While other kids went to restaurants or beaches, Jan learned to find beauty in waiting rooms. That discipline—part art, part order—never left her.
“I’ve always been attracted to color,” she says. “It was how I made sense of things in a world that felt uncertain.”
The Art and Science
Today, Jan is a certified image consultant with House of Colour Springfield, guiding clients to discover hues that bring their features to life.
“People think it’s fashion,” she says. “It’s really physics.”
She holds up a chart: four identical squares, each surrounded by a different border that changes how the middle looks.
“That’s color analysis,” she says. “You’re the square in the middle. The world around you, and the colors you wear, change how people see you.”
For Jan the joy is in that intersection: “It’s the marriage of art and science. You can literally see someone’s skin tone shift right in front of you. It’s visible transformation.”
In Living Color
Jan’s favorite part of every session is what calls the reveal.
“They come in nervous, bare-faced, unsure. But when the right color hits, something happens.” Eyes brighten. Skin glows. Shoulders lift.
“They look in the mirror and whisper, ‘That’s me,’ and you can feel their confidence return.”
Color analysis, Jan believes, is less about clothes and more about clarity.
“When you finally see harmony between who you are and how people see you, it’s healing. You realize you don’t have to change yourself. You just have to see yourself correctly.”
She calls it “the most peaceful makeover you’ll ever have.” No contouring. No filters. Just light, truth, and a trained eye.
Early Shades of Strength
Ask Jan who her hero is, and she doesn’t hesitate.
“My dad was my anchor, my hero,” she says.
Every Saturday, he drove three hours each way to take her to modeling school, waiting eight hours in the car until she finished.
“He was such a saint,” she says. “He’d sit there all day, just so I could chase this dream.”
When a modeling job required her to fit into a size six, she refused. “I knew I couldn’t do that and stay healthy,” she says. “I already knew the cost.”
Years later, when her father battled cancer, Jan returned the favor.
“I drove him to Birmingham for chemo. We’d sit and talk all day. I’d work from my laptop beside him. Wouldn’t trade those days for anything.”
A Fresh Coat of Confidence
“We live in a world that moves fast,” Jan says. “People are tired. They look in the mirror and see stress before they see themselves.”
In her studio, the goal isn’t perfection, it’s permission.
“When you sit in that chair, you get to exhale,” she says. “You realize you don’t have to chase trends. You already have everything you need.”
The impact, as clients tell her, is immediate. It impacts every aspect of their lives.
“They start wearing lipstick again. They feel more confident in photos. They show up differently at work. That’s what color does. It shifts how you carry yourself. How you interact with people. It even impacts job interviews.”
For Jan, those changes mean everything.
“I’ve seen people walk into my studio defeated and walk out victorious and radiant. When you’re wearing colors, you’re at peace with your reflection.”
Mixing Hues and Heart
Her husband, Brandon, manages their family’s grocery stores around New Orleans.
“He’s my levity,” Jan says. “I’m serious, focused. He reminds me to laugh.”
Together they’re raising twin daughters and a college-aged son in a family that hums with motion.
“We balance each other out,” she says. “He’s teaching the girls how to run the stores, and I’m teaching them confidence, how to see themselves the right way.”
Inside the Studio
Step into Jan’s studio and it feels like stepping into sunlight. Natural light floods the space. Drapes of every hue—saffron, plum, turquoise.
Each client sits bare-faced before a mirror while Jan layers colored drapes across their shoulders, one after another, watching the way light shifts across their features.
“We don’t look at the drape,” she says. “We look at what it does to you.”
When the right hue lands, faces brighten, eyes sharpen, jawlines lifts.
"They’ll catch their reflection and it’s like the light comes back on,” Jan says. “Color gives them permission to shine again. They see themselves again. That’s what gets me.”
Some clients cry, as if seeing themselves for the first time. One client, a cancer survivor who lost her red hair during chemo, wept through her session.
“She said, ‘I don’t know who I am anymore.’ By the end, she said, ‘I feel beautiful again.’ That’s why I do this.”
Jan calls her philosophy tools, not rules. “I never tell people what they can’t wear. I show them what colors love them back.”
The Wow Factor
“It’s not magic, it’s math,” Jan explains. “There are 144 color seasons. We find yours, everything clicks.”
For my own visit to Jan’s studio, I wore my go-to black button up shirt.
“Only about a quarter of people look their best in black,” she says. “It drains most faces, despite the myth of its universality. It gives you under-eye circles, makes people look tired. The right hues lift you instantly, takes ten years off.”
When she draped me in a deep olive from the Autumn palette, I understood why people drive from Mandeville and Covington to see her. The transformation is instant and undeniable.
Jan cuts no corners. A full session can last up to three hours.
Each clients goes home with a color fan and a rating system: one-star shades for balance, two stars for everyday wear, three stars for wow colors—for portraits, weddings, job interviews, or first impressions. “Those are your showstoppers,” she says.
She also emails follow-up guides for hair tones, gemstone colors, and shopping guides. “It’s about efficiency,” she says. “No more wasting hours buying clothes that don’t work.”
But it’s also about freedom.
“You stop saying, ‘I have nothing to wear.’ You start choosing what makes you feel unmistakably you. Color analysis does more than restore your sense of style. It restores your sense of self.”
Coloring for Couples
Jan meets many clients during seasons of change: after childbirth, divorce, illness, or career shifts.
“They walk in unsure, but they leave with a sense of certainty,” she says.
When couples come in together, she likes to seat the husband first. “Men start out skeptical,” she says. “Then they see how their face changes with the right color and can’t wait for their wife’s turn.”
Giving the Gift of Color
If you’re searching for a meaningful Christmas gift, Jan suggests something different.
“Color analysis isn’t another thing you buy and forget,” she says. “It ripples into every part of your life—from your prom dress to your wedding palette to the color of your of new car. And if you’re about to paint your kitchen or living room, get your colors done first so you know which shades make you shine.”
“It gives you an edge,” she adds. “For those who have everything, it might be the one thing missing.”
Jan still remembers that little girl in the hospital with her crayons and coloring books.
“I’m still coloring,” she says with a soft laugh.
Only now, she’s coloring people back to life.
Book your color and style analysis today by visiting houseofcolour.com/stylists/jan-rivers-springfield-louisiana, emailing jan.rivers@houseofcolour.com, or calling 985-320-9054. You can also follow Jan on Instagram at @houseofcolour_springfield for inspiration and updates.
"You don’t have to chase trends. You already have everything you need."