And Thomson said her rates are low. Her only competitor in Cambridge charges $75 an hour, and she cites a recent article which said the cost of a color consultant in the United States runs from $35-$400 for a session.

"The reason I'm not charging more is that I wanted to do this as a service, not as a money-making advantage," Thomson says.

Thomson's clients range in age from her 15-year-old next-door neighbor to "faculty wives in their 60s." She says she advises many graduate students, because "they are going into the job market, need to invest in clothes, and want to invest in me first."

Spectrum

Men also seek Thomson's advice. She tells of one recent client, a Harvard Law School student who was about to buy a gray flannel suit for his interviews.

"I saved him, because he was a summer and needed softer tones," she says, adding that they came up with three possible colors for suits as well as several the shirts to go with them.

But Thomson says she is reluctant to take men unaffiliated with the University, unless they are referred by friends.

"I've had men call me asking to be made up, asking to try on frilly lingerie and then asking me to take their picture." Thomson says. "I explained to one that I don't have any clothes, just cloths, and he asked if he could try on the cloths in the nude."

"It's too bad I have to protect myself, because men need this service more than women do," Thomson says. She says women are brought up thinking about clothes and color, and which ones look right on them, but that men sometimes think such things are "sissy."

"I've done an excellent job of dressing two husbands and one son," she says. "They may look rumpled, but at least they're wearing what is right."

Booming

Thomson says business is going well. She has about six clients a week, all she wants. "I can't do a good job on more," she explains. Since she opened shop in November, Thomson says she has made enough money to cover half of her initial investment on cloth.

She admits that not many undergraduates use her services. "I guess even my low rates are too much," she says, adding that she anticipates a rise later in the spring as graduation approaches. "I wanted to stay in touch with students this way," she says. "I'm disappointed."

The seasonal approach to color, Thomson explains, was popularized by Carole Jackson in her book "Color Me Beautiful," but it originated with a German color theorist, Johannes Item.

"Jackson is making a mint, but she hasn't acknowledged my debt to her to the poor little German theorist," she says. "I acknowledge my debt to has, so why can't she give the pour follow some credit?"

Thomson says that discovering "Color Me Beautiful" was the best thing that ever happened to me. "She has on Jackson's original palate of 30 colors for each season by buying up new fabric.

"I know so instinctively new which colors go with which colors go with that I pick them out." Thomson says.

"When you know what colors look best on you and wear them, you like yourself better, you like others better, they like you better." Thomson says, "The world is all around a happier place."

Diane Thomson accepts clients Monday through Saturday by appointment: 876-7520