Tag: fashion

Green

November 2, 2016

Green is the most abundant colour in nature, yet plants that yield green dyes are surprisingly rare. In the 19th century Victorians literally died for fashion due to green dyes made with arsenic. But can you blame them? Who wouldn’t want to rock an emerald green frock?

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Since green is the colour of nature, it is associated with growth, freshness, and fertility but also jealousy, as in being “green with envy”. Apparently this association with envy dates back to Sappho and ancient Greece with speculation that this is due to the Greeks also associating green with sickness and categorising jealousy as a type of sickness. Thanks to Americans and their boringly monochromatic money, green is also associated with wealth, though this association also makes sense if you think of wealth in terms of verdant vegetation.

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For no reason that he was ever able to explain, my younger brother has long been obsessed with the colour green. From the time he was able to dress himself, to the time his wife took over this task, he always, and exclusively wore green. As a result I’ve grown to associate green with science and intellectualism since my brother is a science nerd and physicist. And since my birthstone is the emerald, I’ve spent some time contemplating the colour in as much as it relates to me. Do I think of myself as “green” the way I think of my brother as “green”? No. But I’m green adjacent.

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Whenever I put together colour boards I scour my home for objects of the colour in question. As I was looking for green things I discovered quite a few green action figures. As a child I was very enamoured of this android looking doll, who is apparently named X-Ray Woman. She and Princess Leia were great friends who went on many adventures together throughout my backyard in the 1980s. It seems green is also the colour of monsters, aliens, and other weird things, again perhaps because green is the colour of nature and such creatures would easily be able to blend into forests and therefore more effectively jump out and scare lowly humans into submission.

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Red

October 12, 2016

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Red is bright and bold, dynamic and sexy. There’s even something called the red dress effect, wherein people wearing red are perceived as more sexually attractive than when wearing other colours. Plenty of theories about why that is but red is undeniably a powerful colour. Interestingly, different cultures perceive red in various ways. In the West, it’s very much about sex and warning (like stop lights). In China, red is the colour of celebration and good luck, which makes sense because it’s so vibrant, but in South Africa red is apparently the colour of mourning, and in other African countries, red is the colour of death. I guess that’s because red is the colour of blood? Or because death is powerful? Certainly red is an aggressive colour. No wilting wallflower is going to wear red.  Red demands attention and so will you when wearing it.

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For my redspiration board I photographed things under a red umbrella with natural light shining through it to give already red objects an even redder glow. This dress was purchased at Modcloth, (this is not a sponsored post) and while it’s very comfortable I find it too fancy for work so I’ve only worn it a few times, on the very rare occasions that I have somewhere to go out in the real world. I do own red shoes but I prefer this look with these royal blue booties. These two jewel tones together really pop, in my opinion.

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I actually don’t have much red in my wardrobe, which is interesting because whenever I paint self-portraits I tend to choose a red colour palette. Not sure why. Perhaps in public I’m too shy to demand attention but I see my internal self as bold.

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Pink

October 5, 2016

I went through a phase in adolescence where I refused to wear pink. I denounced the colour as anti-feminist because I considered it too girly. Eventually I had a revelation and realized that I could be a feminist and still dress in conventionally feminine attire and colours. When I was a child I loved doll-like fashion and as an adult I’ve returned to this appreciation for all things twee. Sometimes I still chastise myself for having a style that veers too juvenile but what can I say? It’s what I like. It’s who I am. My authentic style is ModCloth/Zooey Deschanelesque.

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Don’t be afraid of pink. I rarely see women wearing it in office settings, probably because they want to be taken seriously and pink still carries that girly connotation, (though this wasn’t always the case) and of course, we still live in a society that considers all things feminine to be negative or at least inferior to masculine things. But perhaps embracing this colour can be a subversive act. We shouldn’t have to “act like men” (whatever that means) to be taken seriously. We should act like whoever we are, and if that means being “butch” then great, but if that means being “girly” then that’s great too. Being treated as equals isn’t just a matter of proving we can do whatever men are tradionally praised for, (although even when we do we get paid less, and when men enter professions that were traditionally thought of as female the perception of the field changes, not the perception of women) but also bringing esteem to things that are derided simply because they are associated with femininity.

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My pinkspiration board includes the irrepressible Pinky Pie, a necklace I made on a whim, a painting of a cupcake, and the fabric of a dress I only wore once (to a wedding) and then never again because I thought it might be too twee even for me.

In this pink outfit I’m wearing something I would wear to work, though I only thought to pair all these pinks after putting together my pinkspiration board. Maybe I’ll wear this for realsies soon.

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I love these hot pink shoes though they are slightly too small for me. I bought them anyway because the next half-size up were like boats on my feet. I only wear these shoes at the office, where I’m mostly sitting. If I need to wear pink shoes while walking for significant distances I just don’t. When I was in my late 20s, early 30s I used to regularly walk around town in heels but I’m over that now. As I age I get more concerned with my health so now when I walk, I WALK! I do it for efficiency and exercise, not just to get from point A to point B. So for my walk to the metro I’d wear this outfit with ankle boots that don’t really go but I’ve gotten to the point where I’d rather be comfortable than cute. I’ll never be that woman who is utterly on point all the time.