I cannot stand dressing for the season. It is so boring and unimaginative, so connect-the-dots/paint by numbers. I mean, white for summer, autumn foliage colors in November, jewel tones in winter and trying to resemble a flower petal in spring? Oh, please!
While living in the San Francisco Bay area, I fortunately don’t have to dress for the seasons; seasons are pretty much a figment of the imagination. We are supposedly in autumn, but where are the rows of trees decked out in brilliant colors ranging from crimson to pale yellow? We have some rainy days, the sun isn’t out as long and it can get a little nippy if you are wearing a sleeveless top. But some of us haven’t even turned up the thermostat at home yet.
I propose that we ignore what fashion magazines and blogs say about the 7 to 10 hot colors for autumn this year and wear whatever colors we please. That might mean wearing bright colors in order to feel more cheery, wearing all black to walk around a large city virtually unnoticed, creating interesting color combinations if we are ultra creative and daring, donning the colors that are around us if we are jazzed about them or contrasting with our surroundings to make a statement.
After all, true style is an art. It is an expression of our individuality, our personality and our preferences. It conveys who we think we are, who we would like to be or who/what we would love to emulate – something we might “try on” to see how it fits. Through it, we experiment, explore our identity and reflect that back to the world. As I mentiond above, our personal style might also allow us to interact with our surroundings (by contrasting with or echoing them).
So although it is presumably autumn, I say we should think outside the box – think for ourselves! – about the colors we actually see around us rather than base our realities on scenes in holiday greeting cards. In the bay area, we still have mostly blue skies, and hillsides once golden have turned beige due to the drought – still beautiful, in my opinion!
Have you noticed that in Seattle, dark green is a popular color (especially for North Face fleece jackets)? The blues with beige shown above are nearly a reflection of the skies and hillsides in our San Francisco Bay area. These are our autumn colors, it seems.
Now if we feel compelled to get out some moss green clothing for autumn, at least we can do as the two muses below and pair them with an ivory colored sweater, light colored ankle boots and/or ivory handbag. Nice, light and California-y, don’t you think?
The following four muses recently spotted in San Francisco also show refreshingly light colored palettes. If we aren’t getting as much natural light during the day, we might as well create (wear) more on our own, eh?
The next time I go clothes shopping, I plan on reminding myself that despite the seductive marketing of the season’s “it” color, I hate blending in with the crowd anyway. I am so much happier wearing colors to express what I feel inside: that would sometimes be a kelly green, bright red or more often these days, white/ivory. WIll you join my campaign?