The questions arises, in a world where black seems to be the be all and end all of the basic wardrobe, what am I going to wear if I don't wear black?
Well, color of course. I love color. I always have loved color. But I really don't like being all bright and shocking, too much color and I feel like a neon lightbulb glaring for miles in the desert night. Not good.
I was already gravitating toward grayed plums and soft lilacs. Taupes and those uncommon grays that are neither warm or cool have always been my favorite neutrals even if they seem to be the most difficult to find. I love the combination of rose and gray and would love it even if they were not my school colors, even though my alma mater's current interpretation of rose often seems to run toward burgundy. But it was a post by Une Femme that really lead me to 12 Blueprints and this photo.
This pictures exactly captures the kind of soft muted layering I like to wear, the kind of colors in which I feel most at home and comfortable. Yes sometimes I wear deeper colors this, and the pinks aren't represented here, but most of my colors are not saturated, not bright and the look overall is not dark and brooding, but soft, with colors that have that rich but subtle glow you find through a veil of fog. And although I don't specifically have a problem with black itself, and in fact love the way shades of black play so well with textures and interesting shapes in clothing, I increasingly find that black is often just a little too strong of a statement for me, for the self I want to share with the world. I would like black to be the exception not the rule in my wardrobe.
Looking at this photo, and exploring color made me think about what clothes I feel best in, not about what clothes I think I should like or what other people think I look best in. After noodling around 12 blueprints a bit I pulled out my old Donna Fuji color sample palette, which had long since fallen apart and was in fact difficult for me to use. Donna pegged me as a color similar to "soft summer" which she called "deep summer", again a summer with some autumn transitions. But some of the colors from that Donna Fuji palette don't really suite me anymore and I was intrigued by this variation and wanted to learn more. I was also in the middle of sorting through my own stash and closets, caught up in this mid-life, mid-move urge to simplify, and I wanted to eliminate anything wasn't just what is right for me now. Eventually I did end up with a new color palette, and the first thing I noticed when the palette arrived in my mailbox, was that every one of my favorite colors was included. And that made me very happy.
By the time G and I were walking around the sheep festival my personal color sense had become second nature and I could quickly look at things with the confidence of knowing something was or was not me. This doesn't mean I don't admire colors I would not wear, but I no longer find them tempting. When we came to a booth showing woven garments I was initially taken by a series of jackets in shades of gray and black which were subtle and sophisticated and not at all what I wanted to wear personally, but which I could admire all the same. But G spotted something else, a pink jacket, and he thought I should try it on. He was right of course, the instant I saw it I knew the colors were perfect. I loved it and felt happy wearing it. I thought it would be fabulous with jeans or casual pants and imagined it mostly with denim, grays, and the kind of sandy grayed taupes I prefer. It is a straight kimono-style jacket of the type that I tend to think of as casual, but as you can see here, it also worked well dressed up a little with black.
I wore the new jacket to our anniversary lunch at G's request, and although weekday lunch at the American Bounty room is not formal, jeans are just a trifle too casual. I wore it with the same Joseph Ribkoff pants you saw in Monday's post, a black Lands End scoop neck tee, an amethyst and jade necklace, and the pair of iron bracelets that were my other anniversary gift.
