The Color of Things

Looking at all these collections for next spring made me realize that I was neglecting the very season we're in right. Fall/ Winter 2011 may have been shown last spring, but it is high time I started to sift through the trends and admit to myself that even though summer doesn't officially end until the 21st of September (which is soon), it was four degrees this morning... the time for sweaters and coats is here. 


Winter brights are a big trend this season, however instead of just a boring post of several colorful looks I wanted to mix it up with a few colorful references I would throw into my show notes if I were a designer.

Just a couple examples of some one-color looks this winter: Gucci, Prada, Akris, Chanel, Gareth Pugh, YSL and Lanvin

 A) I had a pretty glorious childhood. My parents love to read and story time was an essential ritual before bedtime. One of our favorite family stories is The Color of Things by Vivienne Shalom, pictured below.

The story concerns an evil scientific couple who hate color and build a device to drain it from the world. A little girl Jill comes to the world's rescue when she digs up her hidden paint box in the garden and with the help of the neighborhood children they begin to repaint the town. In the end color is all restored and the evil couple is forced underground to hide from the gloriousness of it all. I loved the book because I just wanted to be that little girl going around and painting everything the way I wanted it to be. Can you imagine, literally the world was her canvas.

This is the image that best sums up the story: Jill uncovering her box of treasured colors. The wonder reflected in her glasses is actually pretty moving.

B) I recently sat down with a couple friends and watched the two hour epic that is Pleasantville; the Gary Ross masterpiece about a fictional town depicted on television that suddenly becomes one boy's reality when he and his sister are literally thrown into the story. What happens next is unplanned and amazing. I strongly recommend that you see this film as it is a hysterical, yet surprisingly deep social investigation/ critique.

I'm hoping I don't give too much away, but as events change in the story the black and white television show starts to be shown in color, elements change very slowly... first a girl blows a pink bubblegum bubble, then there is a red rose, a green car and so on until people begin to become 'colorized'. This signifies that they have been 'enlightened', seen beyond their previous scope... and that's all I'm going to give away. Here are some screen shots from the film showing this:

C) As today was the last day of my first week of school and I've sat through all my new Art Histories I decided some investigation into some new artists was due. And I discovered a group of 'colorists' who were part of the Color Field movement, a branch of Abstract Expressionism simply characterized by their uses of large blocks of color. Duh, I guess I should have guessed. Some familiar faces from this group are Joan Miro (whose retrospective I saw at the Tate this summer), Mark Rothko and Morris Louis. However, some new 'guys' I'm interested in are:

Frank Stella, Harran II

Hans Hoffman, The Gate

Ronnie Landfield, Rite of Spring

Finding new art is awesome. Regardless of John Stewart and his 'Dick Jokes for Art History Majors' I love my major.

Haha, youtube it.

Anyway, the whole point of this was to introduce some of the brilliant colors for Fall fashion and without further more ado feast your eyes on some Gucci, Akris, Givenchy, Chanel, Mugler and much more:

- Life is good

[Pleasantville, Screen shots 1, 2 & 3, Color Fields]

Listening to: the Laidback Luke essential mix
Observations: watching two butterflies 'dancing' outside
Craving: I smell cake, so....