13 July 2009
brown

Filed under for fashion's sake + lifelong learning

I went to a fall 2010-11 forecasting seminar on Tuesday evening put on by Promostyl, same as the last one I attended.

As usual, it was amazing and inspiring. I don’t feel as if I should divulge information about it because I wouldn’t want to be sued. That’s the only reason. However, it’s pretty safe to say that fashion  in general is slowing down. Fall 2010 is just a very tiny step beyond the fashion that is current now.

One thing of note was the re emurgence of BROWN. Actually, an entire “fall colour” colour story- with the rusty oranges and olive greens and browns. Very 70’s home decor, which I kind of hate. Except for these, of course!

TADA! Our collection. Home made kitchen scrubby frogs from the ceramics craze of the 70’s-early 80’s. We mostly thrift them, and it’s like a thrill of an eff-ing lifetime when we come across one. A serious rush.  They are all one of a kind because they were made (painted) by actual humans, not a factory. Sometimes they even have cute things scratched into the bottom like “Happy scrubbing Mom!” It just melts the heart.

** Mail me one of these and I will mail you something back. They belong together. I promise to love it.**

So yeah, brown, eh. Brown and green and orange all together in one outfit. Barf. I have a weird relationship with brown. Since everything in my life/psyche gets somehow related back to fashion- check this wackness out.  Back when I was 18 I had a  kind of ‘nervous breakdown’ that lasted for a few years. It was like I suddenly realized that I didn’t know who I was- who does? You could say that I had never ‘gotten’ fashion up until that point, in the sense that in one way, it is mostly a uniform that people wear in order to fit into their perceived or aspirational place within the rest of the world.  I had always dressed creatively, from a teen labellers point of view, one day I was a rebellious punk, the next lazy grunge, the next annoying raver, the next mysterious goth, the next crazy freespirit, the next sensitive hippy, and so on. When I realized that wasn’t going to fly for everyone else, or that I was actually supposed to develop myself into something solid, or choose an identity .  . . it was a huge disaster. Rather than picking and faking my way into a new persona, my minds solution was deciding that what I was- was a huge loser. (!?!) And in order to organically grow into the person I was destined to be, I would have to start from there and evolve from that. So I decided that I would wear nothing but brown. Because that’s what losers wear, right? It’s kind of funny now, but it was a serious choice at the time, and it lasted for a few years. It was a path for my lost self to take.  I eventually started wearing ‘cool’ tones again to the point where I didn’t allow myself to wear any brown or other fall type warm colours, as a proclomation like “I’m healed!”. Obviously my problems were about more than just fashion, and no one knew except me the reason behind all my weird-ass brown-toned outfits. At the time it made sense for me, a way for me to figure out the inside stuff, because I had an easy solution for the outside.  That’s the short version. Me and fashion, we’ve got a complex relationship.

So yeah, brown. Now, I’m down with brown. I look at brown, I ain’t got no frown. Healed again!  But I certainly won’t put it with orange and tan, because that’s depressing. I like brown combined with cool tones. Brown and fuscia. Brown and black and fuscia and sunflower yellow and royal blue and. That sounds okay. Speaking of cool tones. I loooove fuscia. It’s my favourite colour. Dark pink with a shot of blue.  I kiss it.

Speaking of things that I kiss and that I love, my baby slept through the night last night. 9pm to 6am. What did I do to deserve such a child?  She is all smiles these days. I hope I can one day teach her to be a free spirit, and to own it. Because it isn’t as bad as I may have once thought.

2009-07-13  ::  adrienne