 |
| Rainbow Brite & her cohorts |
Inside Style - by Annmarie O'Connor - as featured in The Dubliner - May 12th
Colour-blocking. Sounds like a method used by anti-rainbow protestors. It’s really not so far off (even if ROYGBIV haters seem a bit of a stretch). The practice, in fact, finds its roots in the fashion community where two primary colours are placed in close proximity; or in the case of spring summer/11 versus Jill Sander – screaming neon.
It’s as if the world has woken up from a trippy REM state and discovered it had been Tangoed. I’m all for shedding the funeral black come spring (no, actually that’s a lie) but the catwalk’s recent catarrh of colour is giving me a headache. Call me a fashion heretic (or worse yet, Celine) but I like my palette low-fi. Granted I make up for it in bringing five kilogrammes of jewellery with me on summer holidays but that’s another rant.
This season however I did decide to invest in some red for a hoot. “Colour-blocking?” a friend enquired suspiciously of my pillarbox Acne maxi skirt. “No, colour-diluting,” I affirmed, keen to point the presence of a white tank top and black leather jacket. “I’d like to retain my eye sight a while longer if possible.”
“Agreed,” replied the friend who added that geography, lifestyle, age and melanin levels should be mandatory benchmarks with which to gauge one’s pigment risk level.
“We’re too far north to merit dipping into the trend,” advised the friend. “No teaming of fuchsia and green will mitigate being pelted with lifesize hailstones in the middle of summer. Leave it to those living in St. Tropez.” True.
“Furthermore, I’ve yet to hear of anyone reaping the benefits of wearing canary yellow on a hangover. It just makes you look more like a corpse which is not what you want when you already think you’re dead.” Very true.
“Oh and that also applies to being pale and/or over the age of forty. Just don’t do it.” Jeez. And I thought I was the curmudgeon. “Smart move,” he added of my skirt hue. “Had you gone for orange or lime, it could have been iffy.” Iffy?
It would appear that even if I wanted to go all Technicolour, my demographic has me firmly ensconced in black and white. Best sit tight until monochrome makes its reappearance I guess. Either that or lobby for a total ban on any fruit-based hues. God I am getting old.
