Well, that explains why all the summer plasticware at Target is in those revolting day-glo colors.

And here I'd been coordinating around po-mo pink and Cerenkov blue.

Acier-Sounds like French, but this steely gray is really from Pittsburgh, and has universal appeal. It is an expansion of the cool metals.

In your face, Cleveland!

Posted July 14, 2004 1:19 PM by Christina Schulman

Personally, with the exception of the nightmare 70s colors that are definitely back in, the shift you describe sounds quite pleasant to me. My wardrobe is dominated by muted hues, with lots of grays and (quelle horreur) khakis. But that's always been the case...

Of course, I have plenty of black stuff, too. T-shirts, mostly...why can't more cool Tees come in colors other than black?

Posted July 14, 2004 1:21 PM by Skwid

Scariest news: burnt orange, avocado green, and harvest gold are fashionable again.

Confirming what I'd noticed in Eddie Bauer a month or two ago: it's a bad fashion year to be me.

(Those colors make me, and probably other light-skinned people of Asian descent, look like a corpse.)

Posted July 14, 2004 1:29 PM by Kate Nepveu

This is why those of us who buy clothes at thrift stores are always subtly out of step with the off-the-rack crowd: we're wearing last year's (or sometimes last decade's) colors. Perhaps that's part of the appeal: if you don't like this season's pthalo green and hockney blue, go back a couple of years and get something closer to your personal aesthetic. I can't wear the golds and soft pastels of this year's palate very well; from the samples provided, I seem to be stuck in 2002, colorwise.

Well, whatever they say, I still like black.

Posted July 14, 2004 1:33 PM by Madeleine Robins

Kate--I am not of Asian descent, but those colors make me look like I've died and come back as a lime. Vile.

Posted July 14, 2004 1:34 PM by Madeleine Robins

Touch? Tickle? Jolt? Glow? Are these colors, or have I wandered into some sort of soft pr0n graphic design nightmare?

Ah, to be young again and wear nothing but blue jeans.

Posted July 14, 2004 1:36 PM by blurker gone bad

Aha! So that's where all those revolting taupe sweaters in the knitting mags come from. Well, not taupe exactly--it's that peculiar pinky-brown that my mother calls "moosenose."

Posted July 14, 2004 1:44 PM by TexAnne

I think that the important part of this is actually going to be the

“Special-effects-enhanced hues such as Cu, Glassy, Hyper Green, Acier, Aloeminium and Tusk offer consumers luminous and metallic options,”

That means things like metallics, translucents, opalescents, and subdued glitter - across all colors. Texture is also going to be big news, I think, with lots of things with little bits of other things in them.

I'm seeing a lot more of these sorts of things in papers offered to designers, and for that matter, paints offered to artists.

As for straight color -

I just designed new business cards for myself, and selected new stationery colors for my husband. It's no accident that the primary colors are a pastel gold, rust, olive and a warm ivory.

I always figure if you want to know what colors are going to last, watch for the new car colors. I'm seeing a few new cars in gold (it's not harvest gold - it's orangier) and rust (also orangier). I'd picked up on the return of avacado, gold & rust about 18 months ago.

As for grey being the new black- hah! They'll pull my black clothes out of my cold dead fingers.

Posted July 14, 2004 1:50 PM by Margaret Organ-Kean

So that's where all those bizarre color names come from. I always wondered who had the enviable job of sitting around and thinking them up. I have a paint chip book that I sometimes read for amusement. Who knew that "ancient eye" is a particular shade of pale blue?

Posted July 14, 2004 1:56 PM by Stef

Vindication at last! I have been telling people about the CMG for years and most people didn't believe me. It's the reason I buy a lot of clothing in certain years and virtually none in others; I don't care if I'm unfashionable colorwise, I'm not wearing something that makes me look jaundiced.

My secret: Eddie Bauer and Land's End will continue to carry some small portion of those non-fashionable colors in their catalogs no matter what's hot. Not in their stores, in their catalogs.

Posted July 14, 2004 1:56 PM by Lucy Huntzinger

Bluh! Khaki, of all horrible things. No matter what shade it's in it's too close to my skin tone, so wearing something khaki coloured mades me look like I'm not wearing anything at all...

Well, at least I know who to shake my fist at when I can't find anything that doesn't make me look naked/like a corpse at the stores.

Posted July 14, 2004 2:08 PM by Renatus

The one new color that I had noticed recently is the metallic burnt orange that just about every car manufacturer has rolled out. Not as bad as the sudden appearance of "International Yellow" on pseudo-off-road vehicles a few years ago. Whoever decided to bring back avacado deserves extra time in purgatory.

I clearly have spent too many years around printers. The names are meaningless -- if it doesn't have a PMS number it isn't a color.

Posted July 14, 2004 2:20 PM by Claude Muncey

Hey. Khaki is white, for people who don't like to blind other people with their legs. Also, it's for when I want to wear a black shirt without being all-black-clothes-alla-time.

I don't wear khaki above my waist, because I am not in the Army.

Posted July 14, 2004 2:24 PM by Jane Augusta

Thanks for gathering all this information about the Trilateral Color Commission in one place; I had always known this was happening, but didn't really appreciate how art-directed my life really was. What's clear is that I need to hurry up and finish that lime green sweater I'm knitting; that color is so 2003!

Posted July 14, 2004 2:28 PM by Donna

My wife and I will wear black until the day I die. We've decided this. And it's not (just) a lingering affection for Peter Murphey and Siouxsie Sioux. We just looks mashing in dark tones. screw all this tusk and metalic marketting.

Posted July 14, 2004 2:40 PM by Keith

I wonder if the lightness of khaki is its appeal-- in so many movies and shows, the rich are meticulously white. If you have to wash your pants after every step, you must be able to wash your pants after every step.
Of course, my one pair of light-colored-khakish pants had their inaugural wash in a Costa Rican hotel sink with body soap (cucumber scented, I believe) and still have Costa Rican mud and Peruvian dirt ground into them. I like them that way.

Posted July 14, 2004 2:50 PM by Cassie Krahe

Reading those color names and descriptions kindle within me a deep desire to storm into this CMG's lair and scream "Is everyone here very stoned?"

Posted July 14, 2004 2:52 PM by mayakda

Jesus, it's like the Illuminati sprouted a Housewares Department.

Posted July 14, 2004 2:58 PM by Scott Lynch

Interestingly, if you go into Hot Topic or Torrid, they're saying "Pink is the new black." Pardon me? Black is the old black, the current black, and the new black. Pink - much like every color on the 2004 palette - makes me look like I died sometime last week.

Posted July 14, 2004 3:14 PM by Nicole Quinn

TexAnne said:

it's that peculiar pinky-brown that my mother calls "moosenose."

I just have to say that having been close to an awful lot of moose noses, they're pretty unequivocably brown. Although I suppose if you got inside the nostrils they'd probably be pinkish. I've never inspected one that closely...

Posted July 14, 2004 3:21 PM by Catie Murphy

Now I know who to hate for the fact that colors that look good on me are flat. out. unavailable about 5 years out of 6. Orangy reds, yuck.

And I agree with Nicole. Black is the new black. Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum.

Posted July 14, 2004 3:34 PM by Xopher

I am in fact of Asian descent, and during high school in Korea I was constantly appalled by the prevalence of pale sickly greens and bright oranges that I am convinced almost no native Korean looks good in.

Of course, I went around in 5-year-old t-shirts and just-as-old pants and a black thing vaguely of the trenchcoat genre (it was warm, what can I say?), so I shouldn't speak. But I never wore sickly green. Or bright orange.

I remember one of the Drama Club members, who was half-Caucasian, half-Chinese, also complaining that all the makeup the drama department had on hand went horribly on Asian skin-tones. At an international school where 90% of the students or thereabouts were Asian (and most of those, Korean), she thought this was extremely silly.

And one of these days, I will convince my mom that no, I really, truly hate beige on myself. She knows this. And keeps sending beige clothing. I suppose it's probably better than sickly green, or the other colors that Kate Nepveu mentioned above...

Posted July 14, 2004 3:44 PM by Yoon Ha Lee

Plus ca change, plus la meme.

There's very little new under the sun as far as fashion goes - it's just a question of which cycle they're going to resurect this time.

Posted July 14, 2004 3:44 PM by xeger

Oh, I hate that, and I never knew why it was...

I never had too much of a problem with it - most people I know who don't do color correction can't really tell the difference between last year's black and this year's black, and by the time I've beat my clothes up a bit no-one at all can tell - but when I first went shopping for HM I realized very quickly that I had to buy at least a season ahead of the stores (size 6 when she was still a four, that kind of thing) because this year's red-tinged greens were going to look horrendous with next year's yellow-tinged blues and bluish pinks-with-a-dash-of-black and all of them are hideous next to the colonial colors of the year before.

The day I realized that I couldn't let my color-blind husband pick out her outfits was the day I showed up at school and she was in a blinding outfit of and acid blue and orange paisley shirt, colonial blue leggings with dusty rose, forest green and greyish mustard flowers and a pair of seersucker blue striped sneakers. I couldn't look directly at her in the sunshine.

Thank god for jeans and chinos and black,brown and white shoes. I am deeply, deeply grateful to be out of the business of color co-ordinating ensembles for a growing child.

Posted July 14, 2004 3:47 PM by julia

That is HILARIOUS. All these self-important fools sitting around making up color names like "Coppertunity", for God's sake. No wonder the world's going to hell in a handbasket.

Also, whichever of these sadists decided to bring back orangy-yellowy-reds, they are my personal nemesiseses. I HATE YOU. Give me back my burgundys and brick reds, dammit. Also, my forest greens and midnight blues.

Posted July 14, 2004 3:49 PM by Leigh

Grenache-Full-bodied and sophisticated, a fine wine at midnight.

For fun some time, make a pile of midrange women's clothing catalogs (over a few years is even better) and check out how many names there are for purpley maroon and maroony purple.

Personally I'm a little tired of the berries and the wines and I'm confidently awaiting the return of aubergine.

Posted July 14, 2004 3:51 PM by julia

Aha - a topic I know something about! It is certainly true that colors used in print design have been de-saturating towards grayish pastels and metallized for the past few years, and a lot of trendy print-work sets them against, over or under gray. In fact, they are sometimes printed as a screen over a gray.

Fashion palettes seem to follow the print palettes by a couple of years, so if you want to see what colors you'll be wearing (or at least seeing in the stores) check out magazines like "Print" or "Step."

The change is driven not so much by having saturated the market with last year's styles as by a natural desire to create something fresh and new, even if it's 20 year old colors in updated materials and cuts. Selling is all about cutting through the visual and messaging clutter with something different. Clothing of the mass-market kind has to be at least somewhat appealing.

(A good advertising example of cutting through the clutter is the dancing old man - a.k.a. Mr. Six - in the Six Flags commercials. Lots of people hate him, but everyone who sees the ads remembers them.)

And hey, at least this stuff is nicer than the hideous Who Wants to be a Millionaire stuff theat flooded stores a few years ago. I like my ties to contrast with my shirt, thank you. I also can't abide the retro snap-front print 70's western shirts. Thankfully, I'm too old for anyone to expect me to wear them!

Oh, and whatever is the new black, is never the new black.

Posted July 14, 2004 3:57 PM by Larry Brennan

I don't wear khaki above my waist, because I am not in the Army.

Well said.

Julia, aubergine came back last year, in home decor. I was second-jobbing at the Pottery Barn and every bloody thing they carried came in aubergine. This is fine, but I prefer my eggplants grilled with olive oil.

Also, it seems to me that some colors stay in no matter what, but have to keep getting renamed to stay 'hip:' black, the 'purpley maroon,' navy, and slate gray/steel blue.

Orange (the bright, awful, oh-mine-eyes! kind) has a disgraceful hold on the DC male populace. Worse even than Capitol Hill Pink, as it's blinding. Give me good *blue* jeans and a burgundy chemise any day. As long as I've got good shoes.

Posted July 14, 2004 4:04 PM by Michael

Trying to think about fashion forecasting is the one thing that truly fills me with horror about opening my yarn store. Will I have shelves full of yarn no one wants? Eeeek!

Posted July 14, 2004 4:10 PM by Rose

I just hope they stop the low slung jeans. I'm really tired of looking at all these coin slots on my daily walk to work.

Posted July 14, 2004 4:18 PM by Sean Bosker

Jesus, it's like the Illuminati sprouted a Housewares Department.

Indeed, Teresa merely missed the hidden section:

DOMINATION

Bavarian Cream-A seemingly mild color, calling to mind coffee and pastry in a quiet cafe. The undertone of brutal strength is there for those subtle enough to see it.
Kallisti Gold-A warm hue with golds and oranges and just enough of something else to ensure it doesn't go with anything at all. Your discord with society is made excitingly visible.

Posted July 14, 2004 4:22 PM by Dan Blum

The orchestration is creepy, but I actually like the way different colors are available in different years. I generally have enough clothes, so finding a t-shirt in the new hip color that actually looks good is just a bonus. It'll probably look fine with black, and maybe even with some members of the medium-dark green family that's the other mainstay of my wardrobe.

If I want something in a particular color, there's always some kind of undyed cotton available as a base, and Procion dyes come in the same colors all the time.

Posted July 14, 2004 4:22 PM by Kylee Peterson

If only everyone were like me and still dressed like they were in seventh grade. Faded jean jackets. T-shirts with super-hero or heavy metal band logos on them. Large, white Nike cross-trainers. My GOD I was cool (and still am, by the way).

That and I like to dress like I'm from the thirties. They had some style back in the depression. I've officially decided that no one from the years 1930 to 1945 dressed poorly.

Posted July 14, 2004 4:29 PM by Randall P.

Why grenache? Why not sangiovese? Cabernet franc? Trebbiano? And how do these colors differ from something passe like burgundy? I MUST KNOW THESE THINGS! THE FASHION ILLUMINATI MUST INFORM ME!!

I'm personally waiting for them to bring back beige again, though I think it would sell much better and be much more sophisticated if they called it viognier or riesling.

Posted July 14, 2004 4:31 PM by brennan

I know this example is British, but do the "Transportation" colours explain horrors such as this?

Posted July 14, 2004 4:39 PM by Tim Hall

Now, I look good in pinks and reds, especially ones in the more wine/burgandy range, but I look like crap in the ones w/o the yellowy or orangy undertones, so for me it's always a chore finding the right hues. And when I do, my husband wonders how many shades of a color exist.

It's interesting how everything old becomes new again. Now at least I know how they come up with those awful names for colors that were in fashion 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

I agree about khaki, it was NEVER supposed to be worn above the waist, unless you're in the in millitary.

I have a ton of black in the wardrobe and some khaki pants too and thus I look things this way:

Strong colors w/ the black, pastels and black with the khaki, and both better look better look damn good with blue jeans.

I really think orange and bright yellow shouldn't be worn by most people. Or those pea soup greens.

Posted July 14, 2004 4:41 PM by Sara E.

A good advertising example of cutting through the clutter is the dancing old man - a.k.a. Mr. Six - in the Six Flags commercials. Lots of people hate him, but everyone who sees the ads remembers them.

Having worked for NASDAQ for a large part of my career, I thought my dislike for the character was rooted in his resemblance to Dick Grasso.

As a strawberry-blonde, I want to kick and scream every time pastels are proclaimed to be "in." In fact, I just sort of suffer through spring and summer in a select few colors, only to relax into flattering colors in the fall.

Posted July 14, 2004 4:48 PM by Jill Smith

I just posted a small primal scream about the prevalence of pink this year in my journal and fidelio tipped me off about this.

I'm one of those people you love to hate because I can wear absolutely any color at all. However I have VERY strong emotional reactions to colors and there are a lot of them I won't wear. And pink heads the list. Of course, Jordin looks very good in pink so I buy it for him, but I don't wear it or have it in my house otherwise. And if it isn't pink, it's lime green or bright orange. What decade is this? I have nothing against bright orange, just bought a dress that color in fact, but lime green was ugly in 1970 and it's ugly now. Don't even talk to me about chartreuse (That doesn't look right no matter how I spell it but you know what I mean.)

I was doing some clothes shopping yesterday and a lot of the colors I saw for fall are greens and browns -- colors I like in shades I like so that should be ok. I wonder if I can find that Tusk color in a fancy fabric for a new dressy dress. Which is what I've been shopping for with no success. Seattle retailers appear to belive that those of us who wear above a size 14 have no need for dressy clothes. And if we do, we should be happy with pastel flowered fat girl dresses with long loose tunic tops and longer looser skirts. ICK.

ok ok. Honest compels me to admit that the above-mentioned orange dress has hot pink flowers on it. It was just so retro I couldn't resist. Ah youth...

MKK

Posted July 14, 2004 4:48 PM by Mary Kay

Hee - cross-post with Sara - pea-soup green is one of my colors....

Posted July 14, 2004 4:50 PM by Jill Smith

You know, reading these comments, you'd think that there was an age at which blue jeans and t-shirts or button downs were no longer acceptable daily wear.

Fortunately, in my infinite wisdom, I have chosen to deny the existence of the blue-jean-event horizon.

I will admit to having dropped quite a bit of money in the Gap the other day buying tank tops in strange and bizarre colors because I was tired of wearing black band tshirt and blue summer camp tshirts all the time. (Well, they were on sale, so I figured it was a good way to try new colors. Unfortunately, the learning experience seems to be that I actually can wear melon and other orangey-pink colors without wanting to shoot myself.)

Posted July 14, 2004 4:58 PM by Aiglet

Heh. Just try to buy red shoes right now. There aren't any.

Putrid Pink seems to be the Color of the Moment, no matter what they say about Bijoux Red.

Posted July 14, 2004 5:08 PM by Tina Black

My boss went to the CMG conference recently in an effort to lobby for her favoured colours (ie...lobby for colours we use in our current packaging to stay on the list of favoured colours or be added) and to come home with the predictions for 2005 and 2006. I have them on my desk somewhere. I also have a scan of her colour presentation--it's very bright, very primary.

I never end up really using most of them.

Posted July 14, 2004 5:23 PM by PiscusFiche

Mary Kay, the only way chartreuse ever looks right is in a teensy little liqueur glass. It is intended for interior consumption only.

Posted July 14, 2004 5:25 PM by fidelio

Nicole, it might be that "Pink is the new black" is a Josie and the Pussycats reference. If they start saying "Orange is the new pink", you'll know it for sure ;)

Posted July 14, 2004 5:30 PM by cyclopatra

It reminds me of the invocation from the "Weird Sisters" episode of "All My Avatars," the Pagan soap opera:

Beige spirits and puce!
Teal and chartreuse!
Only benign ones we here introduce!
Magenta and green!
Ecru, aubergine!
You who support us arrive on the scene!

Um, sorry. OT. As you were.

Posted July 14, 2004 5:33 PM by Xopher

Kate, after all these years, I had no idea that we shared a fashion grouse!

Yoon Ha, yeah, I know about the ridiculous palette of makeup for Asians, too. My high school had one color marked "Oriental" which I now realize was originally designed to create yellowface on Western European complexions. Yikes!

Posted July 14, 2004 5:36 PM by Trinker

Scariest news: burnt orange, avocado green, and harvest gold are fashionable again.

I have 3 Tupperware bowls (that Mom bought at some point prior to my arrival) in precisely those colours; I love them. My aunt still has the Butterfly Gold Corelle set, too (which she won't let me have). Heh.

Posted July 14, 2004 5:40 PM by .sara

Tim Hall - Bleh! So much for Cool Britannia. Until now, I thought that New Jersey Transit had the worst colors. At least NJ has the sense to contain the colors to a small area.

Randall P - I hope to NEVER have to dress the way I did when I was in 7th Grade. Part of the reason I find the retro-western shirts so very scary...

Posted July 14, 2004 5:41 PM by Larry Brennan

Xopher - your little rhyme made me think of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. IIRC, one of the advertising slogans for Grot was:

Grot sells things that haven't any use
Some of them are green and some of them are puce

Posted July 14, 2004 5:46 PM by Larry Brennan

YHL: beige is not so good on me either. Off-whites and cream are fine, but beige is too close but not close enough to my skin.

I've only bought actual makeup once, and I happened to get a young Asian salesperson at the counter I'd already planned to go, so I felt slightly more secure about the skin tone thing. Then again it was for my wedding so if I looked off people probably would just have thought I was nervous. =>

Aiglet: my office voted on dress code sometime before I came and jeans were voted out in favor of "business casual, with a backup suit in case of unexpected court appearances." I look upon this as a good thing only because when I'm wearing jeans and a T-shirt, people have this distressing tendency to think I'm under 18. This is not the stuff a reputation for competent and respected lawyering is made of . . .

(TNH mentioned suits in her post, and made me feel better that I own so many black ones. They--and the bright red one that practically screams "power suit"--will never go out and I will always look professional in them. Right?

(I've been toying with the idea of wearing the red one to watch the Masquerade at Noreascon. I can't decide if it would be amusing or precious. I do really like the suit as clothing, though.)

Serious question: does *anyone* look good in orange? Very dark-skinned people, perhaps? (There aren't any around at the moment I could buttonhole and ask.)

Posted July 14, 2004 5:56 PM by Kate Nepveu

My new favorite color is "Coppertunity."

Posted July 14, 2004 5:59 PM by Harry Connolly

See, I like the green that undyed limes just barely are or even the green they dye the skins to, but the green that's called lime looks like irradiated underripe avocado to me and I've never seen anyone less pale than olive look good in it.

Which, come to think of it, also goes for orange, rust and any yellow with blue or black in it.

Posted July 14, 2004 5:59 PM by julia

Larry - You don't wear retro-western shirts...retro-western shirts wear you. Really, would you have it any other way? It is a person of high moral fiber who can wear a retro-western shirt in this day and age (and I know, because I'm a Canadian-Oklahoman...a rare breed).

I say pull out all those old shirts and wear 'em with pride. Better yet, don't upgrade the size. Keep them the same size that you wore in seventh grade. I'll bet you nobody will mess with you, even if you were walking down a dark alley at night. And I, for one, will have the utmost respect for you as I brood in the corner with my faded jean jacket, Van Halen t-shirt, and ripped blue jeans, wishing with all of my heart that I was as cool as you.

Posted July 14, 2004 6:02 PM by Randall P.

Harry - "Coppertunity" rules! Can I put that on a t-shirt?

Posted July 14, 2004 6:03 PM by Randall P.

I feel better about my all-monochrome wardrobe now.

I just have to say that having been close to an awful lot of moose noses

That sounds like a really interesting backstory.

Just try to buy red shoes right now. There aren't any.

What kind of red shoes? Fuck-me pumps are always available in red. Need links?

Posted July 14, 2004 6:06 PM by mythago

Ahh, the sweet freedom of not giving a fsck... I'm a nerd. I don't have to have the latest look. Shoot, I wouldn't know it if it ran me over in a Hummer.

Posted July 14, 2004 6:08 PM by Ab_Normal

Kate - Yes, very dark-skinned people DO look good in orange. Some years ago I saw a party of people in African dress in Manhattan. They had that shiny-black skin that some Africans (and very few African-Americans IME) have. One of the women was wearing a day-glo orange dress (or robes, or some fancier name) with a matching headcloth. She was also about six feet tall, which helped make the whole effect more impressive.

The orange made her skin appear to glow with its own light; she was radiantly beautiful. I don't remember whether I managed not to stare, but it left an impression on me that lingers to this day.

Posted July 14, 2004 6:11 PM by Xopher

I really, really can't wait 'til my Jim reads this.... he's into dressing, urm, loud. Color? To him paisley is a color!

Posted July 14, 2004 6:19 PM by Paula Helm Murray

"Coppertunity" cops but once? "Coppertunity" Knopfs but once? It's hard to get a grip on this speculative pseudo-spectrum.

I often keep my pinstriped black suit-coat, a necktie, and a gold tieclip in the back of my car, and when going somehwere at least semi-formal, wear the matching pinstriped black suit-coat (and a shirt and shoes) from the home to the car, and put on the coat when I exit the car, thus completing the suit piecemeal.

Yesterday was over 95 Farenheit in the greater Pasadena, California, area, and the weatherfolks predicted in excess of 98 today, so this morning I wore khaki shorts instead.

Then the car broke down on the freeway, and there was no place within the AAA default 7-mile radius to which I wanted a tow. So I took a tow to a supermarket near the university where I needed to turn in final grades for all my students today, left the car in the parking lot (with operations manager permission), took my coat and the crucial papers, and walked 2 miles holding the coat on a hanger.

Several people politely remarked that black and khaki are not a formal match. This is, after all, a university that gives a Fashion Design degree.

Now, if only I was wearing Hyper Green hyperlinked to CU-cMe. Or, at lunchtime, a nice Vanilla Nougat blend.

Would you like Grenache or Power Punch with that?

And is it okay to Tickle someone who wears Naughty But Nice to a first date?

Today's High-Low Literature quote:

"Virgil also liked to indulge here and there a heightened language of spooky gothic melodrama closer to Poe, Dickens, and Conan Doyle than to the clipped, self-controlled idiom of, say, modern science fiction thrillers."
[THE AENEID OF VIRGIL, a Verse Translation by Rolfe Humphries, edited and with notes by Brian Wilkie, Introduction, p.xxv, Macmillan, 1987]

Posted July 14, 2004 6:23 PM by Jonathan Vos Post

I was home sick yesterday, watching the Today Show. Their decorator had even worse news:

Loud floral prints for furniture and throw
pillows are IN

Ghack.

Posted July 14, 2004 6:57 PM by Laurie Mann

One needs no more conspiracy theory than Oscar Wilde's "Fashion: a form of ugliness so intolerable that it must be changed every six months."

Posted July 14, 2004 7:06 PM by Arthur D. Hlavaty

These color names remind me of Chrysler's "High Impact" colors of 1969-1971. They had two names for each color, one for Chrysler and one for Plymouth; here's the list:

 Chrysler:       Plymouth:
--------------------------------
 Plum Crazy      In-Violet
 Sublime         Lime Light
 Green Go        Sassy Grass
 Go Mango        Vitamin C
 Panther Pink    Moulin Rouge
 Hemi Orange     Tor Red
 Top Banana      Lemon Twist
 Citron Yella    Curious Yellow

Our estimable host will, I'm sure, be happy to know that Tor Red is a very orangey red, and thus currently "in".

There is also a story that when the Chrysler design team heard about the color names that had come from the marketing team, they submitted their own list of colors:

 Catch-Me Copper 
 Unforseeable Fuschia 
 Statutory Grape 
 Gang Green 
 Well Red 
 Cost Of Living Rose 
 Fisher Body Rust 
 Hi-Ho Silver 
 Frank Lloyd White

One is left wondering whether the difference between Catch-Me Copper and Coppertunity is merely a difference of perspective, and whether the Fuschia is, indeed, Unforseeable.

Posted July 14, 2004 7:14 PM by Brooks Moses

Heh. Very nice, Dan. But the Illuminated Masters have one more colorful concoction to add to your "must-wear" list in 2004...

Weishaupurtunity: Replace your current shade of titanium white with this near-perfect duplicate shade. People will spend years wondering whether you really made a switch at all.

Posted July 14, 2004 7:19 PM by Scott Lynch

Colors affect more than just clothes, alas. We just acquired a loft area which was painted in 2000. (We assume, That's the year the loft was built.) Most of the loft area is painted in white tones, but the walls along the north side of both floors are set off in colors of the time, several shades of a sickly green-taupe-yellow color.

Blecch. Those colors may be someone's "comfortable and cozy," but they don't suit me. I'm planning to paint over before we move anything in. I know too well that if I don't do something now, I'll learn to live with the colors. Maybe I'll go with a mellow off-white next to the windows and colors from a Bhutanese color schema for the fireplace angles.

Trust me. I'll not be choosing colors from CMG's new color palette.

Posted July 14, 2004 7:31 PM by Sal

I ought not, considering how many slips of tongue, pen, and keyboard I have committed in my life, but then, you might think we were ignoring you if no one said anything:

JVP wrote:
I often keep my pinstriped black suit-coat, a necktie, and a gold tieclip in the back of my car, and when going somehwere at least semi-formal, wear the matching pinstriped black suit-coat (and a shirt and shoes) from the home to the car, and put on the coat when I exit the car, thus completing the suit piecemeal.

Either this is an attack of absent-minded professorism, in one form or another, or standards of dress are even more different in California than I had supposed.

Posted July 14, 2004 7:45 PM by fidelio

'khaki' = dust-coloured. I guess it's a reflection of society that we don't get dust-coloured dirt anymore.. Works great in the African bush, elsewhere a bit pretentious. Like those starched white shirts worn by sahibs in India, a statement of wealth and privilege.

My army clothes were not khaki, but a colour known as 'nutria', a large brown rodent kind of shade. Still gives me the shivers to see it.

fidelio observed "the only way chartreuse ever looks right is in a teensy little liqueur glass". That, and in a fly for smallmouth bass.. the fish often show a distinct preference for this colour, despite its being found nowhere in their natural environment. Chartreuse, it never goes out of fashion underwater.

Personally, I wear those earth tones that Al Gore made so fashionable.

Posted July 14, 2004 7:53 PM by Douglas

Mary Kay, a good friend of mine wears a size 16 and has been known to lament that the only clothing she can find in upstate New York stores implies that designers think 'plus sized' women truly love to wear bright orange tarps. Sadly, it's not just the Seattle area.

As a deathly pale blonde--not really an exaggeration--I could wear certain pastels, if I didn't mind looking like cotton candy. Beige makes me look yellow. Orange... Let's not even go there. Black it is, and black it always will be. Functional, attractive, and easy to match. Amen.

Posted July 14, 2004 8:00 PM by Suzanne

Fidelio - Standards of dress in California are what you make them. I've worked and socialized with people in rumpled shorts and polo shirts to hipsters to just-mugged-by-the-Brooks Brothers - often all at the same time.

Still, there are always occasions when you've gotta be dressed to fit. Last Friday, a friend had a food-themed art exhibition/happening. While there were all sorts of styles represented, everyone in the room was dressed.

I live in the Bay Area. SoCal, in my experience, has even more circumstances in which you need to dress to fit.

With apologies in advance, I think JVP's portable formalwear works only if you're the client, or in the world of academia.

Posted July 14, 2004 8:03 PM by Larry Brennan

Sean commented:

I just hope they stop the low slung jeans. I'm really tired of looking at all these coin slots on my daily walk to work.

Heh. I'm actually glad that low slung jeans are in style. Being a person of no great stature, that's the only way I can end up with jeans that stop at my waist, instead of stopping halfway to my armpits.

I do agree that there are entirly too many fashions which seem to be designed to make the fashion rather than the person wearing it the center of attention. I'm totally blank on who wrote about this, but the general gist was that people should remember that you looked stunning - not what clothes you were wearing.

I hope at some point to find a good old-fashioned tailor, and have properly bespoke clothes made - but until then, it's cut the legs off, shorten the arms, and try not to look like a fireplug.

OTOH, I -can- wear orange, and I'm more to the pale side of skintone than anything else.

Posted July 14, 2004 8:12 PM by xeger

I haven't lived in a city in several years. Whenever I return, I'm always struck by how much black is worn. Khaki pretentious and prone to showing dirt? and black isn't? Black is truly an urban fashion choice - outside of temperature-controlled buildings and a paved environment, it's usually a horrible choice.

That said, I've become fond of dyeing my own clothing. Doesn't work out well for poly-fabrics, but with naturals, it's not too difficult to get shades that I like and that don't match the canned 'hip' colors of the year...

Posted July 14, 2004 8:46 PM by Stephen

As I resemble the Hindenburg with a gray beard, I tend to choose more subdued tones, and have a preference for earth tones, when I can get them. The main exception is the occasional aloha shirt, my favorite having a pattern of red, orange and green hawaian shirts on a powder blue background. Now if only those shirts had a pattern of even smaller shirts . . .

I wore it to my final job interview for my current job. I guess it left the impression that I was confident about my technical skills.

Here in the San Joaquin Valley, a basic black wardrobe is an express route to heatstroke during the summer. The problem is that black is the perfect color for wearing in prisons. Every prison restricts visitors and non-uniform staff from wearing certain colors inside, as they are used for CO or inmate uniforms. Denim and chambray is prohibited by everyone, while other banned colors vary by system. For example, khaki/tan is just fine in most California prisons, but prohibited in Federal prisons, as it is the inmate uniform color there. The Feds have no problem with green, but that is the California CO uniform color. Black, gray and white work everywhere.

Posted July 14, 2004 8:48 PM by Claude Muncey

Kate: I look good in most shades of orange, and I'm day-glo pale. I look good in most colours, really (especially bright ones), except for my afore-mentioned problem with khaki and anything strongly yellow-hued (which makes me look like I died of some horrible illness). This makes this year's colour palette rather bothersome for me. I just know I'll have nightmares of trying to find clothes but everything in the stores is avacado... *shudder*

Posted July 14, 2004 8:56 PM by Renatus

I have not a color but a fashion-related question: who decided that men should button their top buttons even on polo shirts?

Posted July 14, 2004 9:02 PM by Linkmeister

I -miss- the rose-mauve axis and the "1001 words for aqua" years. I am of Western European Mutt ancestry (some Anglo-Saxon, some Mediterranean; brown hair, blue-hazel eyes, sallow to light-olive complexion) and pink, violet and aqua are the colors that don't make me look ill. Khaki is out, as is anything resembling citrus fruit, and while I love to look at the avocado-mustard-rust-chocolate earth tones they too leave me resembling something best buried last week.

Looks like this year is going to be another blue-green year. I might get lucky with the grays, too, if they don't go too yellow / orange - the sage-ey greenish and yellowish grays of the last couple of years have been DEATH. Who looks good in that?!?!

Thank $DEITY I learned to sew a long time ago. Now the challenge is to find fabric in suitable colors... and to finish sewing projects before the trends change again....

Posted July 14, 2004 9:34 PM by Thena

Is Martha Stewart behind this?

Posted July 14, 2004 9:59 PM by M@

Years with colors like this, I just don't buy new clothes. My home decor has been out, in, out, in, and now out again. I don't care, I like it.

Posted July 14, 2004 10:26 PM by Marilee

fidelio:

You caught me Red-Rush-handed in absent-minded professorism.

What I MEANT to write, of course, had I not been red-faced from walking 2 miles in heat, and rushed, was:

"I often keep my pinstriped black suit-coat, a necktie, and a gold tieclip in the back of my car, and when going somehwere at least semi-formal, wear the matching pinstriped black suit-PANTS (and a shirt and shoes) from the home to the car, and put on the coat when I exit the car, thus completing the suit piecemeal."

Sigh. I guess I was more rattled by car-loss than I knew.

I could tell the tale of how I formed a conspiracy that broke the back of Caltech's dress code in 1968, but that's too off subject for this thread. Funny story, though...

Posted July 14, 2004 11:22 PM by Jonathan Vos Post

Kate: I'll try to remember to wear orange at worldcon and we can see what you think.

For those who haven't met me, I'm a very very pale white person with pure pink skin. No undertones. Blondish hair and pale blue eyes. Small pic on my blog.

I mostly wear purples and greens because I love those colors. But not lime green and I prefer the cool purples though I'll take the warm ones as long as they aren't too red. I look really nice in most shades of blue but only really like sapphire and royal blue -- which are not currently available. Bright clear yellows are one of my all time favorite colors and I can wear those too. It is an interesting fact that my favorite colors, purple, green, and yellow all go quite nicely together (in the proper shades) and are the colors of New Orelans and Mardi Gras.

As for dressing like you did in 7th grade. Well, we have a generation gap here. I was in 7th grade 1964-65. My favorite outfit was an empire style dress (we weren't allowed to wear pants and forget blue jeans). The top was electric blue with lime green polka dots (big ones) and the bottom was alternating stripes of electric blue and lime green. I wore electric blue and lime green checked knee socks with it. Do you really want me looking like that again? (Though I happily wear empire dresses when I can get them.)

Posted July 14, 2004 11:24 PM by Mary Kay

Interesting that the "in" crowd, the so-called "movers and shakers", are the ones lining up to look the same as everyone else.

As for me, screw what's in fashion. I wear dead black, soft white, a range of greys (favoring charcoal) and the occasional blue shirt or pair of faded jeans. Every other color can bite my shiny metal ass. In five, ten, twenty years' time I will still look good in the same color scheme, and will still be laughing at the stuff people have in the back (or front!) of their wardrobes.

Posted July 14, 2004 11:25 PM by Steve

Hockney Blue-Escape to the tropics with this soothing and tranquil blue-green.

The name just makes me wonder if it's losing it's hearing and busy designing opera sets.

Posted July 14, 2004 11:47 PM by Ter Matthies

somebody up there said:
I HATE YOU. Give me back my burgundys and brick reds, dammit. Also, my forest greens and midnight blues.

Hear, hear. Now I know why I can't find another hunter green slipdress/negligee. And it's not just because I look good in it.

Posted July 14, 2004 11:55 PM by Mjit

I used to wear only black and gray with a couple pairs of blue jeans. My wife drew me out of that habit. She likes color, and I now have a number of brightly colored shirts.

It's nice. I like color.

However, I was once criticized for wearing my yellow shorts to an HWA event, and I'm pretty sure the criticizer was PNH.

Posted July 15, 2004 12:50 AM by Harry Connolly

You are so mean, Teresa! Some of us can't help being named after colors, would you say nasty things about a Red or a Ginger? I should write the NAACP. Mum, she's like this decorator manque I don't know what manque means but that's what Dad says, she colored our living room all shimmery? When people see it lots of people say why not a nice gray gray is the new black? And Mum says not next year next year aloeminium is the new black? But aloeminum is a little like gray, so we have our bases covered that's what mum says. My boyfriend Red you can guess his last name *giggle* he says he likes it? But maybe it should be a more tusky aloeminium? I don't know Mum says I shouldn't take the word of the guy who fed me the power punch at the moondance. She's very smart so maybe she's right.

Posted July 15, 2004 1:58 AM by Crystal Sky

Mark me down as another one who isn't going to be buying much this year. Or next year. Or probably the year after that. I figure that one of the great priveleges of having passed 30 and officially walked out of the fashion marketers target group is that I'm allowed to just wear whatever the heck I want, rather than whatever they're going to sell me. Of course, being in plus-sizes guarantees that too.

My own guess is that a lot of this is like most fashion merchandising - it's not aimed to suit most people, indeed, it's designed to suit the bare minimum of people, thus leaving the maximum number of people discontented with their "new look". Problem is, there's a limited amount of times this can be pulled on the one consumer before they make a decision along the lines of "screw you, anyway".

Me? I suit blue-based reds and greens, jewel tones (not pastels) and straight black and white. I'm not the type who can wear hipsters and get away with it (who is?), and I know that a baby-doll dress makes me look six months pregnant while dropped waists just emphasise the fact that I'm in the plus-sizes. While clothes are designed for thirteen year old flat-chested male impersonators, I'm not likely to find anything "trendy" that suits me. Fortunately, being eccentric *does* suit me.

Posted July 15, 2004 1:59 AM by Meg Thornton

"If CMG were trying to describe trends, or even just lay down the law for manufacturers’ colors two years hence, they’d be specifying the exact shades by Pantone number"

They do actually provide swatchbooks--non-members can buy a set for $7,000.

Posted July 15, 2004 2:29 AM by Randolph Fritz

From the end of 1999 I was in mourning for my father for a year, and came out of two years mourning for my partner at Easter this year. So I'm a bit over black for a while, and have been dragging my winter clothes from 2001 out of the back of the cupboard.

It is <irony>interesting</irony> how colours & fashion styles do seem to cycle around things that are incompatible with each other (eg lots of 'ice-cream' pastels, then bright primaries, then very minimalist elegant, then earthy 'organics', etc. combined with a shape variable involving loose/tight, long/short, etc.), with a changeover period usually involving black & white. Over several decades I've built up enough of a wardrobe to keep me going most of the time, and just wait for the cycle to swing past something that suits me to pounce on it.

Posted July 15, 2004 3:12 AM by Epacris

Meg: Dressing eccentrically doesn't necessarily help against the vagaries of fashion, I've found. I ceased caring about being trendy long ago, but since I'm extremely hard on clothing and need to replace this and that every year, I despair when the fashion dictates are to colours and cuts I despise.

And while looking rather ragged can fit with looking eccentric, it isn't a look I particularly want to cultivate again (having done that when I was only wearing black, and black was out of style for a few years...).

I can sew; but even replacing a few bits of my wardrobe through sewing is an immense time-sink as I'm not particularly good at it and lack a sewing machine. I'd rather go to a store, buy something, and be done with it, for the most part.

And like xeger, I find the hipster pants a boon, although not because I'm short, but because I'm short waisted; usually I have to buy pants a size or two too large to get them to fit comfortably, and then the crotch is around my mid-thigh. Ick. However, I will be overjoyed when the ultra-low-riding pants, worn a size too small, goes out of style.

(Chatty clotheshorse up later than is probably good for her. I hope the ramblings are entertaining, if nothing else.)

Posted July 15, 2004 3:12 AM by Renatus

Bad year for me to exist, apparently. Red and orange on sallow skin = way to make me look jaundiced, save in very particular shades, most of which don't seem too popular. I'm a little more hopeful about the blue-to-grey range.

The one good thing about being fat is that plus-size clothes almost always come in black regardless of the popularity of other colours. I shall take comfort in knowing that I should have no trouble finding black, which looks good on nearly anyone.

When I was !fat, I could wear hip-huggers, because I have actual hips. Most of the girls I see wearing these now do not have discernible hips, so they look all wrong in them. Therefore, please add me to the chorus of "I'll be glad when they're out". My sympathies to the people who have trouble finding good cut to their height, though. I've had that trouble, too. I am just tall enough that regular sizes are sometimes too short, but not quite tall enough that 'tall' is always a good idea, lest I trip on my pants.

Pink is not the new anything. Pink is just pink. It is a great colour if you are a flower; not so great if you are a person.

Posted July 15, 2004 5:00 AM by Tina

Renatus -

A mild cheer from another short-waisted one. I spent the 80's (when horrifically high-waisted pants were all the rage and all you could find) feeling as if my floating ribs were imprisoned in a corset. Made voice lessons less than easy.

Posted July 15, 2004 7:25 AM by Jill Smith

Who cares? this stuff is only for the stupider ones out there, and it seems there are plenty.

Idiots.

Posted July 15, 2004 7:50 AM by hitler wore khakis

This is why I sew 90% of what I wear. That, and because I only want to wear 1950s styles, since that was the last time that fashion catered to women, and not girls.

When I get older I'm going to be like Vreeland and have twenty-five Balenciaga (okay, Balenciaga knock-off) sack dresses, all black, in different fabrics and weights, and monstrous jewelry. I can't wait!

Posted July 15, 2004 8:16 AM by esperluette

hwk: Who cares? Er, I do. When I go to buy a couple new pairs of pants and a new sweater this fall, I'd sort of like it to be in colours that I don't hate and that don't make me look terminally ill.

You can feel free to not care, though. I'll just be over there with the rest of the idiots who don't want to look like 1970s appliances.

Posted July 15, 2004 8:55 AM by Tina

A good friend of mine wears a size 16 and has been known to lament that the only clothing she can find in upstate New York stores implies that designers think 'plus sized' women truly love to wear bright orange tarps. Sadly, it's not just the Seattle area.

Also sadly, it's not just for women. I do clothing shopping for a couple of large male family members, and the large men's shops really, really want to sell them Construction Site Orange. We lived in an apartment complex with a man who was at least 6'5", 400#, possibly more in both dimensions, and he had a Construction Orange T-shirt reading, "I'm the big daddy." I was disinclined to argue with him.

I'm of the ghost-pale Scandinavian type, and I look good in orange. Some of it is ugly, and I refuse to wear it, but ugly tones can still be flattering to one's coloration. I can wear pastels if I want to convey the impression that I am someone's daughter or girlfriend and worthy of no attention whatsoever. Pastels on someone my shade of pale say, "Never mind me." I refuse.

I keep telling people I'm going to wake up an accidental Goth, because I just keep buying black. I like other colors. They're just not making dresses that fit me and look decent. Not in colors other than black.

You know how the fashion industry seems to be geared for skinny women with breasts? That's only the models. In the stores, you can find clothing that's meant to make skinny women look like they have breasts, or clothing that's meant to make medium-sized women look skinnier. But actually constructed for skinny women with breasts? No. We are just as out-of-luck as larger or flatter-chested women for finding actual clothes to put on our actual bodies.

Posted July 15, 2004 9:49 AM by Mris

I don't pay any attention to fashion colors, as should be obvious to anyone who's met me. Still and all, sociologically fascinating.

Crystal Sky -- definite laughter, thank you.

Posted July 15, 2004 10:14 AM by Tom Whitmore

Mark me down as another short-waisted discontent who spent the 80s trying to find pants that didn't have an empire waist. And since I had dark-blonde hair and olive skin, the colors were likewise dreadful on me. I've known people to literally cry out in horror when I take something in that 80s pinky-mauve range and hold it up next to my face. Bah!

What you wouldn't know from looking at the current style of hip-huggers is that the 1960s/1970s versions were worn by normal people of all weights and sizes. There's nothing about the concept that requires that they ride down well below your hipbones. Neither do you have to wear them with a shirt that ends two inches short of your waistband. No clothing style suits everyone, but they came closer than most. If the waist length reached high enough to catch the incurve of your hips, and the circumference matched yours, they'd be wearable. High-waisted pants are a much tougher fit.

I'm wondering whether online retail is going to undermine arbitrary fashion changes. Mail-order catalogues do that to some extent. Online shopping is already the best way to find large-size clothing, which has always been an irrationally underserved market segment.

Thing is, what the current in-person retail model gives you is the appearance of a broad range of choices within what is actually a curtailed set. I discovered this the first time I took my own money -- fifty whole dollars! -- and went to the mall to shop for a winter coat. I wanted a good plain wool coat in black or navy. No dice. My only choices were cheap knockoffs of the YSL "rich peasant" look. In every store, the young women's coats were light blue, dusty pink, retriever gold, caramel, or some other unsuitable color, in heavyweight but synthetic fabric, trimmed with matching fake fur, bands of bad machine embroidery, multiple fake or nearly-fake pockets, and lots of buckled belts and straps whose shiny gold hardware was either plastic or hollow-cast base metal. They were trash waiting to happen.

If I hadn't been shopping on my own nickel, I'd have gotten the standard "that's what there is, pick one and let's go home" line; but I was, and I refused to spend my money on those coats. A week or two later, unusually, we happened to be going to Goldwater's -- at that time, the best department store in the Valley of the Sun -- so I had a look at the coats there. In a back corner of Ladies' Better Coats, marked down from ninety dollars to fifty, I found my plain black wool pea coat. It looked great on me, and lasted for years and years.

I was much struck by the whole experience. I knew that the coat I wanted had been the basic model for about a century and a half, and yet the only place that had one was the rich people's store. Our local mall, which when it first opened had seemed like such a dazzling trove of retail offerings (and it was, compared to what preceded it), had many stores but not much actual choice; and even if fashion didn't change, which of course it would, the cheap flashy coats they had for sale there wouldn't make it through the next winter. (My own coat, which cost twice as much, saw me through four or five winters before the lining wore out, and would still be in style if I wore it today.)

Getting sold something, I concluded, was not the same thing as buying what you want. Later on, I added: the less choice you have, the more likely they are to sell you cheap trash that's a bad buy at any price.

Posted July 15, 2004 10:16 AM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Tom, glad you liked it. After HwK popped up, I was afraid I'd created a monster. I believe that people should take credit or blame for their comments under their own name, or a screen name that can be readily associated with their own. (Exceptions: Forums that are intended to be anonymous, or political situations that would make speech impossible otherwise.) I left my usual email address in the Crystal post as a clue.

Posted July 15, 2004 10:47 AM by Andy "Crystal" Perrin

TNH recalls:

I was much struck by the whole experience. I knew that the coat I wanted had been the basic model for about a century and a half, and yet the only place that had one was the rich people's store.Our local mall, which when it first opened had seemed like such a dazzling trove of retail offerings (and it was, compared to what preceded it), had many stores but not much actual choice; and even if fashion didn't change, which of course it would, the cheap flashy coats they had for sale there wouldn't make it through the next winter. (My own coat, which cost twice as much, saw me through four or five winters before the lining wore out, and would still be in style if I wore it today.)

I am reminded [and yet I forget in which of Practhett's books this happens] of Sam Vimes' contemplation of the differing economies of the rich and poor--the rich man buys boots at $50, which last forever, and can be resoled again and again, while the poor man pays $10 for a pair, and can't resole them because the uppers give out as soon as the soles do. He follows this up by considering that Lady Sibyl [except of course, for her hobby of breeding dragons] need soend very little--the furniture, which belonged to her ancestors, is still holding up, the wine cellar is well-stocked, her non-dragontending clothing is [like Teresa's pea coat] of sufficient quality and non-style that it will last forever...and so on. It's both a great piece of socio-political observation and a good shopping guide. I had a professor in college who simply had his Harris tweed jackets relined as the need arose--they were never fashionable or unfashionable. I think one was drawing near its silver anniversary, and at least one of the others were old enough to vote, had it been human. They didn't look aged and distressed, either--just "not new". Of course, I shudder to think what they had cost new, compared to a standard "sports coat" as sold to middle America. He certainly didn't buy one every year, or even every other year. But then, he didn't have to. They were there to stay.

Posted July 15, 2004 10:49 AM by fidelio

> Gray is the new black.

Thank god for that, because that's the colour all my black clothes have been slowly turning over the last few years.

("I'm more kind of... charcoal")

Posted July 15, 2004 11:17 AM by Jules

Teresa --

Vimes' Boots!

Terry Pratchett had a considerable discussion of this in one book, courtesy of Sir Samuel Vimes. A poor man buys cheap boots, and, over the ten year life time of the good boots the rich man buys, spends much more money in total replacing the one year lifespan cheap boots than the rich man spends.

And, quoth the character, at the end of this, the rich man has spent less and has had dry feet all along.

I can wear almost anything, colour wise; heck, I can wear a pretty pure cyan. The problem I have is with fit -- the expected ratio between thigh and waist circumferences seems to have been set for very skinny people in typical men's pants -- and with sturdiness. (well, and with bringing myself to care what I look like, beyond 'neat', 'clean', and 'not memorably awful'.)

As a result, pretty much everything I've bought for the last six, seven years has come from the Mountain Equipment Co-op -- they do sturdy, I have some hope that they source clothing from well-conducted suppliers, and they nearly always have a tolerable blue, grey, or black version of the item available -- or a local not-quite-bespoke speciality shop for the large and tall. (I don't get to shop many places where I'm decidedly on the small side of the clientele.)

I find it's a pretty good way of ignoring fashion; then again, I can ignore fashion. I'd be much grumpier if I had to work at a bank.

Posted July 15, 2004 11:17 AM by Graydon

Ode to Quality: For years, my favorite garments were two bespoke, cotton, button-down shirts, inherited from a wealthy, distant relative. I wore them all through my high school (and some of my college) years. Their original owner was a rather large man, so the shoulders drooped and the tails hung halfway to my knees. Two turns of the cuff took the sleeves to perfect wrist-length. Together with jeans and an Indian scarf (sparkly threads woven at wide intervals into light, patterned cotton. Fringe. You know the kind - all the rage in the 80's), they were my "uniform." They finally gave up the ghost in late college, having served their original owner and me for I don't know how many years. I wish I still had them. sigh

Posted July 15, 2004 11:19 AM by Jill Smith

I have one color I really like which only comes into fashion for about a month every three years or so. I call it "Last Unicorn Purple" because I can immediately describe it to members of my generation as "the color of the Last Unicorn's eyes." It's a very-deep-but-not-easily-mistakable-for-blue purple. The thing is, I can never tell which color spectrum it will show up in. Last time it was "purple is the new pink." Before that it was "jewel tones for everyone... but only in Autumn!"

I've somehow managed to acquire a good amount of this in my short life, as well as some "Lavender, like the actual flower." I didn't realize this until I moved to Japan for a year, packing only my favorite outfits. At one point at a party a classmate commented,

"You seem to wear a lot of purple, is that your signature color?"

Ye gods! I was secretly fashionable. That's a great way to put it... signature color.

If you are a fairly short person looking for pants, I strongly recommend a store called "New York and Company"

At one point I was walking to dinner with a friend when she started staring at me. After a few moments she grabbed my arm.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"
"Do what?"
"The cuffs of your pants!"

My cuffs were actually an appropriate length and didn't drag in the dirt when I wore thin-soled flats. My friends who are 4'11 to 5'2 find that the petites at that store actually fit us. The sizes are also reasonable... I'm a 5'2 size 12, and they actually understand this! I'm not sure if they carry many sizes above 18, though.

I've also found that I can tell what year a home decorating show was filmed by what color they paint the walls. There was a year when sickly deep aqua rooms were in, then red, and last year it was ugly-mustard. Then there's the one decorator on Trading Spaces, Frank, who does whatever the heck he thinks is cool. I like Frank because he listens to what the people want, not to the color conspiracy.

As my friends and I say "Ah. It looks like Ugly is in again this year."

Posted July 15, 2004 11:29 AM by Leah Miller

Fascinating discussion! Great to see comments from people of such varied sizes, skin tones, and genders, as opposed to the "girl talk" of some hideous past decade. I'm another of those size 12 petites, able to wear most colors but doomed to roll up my pants cuffs or double up the waist more often than I'd like -- so I'll have to check out that NY Co. and see if I can afford it.

Way up-thread, the picture of Bhutan colors gave me a somewhat unpleasant jolt. My faves are on my "Tibetan dragon rug" mousepad: various shades of green-blue, light to dark coral, and a bit of tan. Being past 50 and self-employed, I have no need to appear fashionable, but in summer I can always rely on my vast collection of old short-sleeve shirts, T's, and bizarrely patterned socks. (The result looks better than it sounds.)

Thanks for a fun morning's reading!

Posted July 15, 2004 12:25 PM by Faren Miller

I buy pants that fit my waist, and have them altered. It's pretty fruitless looking for pants that actually fit.

It was worse when I was looking for 40 X 29s. Next time I go shopping for pants, I'll be looking for 32 X 29s. And not finding them, but the altered 32 X 32s I'll probably get instead will look better than the altered 40 X 34s did. I hope.

I was in a sporting goods store recently, and they had about 10 racks of cargo pants. NOT ONE of those pants had a length below 34. What, if you're below 5'10" you can't have cargo pants? (I'm hoping it was the overstock from a real store, and that I'll be able to get my size if I go to Ban a Republican.

Posted July 15, 2004 12:47 PM by Xopher

re: pants, I depend on the gap online as I'm also outside the norm (29W, 34L). Although given the wide range of complaints, I'm beginning to wonder for whom they do make clothes. It sounds like skinny and short doesn't work, skinny and tall doesn't work; larger and short, and larger and tall are also badly served. Maybe they just leave the shelves stocked with what doesn't sell?

Brian

Posted July 15, 2004 12:58 PM by Brian Ledford

Xopher wrote:
I was in a sporting goods store recently, and they had about 10 racks of cargo pants. NOT ONE of those pants had a length below 34. What, if you're below 5'10" you can't have cargo pants?

Sorry, that statement just struck me as odd, seeing as I'm 6'1" and I have a 32" inseam. I have to find "big and tall" shirts, just to have enough material left to tuck into pants....

Posted July 15, 2004 1:00 PM by Bill Blum

I wonder if the fashion colors are chosen to make particular people look good or bad. Oh, gods, imagine a fashion-conscious president! Like a royal court--colors chosen to make the king look good, and the rest be damned; one's chances for social advancement would be influenced by the precise relation of one's skin color to the king's.

The CMG's 2003 samples don't seem to provide anything for east Asians or most blacks. There is also a second list of "contract colors" that seems to be intended for buildings and interiors. The 2004 "directions" include such colors as "phosphorous", "depth", and "myth". Myth?

Posted July 15, 2004 1:06 PM by Randolph Fritz

Xopher -

It's some sort of conspiracy! I get so tired of never being able to find pants shorter than a 34 - and with the cargo pants, they often have some sort of detail at the ankles that makes it harder to have them shortened. I'm also not at all interested in the MC Hammer look.

Thinking about the length, I've seen a lot of kids wandering around with their hems dragging on the pavement - and I still can't decide if it's a fashion statement, inability to hem pants [or use an iron and iron-on tape], or inability to find pants of a reasonable length combined with the above.

Mountain Hardware do make a wonderful hiking pant that's the right length, amazingly comfortable and amazingly durable. They aren't particularly cheap - hovering around $80 USD - but thus far the first issue that I've had in 4 years of heavy wear is the snap at the waist popping off [and it's done so in a repairable fashion, at that!]. When they're fairly new, they even come close to passing for business casual [mine are now at an age where it's clear that they've been abused for a number of years]

Posted July 15, 2004 1:07 PM by xeger

During my emaciated period, when I was first being medicated for narcolepsy, I got down to something around a size 4 (or less, or more, depending on the style), and discovered that very small sizes are just as unreliable as large ones. I think my favorite moment came when I tried on a long-sleeved dress that was supposed to be belted, and realized that the bottom inch and a half of the underarm seam infracted the dress's designated waistline. I still wonder whether any of those sold.

Posted July 15, 2004 1:25 PM by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Another interesting economic detail of the clothing world I've discovered is that a $25 size 16 is a different size from a $100 size 16, which is even altogether different from a $400 size 16. The higher the prices go, the larger the garment actually is, in contrast to its stated size. By the time you're paying Really Big Bucks, what might have been size 16 becomes, in fact, a size 12 or so. This applies all through the spectrum of female clothing sizes. Since men's clothing [very sensibly] goes by actual measurements [or is supposed to, anyway] I guess the economic flattery for the big spenders doesn't carry across genders--or am I mistaken?

Posted July 15, 2004 1:36 PM by fidelio

It's some sort of conspiracy! I get so tired of never being able to find pants shorter than a 34 - and with the cargo pants, they often have some sort of detail at the ankles that makes it harder to have them shortened. I'm also not at all interested in the MC Hammer look.

You're right that it's a conspiracy, but wrong about the means. They're not short-stocking particular sizes, they've just got special Fashion Illuminati elves who remvoe whatever size you're looking for just as you walk into the store. I'm always looking for 34's, and can never seem to find them (at least, not with a 40 waist).

I can usually find something that I wouldn't object to wearing, but I can never find shirts that actually fit in stores any more. Eddie Bauer stores in the DC area used to stock a few XXL-Tall items, but the introduction of their "in-store catalog order" kiosks has put an end to that. It's annoying, because they make some nice stuff, but the in-store order process is just irritating enough to be a real barrier to purchase.

(What I want is to be able to take a shirt to the counter, and say "I want this in XXL-Tall," and have the clerk say "OK, that will ship within the week." Instead, I have to find the item in the catalog and place the order over the phone, just as if I was doing it from home, only at the mall. If I wanted to discuss the idiot names they give to colors with phone bank staff in Bangalore, I could do that from the comfort of home, and save the aggravation of finding a parking space.)

Posted July 15, 2004 1:58 PM by Chad Orzel

Acier-Sounds like French, but this steely gray is really from Pittsburgh, and has universal appeal. It is an expansion of the cool metals.

Acier is French for steel.

Posted July 15, 2004 1:59 PM by David

I have a pair of cotton twill shorts that turn 14 this month: I got them for my twelfth birthday. My godfathers had a habit of shopping at expensive clothing stores for me even when I was still growing (it turns out I wasn't). They used to be a slightly darker color of sage than they are now. They are quite wearable still, and comfortable, and I love them. I'd write a testimonial letter to the shop, except I'm afraid they'd think, "Ack, and she hasn't bought another pair in 14 years! Better make things shoddier!"

One women's clothing store had what I thought was a brilliant idea this fall: they were going to name the cuts of their pants. You could go in, try on the different names, and figure out what you were. They had different degrees of curvature, and all styles were available in Petite, Regular, and Tall. I was an Avery 2-Regular. Brilliant! I would be able to come in, the salespeople assured me, and buy Avery 2-Rs in whatever fabric and color they had for the season. If I didn't change, the pants wouldn't, either. They fit. They were comfortable and fit.

They still have this gimmick, but they discontinued my pants. The Averys. So other people can still come in and buy what fit in the fall, but people my general shape in a range of sizes get told, "well, the Allergists are very similar to the Averys...." But they're not. I tried them on in the fall, and they didn't