What Colours Tell Us

Hi Worlds, 

My picks are up on the Staff Picks rack for a week, at the Canadian designer clothing store I work for, and it got me thinking about our relationship to colours. I got to spend an hour or three browsing through all the back stock from previous collections at the studio, here in Toronto, and build a selection. What a dream!

The brand is particularly full of patterns and colours, which I love. I had a previous life working with furnishing fabrics everyday, and being around colours and fabrics and patterns and well-designed items makes me feel very comfy and relaxed.

I put a bit of pressure on myself while doing the selection! After eleven years in business, the brand's collection is so large and there are so many great patterns that it was hard to know where to start. It was actually hard to know when to stop, too, when to accept that the selection was good as it was.

I knew I had to work with no more than three colors, because I didn't want it to get too overwhelming. My colleague and friend Sydney had already used light pink, brown and red in her pick the week before, so I wanted to bring other colors, and to not use black.

I built my selection from denim-blue staples as a base, added my favourite range of cool greens with statement pieces, and spiced it up with vintage-looking touches of vermilion.

Fashion is where our relationship to colors is the most cyclical. Trends come and go, and with them, our strong beliefs that this or that colour is not for us. We also associate colors with certain concepts which evolve over time. I wouldn't have dared to wear candy pink ten years ago. And I hated navy blue as a teenager, because that's what my mom would dress us in for Sunday meal at our grandparents. These days, I love wearing both. But after a couple years of wearing a lot of blue and navy, I feel like a change is coming.

I also used to think that red and pink clashed, because that's how I learned the concept of colour clashing when I was a kid. Same with navy and black. Khaki green and emerald. I still believe in certain colour clashes, but now I am more interested in what those clashes say, how things that are potentially at odds get to coexist and actually, sometimes, reinforce each other. 

Over time, you get to reinvent how you see colours, and re-allow some of them in your wardrobe or in your home, or in the craft you indulge in. Of course, home decor, fashion and makeup and graphic design trends play a huge role in that. Food trends, too. Political parties. Social media. Actually, our relationship to colors say a lot about our time and place. It is part of our macro and micro culture. 

It's interesting to me because it's hard to describe, it's under the surface, in the background, but it's always there. It acts on our subconscious. We surround ourselves with colours that make us feel good, but we are not sure why they do. Sometimes I am uncomfortable somewhere because there are certain objects in the background in a certain colour, but I don't identify right away, or at all, why that is. It operates on a more subtle level.

When I did my selection at the studio, I found myself wondering what my choice of colours would say about me. One of those self-conscious moments, as if I was doing something very definitive, and decisive. The answer is, it is going to say something different to each person, depending on how they have educated their eyes throughout their life to this and that colour, and it belongs entirely to them.

So I let go of expectations, tried to come up with a selection that spoke to me, and here it is below. I am excited for the next round of staff picks and to see what I will come up with. 

What colours do you love? Hate? What colours bring up vivid memories, emotions? Make you superstitious? Let me know!