A report from Reise, who is gingerly approaching violet and purple looks:
Have you seen The Wiz? There is a famous scene where folks of the fashion futuristic kind are strutting their stuff vogueing for all of Oz to see. Their fashion is a pure saturation of the latest color whim dictated by The Wiz. It starts at green. Everyone struts in head-to-toe green. Suddenly the Wizard from on high comes across the loudspeaker and changes the color of the moment to red. Instantly the “it” color changes. Everyone takes on the new color. Apparently not satisfied, the Wiz changes the color yet again, to solid gold. Red to gold in a snap. You get the sense the denizens of Oz are literal slaves to fashion.
Where am I going with this? The design world depends on an organization called Pantone that declares the color of the year. Design folks have their own color Wiz! Officially, Pantone is a color communication organization that among other things, identifies and sets yearly and seasonal color trends. Since 2000, Pantone has decided these colors in closed-door meetings held twice a year. Fashion, home furnishings, appliances, automobile and lifestyle color design trends follow suit.
The Wiz, I mean Pantone, has decided 2018 is the year of “Ultra Violet.” Which I thought (with my novice eye to color ID-ing), was “very purple.” But nope. It is “very violet.” According to the color-wise, purple and violet are cousins not at all interchangeable, with violet taking on more of a blue cast. That’s news to me. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to group violet and purple and any other degree of the blue and red combo color spectrum as a set of color tones I personally struggle to wear. In my mind, it always seems too rich and too frumpy all at once. A set of hues owned by Prince, and the color of that famous bumbling dinosaur, Barney. I either feel very Prince-y or quite Barney-ish in overwhelming shades of violet/purple, leading to bouts of style anxiety.
But hey, it’s the year of Ultra Violet. I’m going to give it a go. There is no easier way to play with color trends than to thrift pieces and work them into your closet.
Besides, shopping for color is a good way to narrow your focus in thrift stores. If you go with a particular color in mind, you can be sure it will jump out at you from the racks. This helps those that tend to feel overwhelmed by all the clothes. So go get your Ultra Violet on.
ThriftStyle 