And life is colour and warmth and light
And a striving evermore for these.
Julian Grenfel
the sartorialist
ah yes, i do complain a little bit about summer dressing. when i say a little, of course, i do mean a lot. i find offence with short shorts and bikini tops, i find offence with summer 'uniforms', i find offence with dressing in obscene heat, i find offence with the belief that sexiness in summer comes from bare skin... But today i found something that i absolutely love about summer dressing. Trotting off to work in an all black ensemble i was struck by the fact that summer dressing and colours go hand in hand. Striding down the main street of paddington to catch a bus i realised that i stuck out like a sore thumb. I was the odd one out. All around me were girls (and boys, naturally) decked out in the juiciest of summer shades - stinging corals, rich saffron yellows and the most enchantingly cool ice blues.
the sartorialist
Winter is bleak and grey, and the clothes reflect it. Subconsciously i reach for my heavy black coats and all enveloping burgundy scarves, comforting sweaters in colours like chocolate brown or ochre. legs are clad in black tights. the sun doesn't shine and everyone stays inside to escape the murky skies and rain-sodden streets. Of course, a little colour in your clothing ensembles brightens up winter - a splash of orange or a hint of schiaparelli pink to lift the black from the funereal.
I love when magazines declare that colour is in for summer - how can you live through a summer and not wear colour? Everything from the bright blue skies to the sun shining to the fruit in season (plum coloured cherries and the juiciest of orange-y mangoes) implores you to wear nothing else but the boldest, brightest, brashest colours in your wardrobe. In winter I am loath to throw on my Richard Nicoll dress, contrasting panels of the richest teal silk and velvet, but in summer it is instantly pulled out - and then enhanced with the huge coral statement necklace i picked up in Hong Kong from a street market. I mix up a minty green top with the tangy orange of a silk overshirt. My latest acquisitions - plum and tomato red american apparel off the shoulder sweaters - look great with sleeves rolled up offset by a green skirt.
And, of course, colour looks great with a tan.
the sartorialist
In Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's Influence they interview David Collins, celebrated interior designer of such spectacular spaces like the Blue Bar at the Berkeley. He said an interesting, inspiring thing. He remarked that when he perceives colour he perceives texture. Growing up in Dublin by the sea (like me, although one imagines the Irish Sea to be ever so slightly different to sydney's pacific ocean) he identifies green and blue, his favourite colours, with the lightness and wonder of nature as manifested in the ocean and ports. Green can be slick like seaweed or ripplingly fluid like the sea. Blue, similarly, has that relaxing familiarity of clear stretches of skies. It can be thick, like blue velvet or relaxing like the cool walls of a beautifully designed bar.
the Blue Bar at the Berkeley, a place i'm very fond of indeed
garance dore
It really strikes home, this idea of colour as texture, when you equate it to colours relationship with the seasons. No wonder black feels wrong in summer when black to me is the scratchy, heavy, downcast sensibility of a winter coat or even (to paraphrase Collins himself) the overbearing sadness of mourning. To sit at a sunny table eating a platter of oysters or scallops so fresh they could leaping off the plate in an outfit of browns and charcoals seems almost inconsiderate to the bright airiness of summer. To sit there in lemon yellow is to embrace that effervescent and life-filled freshness that comes with summer heat.
garance dore
I know, colours for summer, how groundbreaking. But sometimes people feel a little confronted by bright colour and play it safe with whites and khakis. Sure, they're light too, but there's nothing like that stomach-turning jolt of royal purple, set off spectacularly by sunshine, to make you feel good.
Colour therapy. Solving all the world's problems one smock dress at a time.
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