This being a fashion town, yesterday’s Corriere della Sera had a lovely article about the Spring colors this year, and the “it” color for 2014. Turns out that this Spring, as for many, the in colors are principally based on flowers. I’ve scattered them throughout the post. But the winning flower (and its related color) are the orchid. “Radiant Orchid,” to be exact, according to Pantone—a rather astonishing cross between fuchsia and violet that I see often in France, but less here (below, right).
The article was accompanied by a beautiful graph showing how the season’s colors crawl around a chart of cool and warm colors, mostly related to plants and flowers. I couldn’t reproduce it well enough, here, but I found that images I’d been collecting to share with you (both fashion and flowers) were sort of doing the trick anyway. So I’ve used them instead.
The overall effect is a “feeling” that I’m happy to say is infiltrating my own cloudy mood after a very long, very gray, very wet winter (sorry to repeat the theme of the last post, but it’s impossible not too).
Pinks are popping, for sure, but there’s also a lovely current of deep, sort of “off” colors, more pronounced than what Spring is sometimes about. If only these had been around when I was picking out Easter outfits as a kid…I remember one Easter wearing a pale dress (light blue, I think) with smocking and a sash, and an easter hat (yes, a straw brimmed hat)…Playing tag with my brother before church, I fell and skinned my knee. Think Pantone True Red 19-1664 TCX (at bottom of post).
And in the center of it all, a “Flowerhead” (above) by Olaf Hajek, featured on the cover of the section of the paper that addressed this issue. I love this illustration, and I have learned that there are many others where this came from. Oh to see the world in flowers!
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Gorgeous colours, come on spring!
Indeed! It can’t get here fast enough. Maybe it needs some cheerleaders. Are you cooler or hotter down there…I’m thinking cooler because of the mountains. Are the tulips blooming yet?
Oh YES! What simply divine choices from this springs palette. I try to buy one wonderful item of clothing a season, That dusky blousy well washed pink looks like something I would like to wear, (the rose on the left, below the image of the girl, accented by the blueish gumtreeish leaf) maybe a skirt. I adore faded florals, especially on overstuffed old fashioned linen couches, but if you looked through my wardrobe and house there is not one flower print here.. (My mother left a floral couch in the sun room for three years to get it just the right shade of faded.) I have become a dull dresser. I believe I have been INFLUENCED. Maybe this year I shall cast off my black and white shackles. Maybe this year i will find a pencil skirt in wild florals and wear it every other day! I do love pencil skirts..If you are going to wear something wild just a Little of it is best. i call it straight man funny man dressing! Though now i know i have been INFLUENCED by the straight man. This palette you have put together is a revelation for me! Are you wearing any of these colours this spring?… c
I hate to disappoint, but I am not wearing these colors yet. I look awful in yellow. And I’ve never worn that purple. Ever. Orangey reds do well on me and I do have some stuff for the beach and a bit for the city…but generally I need to get more daring about it all. I’ve been in a clothes crisis sense I hit 40 and had child no. 2. Couldn’t really find my look anymore. It’s a work in progress. I love floral fabrics too. LOVE ’em.
I never wear yellow or purple either. This winter I did buy a red skirt from an american company that uses american organic cotton and dyes all their own fabrics then makes them up to order.. the red is gorgeous.. though I know I will wear it more in NZ than out here.. my mother in law was like ” .. oh.. that is a very.. um.. red.. skirt.” .. you know the tone! Never mind. have a lovely day.. c
Too beautiful for words, but words is all I gots! Also, Benjamin Moore takes issue with Pantone’s color of the year, telling us it’s Breath of Fresh Air, a gentle, pale-yet-potent blue.
Y’know. Those words’ll do. Based on them alone, I’d have to say I prefer Benjamin Moore’s color of the year. I love all the other colors, but I’m not a fan of “radiant orchid” personally.
Teresa, I think the radiant orchid was selected for fashion, specifically. It’s all over the catwalks…I just looked up BoFA blue. I love it. It’s the color of Oldest Child’s room in France. We call it Parma Blue here…though Parma might be a touch more gray, toward a light slate blue. But, at any rate, I love that color. My bedroom when I was growing up was that color too! Do you think we inherit color love? Hmmmm. Maybe…
I loved each color and this whole post! But my heart went WOW with that last photo. I loved the scattered petals and thought of so many roses everywhere!
✿♥ღ Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Oh me too! I loved all those petals…it’s a really pretty flower store near my house called “Le Nom de la Rose” (named after an Umberto Ecco mystery, The Name of the Rose. They made a movie of it some time ago with Sean Connery, but I digress). It was the “Festa della Donna” (Woman’s Day) and they had the most gorgeous display of roses and mimosa (that’s the super bright little yellow flower)…I’m so glad you like it!
OH! Memosa! I have always wondered what it really looked like…I had to run back an see. I’ll bet it smells just as lovely. I think I would love a rose garden. I know if I lived there I would purchase from them everyday. Here we have the lovely bedraggled sad roses at Wal Mart. The poor things.
✿♥ღ Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
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