Colour Shock

A couple of weeks ago I shared an outfit on my Instagram as part of a style challenge which was to share a vintage dress you own. I only own two vintages dress now because all my others either fell apart or they no longer fit.

I decided to share this brightly coloured handmade 60’s, which I wore on here about 4 years ago or so. After I shared it on my stories I got a ton of messages saying how much my followers, some of whom know me from the blog, missed seeing me wear colour.

Historically though, I have always mostly worn greys, black, white and shades of nude pink. yes, there are many outfits of me in bright colour, but it was only a small part of my style, which I flitted in and out of depending on my mood.

I’m aware that I rarely wear colour these, well bright colour anyway, but it’s not because I grew to dislike it, it’s more that I was never able to buy the colourful pieces I really wanted because they were from brands like Delpozo and Prada and even Gucci. Luxury brands create luxurious, rich, vibrant colour in equally luxurious fabrics and that’s what I wanted to wear and the high street versions just didn’t come close to the producing that same vibrancy. And also, high end brands take bigger risks with colours they use. Labels like Dries Van Noten and Marni are famous for creating pieces in, what I call, ‘off colours’. Those weird shades on the colour scale that few ‘non fashion’ people dare to wear, so high street shops don’t touch those colour and instead opt for the more palatable hues for mass appeal.

In terms of vintage, overall vintage is more often than not poorly made as it’s either simply handmade or from high street shops that were around at the time. I’ve spent too many hours resewing vintage clothes. Unless you buy vintage designer clothes, the chances are your vintage is going to be made of really cheap, sweat-inducing polyester, but the sort you can’t sit near an open flame wearing lest you go up like a bonfire. Obviously not all vintage is like this, but a great deal of it is.

This dress definitely falls into both the sweaty and the bonfire category but I must admit, I was happy seeing it worn again as it only ever gets worn for weddings now since it’s not black, leather or spiky.