Bold shades or bold move?

Image:paperchase

Yesterday in Oxford I saw a young lady wearing a vibrant, orange dress. She looked fantastic. As I passed her I wondered why she caught my attention– she was very pretty but so were a number of other women about. It was because of the dress. And yet, the dress itself was not really anything special - just a simple shift dress down to the knee. More specifically, it was the colour. No one else was wearing a comparable splash of orange - that was why she stood out.

Is it me or are people getting afraid of bolder colours? As you can tell from my blog background, I do like colour. But watch a number of people walk past and most will be wearing one of, or a combination of: white/black; grey; navy or some clothing with multiple colours.

Bright, block, vibrant colours on their own are less common.

 

This is true for my wardrobe, yet some of my favourite items of clothing happen to be the ones in a strong block colour. Whenever I wear this particular deep turquoise blouse ^ (Topshop) I get a compliment or two – if it was in grey/black I bet that wouldn't be the case. (Not least because I wouldn't have bought it!)

So why the colour phobia?

Maybe it’s simply because people don’t want to wear bright splashes of colour in their outfit as they don’t like the look. Some might just like to stick to neutral palettes, since that's suits them. 

If only all rails could be this colour coordinated.
Image: Huffingtonpost

But could the reason also be because people are scared of being too ‘out their’? I have a friend who once refused to wear a new violet bodycon dress because she thought it would be too intrusive. (We were going clubbing – nothing can be intrusive!) Sad to say, she opted  instead for fail safe black.

I myself had this issue when wondering if I should buy a bright yellow, mustard seed coat from River Island. This was especially a ‘risk’a) because of the price and b) because a coat (or the one I wanted to buy) is something worn often. Although it was a far cry from the average black coat, I loved everything about it (including the colour) and the only reason for not buying it would have been simply because it was too bold/different. What sort of a reason is that?

 

If it’s a bright green skirt or a vibrant red dress: it’s about time to fall in love with colour all over again. Denim and neutral colours are great, but it seems there’s a danger of getting stuck in a rut and forgetting what the word ‘colour’ even means! So if you are tempted by an orange dress like the one that lady was wearing - go on buy it.