summertime blues

While blue seems to be the favorite color of a significant fraction of the population, it’s one of those colors I often overlook when picking out clothes and accessories. I do like teal and turquoise, which is to say I like my blue with green in it.

When I notice holes like this in my wardrobe (there is also almost no red in my possession, I noticed recently) I like to think about them – about why there might be such an omission, and whether or not I’d like to remedy it. I do abstractly like ultramarine and cornflower blues, baby and powder blues…but there is a great difference between liking a color and wanting to wear it. It’s a decided personal stamp of approval, it seems, to wear (and so, often, to purchase, to have purchased) a color.

If there was ever a time I would want to sport a true blue, summer is it.

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This saturated cornflower blue t-shirt (I know, a t-shirt. So adventurous) is now the brightest blue on hand. The part of me that wants to wear some combination of white, cream, caramel, and cognac at all times thinks it’s a bit garish but I do like it. Fashion baby steps.

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J Crew tee, Joe’s skirt, Steve Madden sandals, vintage beaded clutch, Skagen watch, Vuarnet sunglasses, 10mm pearl studs from Pearls of Joy, pearl ring from Pearl Paradise, 6mm pearl necklace* from eBay, vintage amethyst bracelet. On the lips: Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet in La Favorite. On the nails: Deborah Lippmann Girls Just Wanna Have Fun polish (a really bright, pretty coral).

*I’ve been wanting a choker length pearl necklace in a small pearl size for a long time, basically because of the costumes in movies like Dangerous Liasons, Valmont, and anything set in 18th century France, in which they are often worn by young, unmarried women to great effect. I like how they ever so gently mold to the curvature of the throat, the 6mm size youthful and understated.

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all the gold things can stay

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One of my favorite side-effects of the resurgence of vintage and retro aesthetics is the old school packaging popping up here and there. If lipstick is good, lipstick in a weighty gold tube is better.

A great example is this Albeit lipstick I mentioned briefly before (wearing here). Estée Lauder’s Mad Men collection has the same vintage look, as does Charlotte Tilbury’s new line. What can I say? I like the color gold. I agree that one can have too much of it and that it is sometimes tacky beyond redemption…but there it is. I want it. And it’s festive in the bargain.

A great formula is key, of course, but packaging is part of the experience. Even if the act of using the product is private, as I think is more often the case for our generation (fading is the image of the woman pulling out a compact to touch up in public), still each element adds its weight to the whole, marking the difference between the perfunctory and the ceremonial. Naturally it feels special to use objects we find beautiful, and their beauty helps us to be mindful of our task. More appreciative, maybe. If we have chosen truly to our taste. It is the case for me, when I choose truly to my taste.

Elizabeth Arden, Estée Lauder and YSL have always understood this. Michael Kors had the right idea from the start with his new collection (we agree about the supremacy of gold, Michael and I). Props to biodynamic brand Dr. Hauschka for their satisfyingly luxe packaging, and it’s not as metallic but I quite like Clarins’ packaging, too.  Once in a while Revlon releases one of their retro pigments in vintage packaging and I keep waiting to run into one. Certain designer brands, too, do limited edition packaging once in a while that I think really lovely (think Givenchy, think Armani). Tom Ford, though he doesn’t go full-on with the gold, has that Midas air about him, everything he has a hand in glinting in the light.

I find value in that sensation of using something special. Often I wouldn’t think of these objects as especially important to me or tangled in sentiment (if so it is a sentiment that begins and ends in their aesthetic appeal), rather as influential when directly in use. I think I take it to something of an extreme, and want every object in my little empire of possessions to feel special, purposeful, chosen. Really a lot of them do, though. A lot of them are. It is perhaps not too unrealistic a desire.