Red Uprising

In design school, while studying color theory, we also learned about the so-called psychology of color. One day, while discussing this, our teacher explained all the personality types associated with each color. He then asked us to raise our hands as he went through the colors. "How many of you are Blues?" I, of course, raised my hand. My teacher gave me a look of such horror and disbelief you would've thought I was a mutt traipsing through the kitchen with something half-live between my jaws. "You are so not a Blue," he bellowed.

"Excuse me," I said. "My whole house is blue. My entire bedroom and all my dishes are blue. I'm wearing a blue blazer for God's sake!"

"Yes," he said, "but with a hot pink scarf. Only a Red would do that." I couldn't help but feel offended. I felt loyal, classic, trustworthy. I felt Blue. I always suspected he never really liked me. He even hammered it home, practically calling me out with, "Everything about you screams red." I would've really let him have it, had I not been such a Blue.

He insisted that if I went home and looked through my house and wardrobe I would see that I was, in fact, using blue as a background for all my redness. While I still feel like a blue trapped in a red's psyche, I can now admit what I failed to report back to him: Indeed, my blue rooms were filled with red lamp shades, red Persian rugs, red pillows, hot pink floral arrangements, and mostly red and orange oil paintings. All, as he said, against a blue and beige "backdrop."

Now fashion editors everywhere are hailing the "Spread of Red." I'm a bit surprised because, clearly, red is polarizing. People do seem to love it, hate it, or in some cases, hate loving it. Funny thing is, since this incident so many years ago, I often stop and smile when I catch myself reaching for something in red, or look down at my passengers seat and realize I have subconsciously surrounded myself with (seriously): a red wallet, red key chain, red handbag, and red leather file folder. I didn't buy these things all at once, nor did I think to coordinate any of them. So imagine my surprise to see them all together on the seat of my car; the seat of a car which I'd fantasized about buying...in red. But only an intense, unpredictable, aggressive kind of girl would buy a car like that! And I am so not a Red.

 How about you?

Dior, Fall 2012

Michael Kors

Chado Ralph Rucci

Prabal Gurung

Giambattista Valli Fall 2011

Donna Karan 2012

J.Crew

Giambattista Valli Fall 2011