Chromatic Rebel #1: no to beige
Why does it seem like lately everything is beige? What´s behind this trend?
I´ve created a new section in the newsletter:
Chromatic Rebel
This section will be more focused on modern and contemporary aesthetics, instead of the more historical and archeological stories about pigments and dyes from the main newsletter.
The seed for the section started when I read this brilliant post by artist David Speed. I was struck by many of the things he mentioned: how vibrant colors have historically been associated with indigenous people, how fashion and design today are more and more monochromatic (blacks, greys and beiges on everything) and how there seems to be a tendency towards uniformity in aesthetics.
I really liked all the ideas he presented, and a few days later, I went into a clothing store, and EVERYTHING in the spring/summer collection was in beige and neutral shades (I mean, spring was always the flowery and colorful fashion season, right?).
I suddenly saw this trend towards beige in everything: fashion, makeup, interior design, cars, phones, web design, architecture. Everything is moving toward minimalism, and away from vibrant colors. Being as neutral as possible is elegant and fashionable, while bold individual styles are perceived as tacky and vulgar.
All of this was nagging at me, and I decided to share my findings on my Instagram stories. I received an overwhelming response: many people had notice the same thing, they had realized reading my story that they had stopped using the clothes they liked best, they had changed their chromatic taste without realizing it, they had observed their children or their students always wore grey, black and white, and having a personal style was alien to them…everyone identified with what I was saying in one way or another.
This trend is not innocent. I found these ideas unsettling because I recognized a couple of messages behind them:
The aesthetics of rich, white people is classier, and the aesthetics of other groups (like people of color) is seen as lesser and unrefined. This is an inheritance of colonialism, in which Western aesthetics and symbolic codes (fashion, design, architecture) are seen as more refined than those of other places. Something like a “superior” beauty (not only physical beauty but a particular kind of taste in color, shapes, etc).
A tendency to conformity and against individual expression (being one with the group). Wearing an uniform, and making everyone look the same, and as subdued as possible, is a classic tactic of authoritarian regimes. We are living strange political times, and ideologies always bring with them some aesthetic codes. This beige fashion is not casual. It goes hand in hand with the rising of conservatism and its specific idea of beauty (especially in women).
Individual expression is one of the most powerful things we have in a world that wants us to fit in a box. I love it when I go to a big, multicultural city and see people wearing all kinds of clothing, hair styles, and makeup, the crazier the better. It makes me think “this is a place where people feel comfortable being themselves”. I always find it a good sign. A society where free creative expression is accepted, and with luck even celebrated, is a healthy society.
These new monochromatic, subdued feminine styles, say quite the opposite: there is one right way to look, and it fits a very specific idea of what a woman should behave and look like.
Don´t get me wrong, fashion has always done this in a way or another — telling people what to wear and how to look like — and it´s always had some ideological undertone, especially about gender. But I find this trend too close to conservative ideals, and too connected with the idea of a uniform, where the individual is slowly erased in favor of the authoritarian ideal of the collective. Right now, there is a general push towards obedience and conformity, and convincing people that they have to look a certain way to be accepted is a part of it.
This is in short is why I felt inspired to start this new section in the newsletter. Color and aesthetics can be used for manipulation, and they always express ideas, sometimes troubling ones. We need to be aware of these messages, and resist them however we can.
Be a chromatic rebel. Wear colorful makeup and jewelry. Be bold with your clothing, with your space, with your aesthetic choices. Don´t buy into this idea of being appropriate, and only wearing neutral colors and neutral makeup. Appropriate according to whom exactly?
Don´t believe the idea that bold expression is somehow distasteful. Be yourself, instead of a synthetic version of someone you see on social media. This is a more powerful fight against authoritarianism that you might think. Conservative movements want us to be another sheep in the flock, to fit their mold, to behave and look how they choose. But we don´t have to. Wear that purple lipstick if you want to, buy the orange sweater, dye your hair pink, get a green car, an electric blue phone, paint your house walls in yellow. The sky is the limit.
In the next post in Chromatic Rebel, I will explain some of the reasons why the Western world seems monochromatic and subdued compared to other colorful cultures in the world.
If you´re subscribed to my newsletter, you´ll receive anything I post in Chromatic Rebel as well as in Pigments, color & other stories, but you can choose not to receive this specific section, or you can only subscribe to Chromatic Rebel.
Let me know if these ideas resonated with your current experience of fashion and design.