Saturday, December 12, 2009

Ultra Violet; Ultra Freudian?

Do you know just how a hint of color can summon up some of the most deep-seated memories?

As I was glancing through Bazaar yesterday, I happened upon a tiny shot of this trouser suit by Proenza Schouler, and my eye immediately fixed upon the ultra violet stripe.

Actually, it was more like my four-year-old self than my adult eye, because this slash of color transported me to my childhood home on Prince Edward Island, where I would watch my mother color her own hair. (Going to a salon for color was unheard of when I was a wee lass.)

My mum would buy little capsules of color, which, when poured out into a decanter, were the most brilliant shade of deep ultra violet. (And they turned her hair a pretty blonde.)

I’ll be looking for this color in the next few months—but just a hint of it. After all, though we carry our childhood everywhere we go, we don’t want it to be our defining feature, right?

Are there any colors that transport you, Gentle Readers?

7 comments:

WendyB said...

Purple and red together make me think of high school!

Silent Storyteller said...

I'm a crippled colour designer..I LOVE colour but struggle to put it into the collection...fear fear fear...but a modest detail of colour brings everything to life.....(Obsessively drawn to Violet and Ultra Violet) I will desperately work on my colour issues in 2010...Thank you for the tip...

Elizabeth said...

For me, it's bubblegum pink and black together—they remind me of the '80s.

I loved this memory of your mother.

Angie Muresan said...

Enjoy hearing that memory of your childhood. I just bought ultra violet nail polish, and my toes look so hip. Too bad it's too cold to properly show them off.

M said...

Love the little anecdote. For me, pink brings back my best childhood memories: my mum would never buy it for me - thankfully, however, my grandmother would always come to the rescue. Needless to say, they both hated each other.

Null said...

Oh yes, the power of color and form. I was going through all sorts of emotions at Basel. Honestly, one work brought me to tears, the one of the knitted wedding banquet scene which reminded me of Miss Havisham just before time stopped.

I read "Great Expectations" at a particularly hard time in my life, a connection that will always bring the 13 year old out of me again.

~kristie~ said...

Pink is definitely that color for me...

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