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the beauty of beige
Jun. 29th, 2011 08:47 pmPart of Shem's visit a few weeks back was spent perusing the local drool-worthy fabric store and the conversation turned around to the recent proliferation of beige and the relative boring-ness of it. I've never really considered beige boring, but I couldn't quite articulate why.
While perusing Tomboy Style and Quite Continental I remembered why. See, I've never associated beige with the correct, pearls and twinset conservatism. I always associated it with adventures abroad.
Yes, I know what I'm thinking of is technically "khaki" rather than the champagne/cement tinged beiges currently fashionable, but bear with me:
My childhood hero Jane Goodall wore it and other drab colors to enable her to get close to the chimpanzees she was studying.
Katharine Hepburn wore it while shooting "The African Queen" on location in spartan conditions in the Congo (yes, it's a black and white photo, but my imagination sees beige).
Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen wore it when she "had a farm in Africa" (inspiration for turn-of-the-century summer steampunkwear?)
So, in my mind people in beige go do exciting things :)
Tangentially, both blogs are worth a look if you like your fashion un-fussy and non-girly-girl. Quite Continental is a bit too fresh-scrubbed/preppy for my tastes, but still shows some pretty tailoring.
While perusing Tomboy Style and Quite Continental I remembered why. See, I've never associated beige with the correct, pearls and twinset conservatism. I always associated it with adventures abroad.
Yes, I know what I'm thinking of is technically "khaki" rather than the champagne/cement tinged beiges currently fashionable, but bear with me:
My childhood hero Jane Goodall wore it and other drab colors to enable her to get close to the chimpanzees she was studying.
Katharine Hepburn wore it while shooting "The African Queen" on location in spartan conditions in the Congo (yes, it's a black and white photo, but my imagination sees beige).
Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen wore it when she "had a farm in Africa" (inspiration for turn-of-the-century summer steampunkwear?)
So, in my mind people in beige go do exciting things :)
Tangentially, both blogs are worth a look if you like your fashion un-fussy and non-girly-girl. Quite Continental is a bit too fresh-scrubbed/preppy for my tastes, but still shows some pretty tailoring.
