Color Me Purple

There comes a point in life when you look at your wardrobe and think: “Jesus Christ was I drunk the whole time while buying these clothes?” That’s how I felt the other day because none of them match. None. Random feather tops and office cardigans, gowns and kimonos, slip dresses and sequin shirts. Other than that everything is just black. And I can’t keep wearing all black because I now have a very light furred cat, and if you have any pets you know anything black becomes your enemy. And also, well, it’s summer. So I have decided to reach out to my friend who also happens to be a stylist (how lucky am I) and ask her for styling advice. The issue is that I don’t do color. Color scares me. The boldest I go is emerald, possibly gold, red if I'm really feeling confident. And my friend is all about the color. When we met I wore all black and looked like I could be a spokesmodel for Chanel (I wish). And she looked like she just finished shooting a 90’s rap video.

This was like a million years ago. We met online. Typical, but who the hell meets friends, and not boyfriends these days on the Internet? Our first date was at Starbucks and when I walked in I immediately saw the bright orange hat. More orange than the actual orange. Burning. Provocative. Daring. I am pretty sure it was from Salvation army.

She wore overalls. And here I was with my venti latte, miss Chanel 2012. I have no idea why we clicked. She is all color, I am all black. She loves short hair, I want to be a Rapunzel, she likes coffee, I like coffee. There. I have found a point of connection. Coffee.

And now years later she is styling my photoshoot. Without any direction or idea of what my size or my body shape is. I just gave her a call and we picked a day for a shoot. She asked me to send her a selfie so she can analyze my skin tone. That has never even crossed my mind. Skin tone? Hair color? She definitely knows her job.

So we get to a place of the shoot. She is nervous whether all the clothes are going to fit me, I'm nervous if red and purple look good on me together. The photographer isn’t nervous because I brought a bottle of wine and made sure he started drinking early while I do makeup and hair. And this is what happened. Not only there was purple, but there also was a blue Marc Jacobs crossbody bag. I am not sure I have worn so much color in one year, and definitely not in one outfit. It’s almost if you don’t ever eat dairy, and all of a sudden you find yourself in a cheese shop with brie in one hand while chewing on a sharp cheddar and pouring sour cream all over yourself. It felt amazing.

There are so many doubts that I have about color. Especially now with my platinum hair I feel like everything is too much. Red is definitely too much. I come from a country where girls like to dress provocatively and in the most screaming colors. Maybe that’s where this color complex that I have is coming from. Animal print? Vulgar. Turquoise? Outdated. Red? Need of attention. But who am I to judge colors? The purpose of clothes is to make you happy. If you think green and pink look good on you, go ahead and wear that combo. A lot of my friends say that not all of them can pull off a certain the look. You know what helps? Confidence. That’s what “pulling off” is. I can’t imagine how I was able to pull off this look. But I did it. And you know why? It wasn’t for my confidence. It was for the confidence of my friend, my stylist and a real Slim Shady, Oxi.

xoxo