secondary colors

I took an adult school class on color. How to figure out how colors coordinate, combine with other colors, etc. I found out that I was very much a primary color person. I was attracted to things red, blue and yellow, maybe not in the playskool brightness but roughly those colors. My warddrobe was primarily reds and blues which was a step up from my black and white days (didn't we all go through that kind of phase).

On Saturday, the hubby suggests we head to Ross so he can look for a nice pair of pants. He's been going through various warddrobe enhancements from jeans to slacks, from slacks to well fitting nice pants. But really, we go shopping for clothes maybe once a year if that.

I don't like go shopping much for clothes, but I like going to Ross. I like going through the racks and pulling all sorts of outfits out then taking the stack to the changing rooms to see what fits and works out. I tend to bat about 50/50. Half of the items I like actually try look and fit well when I put it on. Plus, the prices are quite affordable so that if I wanted to "try" a new look, I don't feel so guilty when I'm bagging it up for the garage sale.

In the end, I had a bigger stack of clothes than he did. Several pairs of pants, and several button blouses. I found that with the new hair cut, there are different shirts that I really couldn't wear before but seem to work now, like stripes. Stripes just never worked out when I had long straight hair. It just made me look like one large stripe.

My policy is that the piece of clothing has to fit just right or else it goes back to the shelf. No buying anything that only "kind of" fits or anything that doesn't look good on me. Pants in particular have to fit well and comfortably well.

Initially I pulled my classic "red" and "black" shirts, which fit well, but I have a lot of red or black shirts. In an attempt to see something new, I started pulling colors that I had never gotten for myself before: pink work out shirt, green striped blouse, bright orange jeans, grey striped pants, olive green pants and another purple dressy pants to replace another pair that I wore out. For a few days out of the month I go through "purple" days, where I'm drawn to wear purple. These colors are a huge switch from my currently "typical" warddrobe. A move from the primary colors to secondary ones: green, purple, orange and yes even gray. The color that emerge as a blend of two primary colors. Tertiary colors are a blend of one primary and one seocndary color (I'm not that sophisticated yet).

In addition, I got a summery rayon dark blue sleevless dress with a knee high slit that fit right in all the right places, plus wasn't suseptible to wrinkles so it meant that I can stuff this dress in a bag and not worry about ironing. I can barely do laundry on the regular basis. I really don't iron. And with clothing "technology" and design today, we don't have to buy clothes that don't unwrinkle themselves.

OK, so changing colors doesn't seem like a big deal. But as someone who is on a path of understanding out how shaping my outside world changes my inside one, I find it quite significant. A sign of a change in self and self-image.

I remember meeting a woman in the color seminar who said, "I'd like to learn about color, because I tend to only wear black and white things." And I remember I kept thinking, what she's really asking is how to change her way of thinking. That there must be other choices than black or white.

Thus this change in colors that I present myself in, is not simply a buying purchase, but it's also a change in thinking, a change in the way I view myself and the way I want others to view me that eventually changes who I am. With all deeper significant changes, sometimes it feels like nothing has changed at all. But I think that's because it takes time to change our world to reflect that shift within, or even to accept that shift. It takes time for people to see you different. Takes time for you to see yourself differently. Takes time to change things around you to match this change: the haircut, the new shelves, the colors in your warddrobe.

Often these things we change on a daily basis seem small, but they add up. Then we look through photographs and see that we aren't who we were yesterday. Even my mother commented to an aunt about me, "she never used to care about dressing up." To which my aunt replied, "well, now she has a reason." Though the hubby isn't actually asking for any kind of change, the transformation that we made continues to evolve. When you get to be princess for a day, it's hard to go all the way back to pauper. Looking good is about knowing yourself well and knowing what works for you.

And so, on laundry day tomorrow, I won't be putting all the clothes back in to the closet. I'll pull the ones I don't really wear and to be honest about the clothes that I will just never wear again and put them in a bag for donation. Rearrange the closet to access the clothing I actually use. Though, I'll make sure to keep a few comfy sweatshirts just cuz.