Friday 3 December 2010

Colour Me

There is something about the way colours can affect our mood and our perception of ourselves (as well as of others), that I find corresponds to the influence music has on our disposition.

Of course, many well-versed people have studied the psychological effects of both music and colours extensively, but I must admit to not having read their works; this blog entry is based entirely on my own thoughts about the subject (I have written about colours before).

Last week, I was, as is mostly the case on a Saturday morning, doing my washing. When I finished putting the contents of the washing machine on the clothes horse, I realized that almost everything I had been wearing during the past week was of dull, darkish colours; dark purple, burgundy, brown, grey and black. The only bright colours were a set of red undies and my pink Hello Kitty PJs, as well as a white nightie - none of which was seen outside the four walls of my flat.


So, to all the world, I spent the whole week dressed in what could be interpreted as a gloomy, dull look:


This made me question my choice of colours; I am neither gloomy nor dull, so why do my winter outfits not reflect my usual active, mostly easy-going (some would say shallow) character?

The answer may have something to do with my general dislike of winter. The cold forces me to dress in layers of fabric and cover up against the elements, something I do not enjoy.

A glimpse at the contents of my wardrobe shows that I have a thing for bright, cheerful colours, from pink to yellow to green to red to blue to fuchsia, as well as patterns like gingham, tartan, polka dots and even the one flowery dress. Except for a few items like the fuchsia dress or the tartan one, all those colourful outfits are made for the kind of weather that suits me best: a temperature range from 25C to 35C (that's 77F to 95F).


As winter has truly come to stay, I'm afraid I will have to wait five or more months unil it will finally be time to get those dresses out again.

Until then, I'll try to stay in as good a mood as possible - music is going to help, I know that.

Oh, and I got myself a colourful winter dress the other day, to counteract the dullness at least a tiny little bit:

4 comments:

  1. Such fun to peek into your closet.
    I like your new colorful winter dress and especially the purple tights!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Jill! Those purple tights are warm, first and foremost :-) But the same purple is in the pattern on the dress, and so I decided on them instead of black ones.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Meike,

    I know I'm two years late with my comment, but thanks for showing me this post! It's so true - color can make such a difference. We are lucky in that our winters here are mostly sunny and not very cold. Yesterday's rain was a welcome exception, although by the end of the day I was ready for sunshine again!

    When we lived in Michigan, we'd often not see the sun for a month at a time during winter and we found that that was the time we'd repaint rooms in our house. By the time we moved out, every room had a beautiful and cheery color. My favorite was our living room, which we painted a beautiful peachy red and the woodwork (this was an old house), we painted bright white. It was gorgeous!

    Color is a good thing!! Have a great day!! xoxo Silke

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Silke, how nice of you to follow the link I posted in my comment on your blog - thank you!
      You too have a great day :-)
      (Peachy red with white woodwork sounds very cheerful indeed!)

      Delete