Clothing Colors

[queerbychoice]

People are absolutely incessantly informing me of what color clothes I'm wearing. A lady at work remarks almost every time she sees me that I'm always wearing purple - except when recently I was wearing red, she remarked that I was wearing red and then added, "I guess you have to try a different color occasionally." A man at an apartment complex I decided not to move into greeted me by saying, "I see your favorite color is purple." A man in the parking lot of my own apartment complex addressed me as "Miss Purple." A grocery checker recently greeted me with the words, "You're the Lady in Red." And just now, as I was climbing the stairs to my front door, a lady standing below looked up at me and announced, apropos of nothing, "Pretty in Pink."

The only color I frequently wear that no one comments on is blue. Why is it apparently so commentworthy for me to wear any color other than blue, but not commentworthy at all for me to wear blue? Is there some sort of unwritten rule that the only normal way to clothe oneself is to wear blue all the time?

Okay, there are also other colors that I don't so frequently wear that might not garner many comments either: white, black, brown, tan, grey. But those aren't really "colors" in the sense of "colors of the rainbow." Blue is. Why is it so astounding that I dare to wear colors of the rainbow other than blue?

Comments

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I happen to only wear blue (well, sometimes green), and people comment on that all the time. But I'm okay with that. I really like blue.

[experimentego.livejournal.com]

I am under the impression that these people have very limited conversational skills. Do they also frequently talk about the weather and introduce each other's names repeatedly, like the characters in a "Learn a Foreign Language Book"?

I wear black but nobody notices because I guess it's not worth noting unless I was a goth or something.

[kristinss.livejournal.com]

I think any colour other than blue is notable by nature, but blue is notable only at a certain shade. This is probably because jeans are blue, and jeans being so popular the colour is 'normalized'.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Well, they're all people who don't know me much, if at all, so they have nothing else to say to me. There's not really any good reason for a lot of them to be starting conversations with me at all, though.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Why are jeans blue though, anyway?

[kristinss.livejournal.com]

why is denim blue?

denim is unique in it's singular connection with one colour. the warp yarn is traditionally dyed with the blue pigment obtained from indigo dye. until the introduction of synthetic dyes, at the end of the 19th century, indigo was the most significant natural dye known to mankind, linked with pratical fabrics and work clothing. the durability of indigo as a colour and it's darkness of tone made it a good choice, when frequent washing was not possible. In 1870 BASF in germany, originally suppliers of natural indigo had started the search for a synthetic substitute, in 1894 the process was perfected.

http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/denim2.html

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting.

I wear some royal blue, but also a lot of really bright turquoise blue, and people don't comment on either of them. But I think the reason they don't comment on the turquoise blue is that they can't think of a word for it other than "blue" and the word "blue" doesn't seem noteworthy to them even if the color itself, the specific color of blue, does.

[asrai-d.livejournal.com]

damn you for stepping outside the norms!!

[theobscure.livejournal.com]

From my experience, people only comment on you wearing black when you wear something that's not black.

[experimentego.livejournal.com]

Truth. Just because someone is making small talk doesn't mean he/she is not obliged to make such small talk substantial.

[experimentego.livejournal.com]

Can't say I disagree. In any case, some form of subcultural label gets applied to you anyway.

You could almost write some form of code script for it, something that goes to the effect of "Hey (name), you're not wearing black today. I thought you were (goth/punk/metal/artsy)!"

What puzzles me is why that happens almost exclusively when you wear black. Nobody seems to comment if you wear blue everyday or yellow. Well, maybe pink, but you get the idea.

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

Nobody seems to comment if you wear blue everyday or yellow.

I still don't understand why everyone on this thread continues to say this, that somehow blue is immune from this phenomenon. I wear blue every day and people comment on this all the time. I have one friend who also loves blue a lot, and wears blue many days, and also gets this comment all the time. (To add: I have two other friends with similar color obsessions, both with the color orange. And they get the "Hey, you're wearing orange" comment all the time as well.)

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I think even I would comment on it in your case, but that's because even your hair and frequently your shoes are blue, and because you wear blue every day. Wearing even a little less blue, on even a few less days, would make it much less noteworthy.

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

I'm just pointing out that people are acting as if this *never* happens for the color blue, though, rather than "less frequently" or "only in extreme cases". Which kinda marginalizes anything I've been saying.

My friend, by the way, wears a lot less blue, though it's still fairly frequent, and she gets this comment as well, especially when she wears electric blue or turquoise/teal type stuff. It's true that certain blues (in blue jeans, or in blue dress shirts) are "normalized" through common use, but many other blues---electric, baby, aquamarine, turquoise, teal---are not so much so. And I've seen people who wear them get comments on them as well.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I wear a ton of really bright turquoise/electric blue though, and I never get comments on it.

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

Sure, and I don't discount that. But the fact that I and other people I know get comments on it means that it's false that nobody gets commented on always wearing blue. That's all I'm saying. You can argue that we're the exceptions, and that's a valid approach to take. (And I could respond that perhaps you're the exception, rather than me and my friend. Or that our difference in perceptions is caused by the general behavioral bias observed by psychologists that people tend to be more able to recall experiences that are supportive of their existing beliefs, and that without an actual quantitative study, it would be difficult for us to say for sure, especially in an anecdotal context such as this one.) But people are saying, and I quote (with emphasis), "Nobody seems to comment if you wear blue everyday or yellow." Which is different, and completely disregards my statement of my own (and others') experience.

p.s. Yes, besides my friend, I meet other people who are really into wearing blue as well, if only because they see me wearing blue, I see them wearing blue, and we get together and chat about fashion. And how we like the color blue.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I think people are consciously using the word "nobody" to mean "almost nobody."

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

You can understand why I would feel completely marginalized by this, though, right?

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Sure, yes.