Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Purple?

In honor of fashion week, we'll continue a theme.



The inimitable Little Augury focused her creative talents last week on the various hues of purple favored by her many muses. Our minds were much in sync as coincidently while reviewing a cache of photos, the scales fell from my eyes as I noticed just how powerfully a touch of purple can alter an outfit from very nice to spectacular.

Purple is tough to wear though. Hue is important. Too light and it's something for little girls, too dark too sinister.



The history of purple is wrapped in majesty. In antiquity, the dye, harvested from snails,was soooooo expensive only royalty could afford it.




Alexander the Great wore purple robes during imperial audiences. Purple was the official color of the robes of Roman emperors, and Egyptian pharaohs. Today we wear it because in moderation, it looks really great.


I've been searching for a similar shirt since I refell in love with turtlenecks.








Ralph likes it too!



Most of the photos are from The Sartorialist, the photo above is from Ralph Lauren's big book.



The girl, I'm not so sure about.

Toad

10 comments:

Suburban Princess said...

When I met Lisa Birnbach we had a conversation about purple (it was poopoohed in TOPH) and we agreed it is definately a power colour, then she showed me her purple wallet.

My own closet is based on pink, green and blue but my two pieces of purple always make me feel like a million bucks when I wear them.

Hope you are having a great week!

Divine Theatre said...

I only wear black. (You probably already guessed that!) It must be the Johnny Cash in me! If I'm feeling uber cheerful I will add a dash of grey!

The gentleman in the first photo looks like a fresh Spring tulip. Maybe that will inspire me to wear color. Probably not, though! As it stands, I am singlehandedly keeping the LintRoller people in business. They need me.

Patsy said...

I have a lovely purple velvet blazer, but it's marketed as 'dark plum.'

Anonymous said...

Breaking News: I was just now scouting an orange sweater my brother longed for last fall and which is now on a Ralph end-of-season double sale, when it came to me that The Toad might like this sweater in his orange rotation. Not a turtle, not a v-neck, but a high shawl and the color ["Bitter Orange Heather"] has your name on it. See, this is how it happens with us ladies, you're focusing hard on purple but fate intervenes to give you orange.

http://www.ralphlauren.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4373782&cp=1760781.1760813.2550730&ab=ln_men_cs1_shawl&parentPage=family

Anonymous said...

Too heathered?

http://www.amazon.com/SWEATER-TURTLE-NECK-PURPLE-mod106/dp/B004EO05VM

Toad said...

Stop it Flo, I bought the turtleneck.

Anonymous said...

"Stop it Flo"

I'm just getting warmed up!

Divine Theatre said...

LOL at Flo!

Anonymous said...

[pssst....]

http://www.paulstuart.com/product_info.cfm?ProdID=4771&ProdCatId=1003&MainCatId=14&HEADERMENUID=1&SUBPRODCATID=2040

Shelley said...

Not sure about the first picture...strong purple with very strong green. Maybe. The rest I think are lovely. If you asked me I would say the girl was wearing fuschia rather than purple, but I wouldn't say it was the top or the skirt you generally noticed...