20 February, 2008

Color Me Psycho

So Grace emailed me today and said:

i thought of you when i read this
it's about new yorkers who only wear one color.

Like this woman above, who kinda makes me want to die. Intriguing, yes, to wear all one color. But the brain reels--do these people have some kind of massive personality disorder? Mental illness? Eccentricity due to overconsumption? Eccentricity to appear more interesting than they really are? Yep. I decide that that is it. This woman buys Chanel shoes in white and colors them with electric blue sharpies. I took a moment to look it up and this shoe:
retails for $670.00, although it's not white.

and this shoe, from designer Christian Louboutain retails for $950. Could someone really take a Sharpie to a shoe that costs more than my rent? I am reading this article mouth agape, unable to restrain myself from the annoying one color wearing people.

And then I get to this lady:
I love her. She's totally amazing. I want to be her one day. Here's an excerpt of her interview:

"Why green?
I’m from Nova Scotia, where green is in your surroundings. I missed nature when I moved to New York. I started wearing green nail polish, and it spread all over me.

When did you move here?
I hitchhiked down in 1964. I had long braided hair; I was a beatnik.

Where did you live?
We used to live on the Lower East Side. A hippie gang was on our block, and you had to know them to get down the street. They had weapons and chains. They babysat for our son.

What’s your son up to these days?
Sam is a mentalist, a magician. It’s classic mind-reading; he’ll memorize a deck of cards. He’s our one and only.

How long have you been married?
Forty-one years. Every Saturday morning, we’d say, “Maybe we’ll make it to City Hall this morning.” We missed a few because we slept late. Finally, we went and got married. We didn’t have a ring, so my husband, Robert, made one out of paper.

Do you have any grandchildren?
No, but I have a grand-puppy. My son asked me to babysit him, and I airbrushed his tail green. Sam flipped out."

And then I start thinking about how green is my favorite color and blue definitely one of my least favorite. You don't think that had something to do with it, do you?


5 comments:

Garny LooWho said...

Holy Moley! I much prefer the Green Lady. Somehow, she is authentic compared to the "I try so hard" blue lady.

EmilyG said...

Yoicks!

The green lady is adorable. The blue lady just sounds way pretentious. Gray lady definitely has OCD.

knithappy said...

And brown clothes man is just boring. What does that mean?

Lisa said...

I love the green lady...spray painting her son's dog's tail green! I bet the brown dude would be much happier if his dog was spray painted green...my cats have just fled the room :)

TurquoizBlue said...

I'm this way, but in spurts. When I was a teen, I'd wear the same color for weeks. I was stuck on teal/turquoise colors and then it was red. My mother forbade me to buy anymore same color stuff.

As an adult, it was black. I think I wore black through most of the 90s. Now I'm back on turquoise and some red. I make an effort to break it up.

I don't think its a mental illness, but there is something about specific colors evoking certain feeling or emotions for me, and it makes me feel better to have those colors around me -- sometimes more often or in more quantities than other times. :D