13.3.13

Red and Blue and Valentino

The other day I mentioned that in my mind, the colors Red and Blue not only evoke nautical associations in my mind, but also somehow have a sort of fairy-tale, mythical vibe. Im not sure quite why this should be, except for that both these colors feel old to me--older, as colors, than any of the rest, and, representing fire and water as they do so clearly, the most symbolic. I spoke earlier of the immortality suggested by the color blue, and I believe that red, representing fire as a momentary phenomenon, shares in that timeless quality, for similar but opposite reasons: fire either is or it isnt--that is, it doesnt age, and as such its representative color must exist, symbolically, outside the passage of time, just as blue does. Theyre both just so cardinal. Do you know what I mean? Anyway Im not sure quite where Im going with this, beyond the meandering conversation Im clearly having with myself at the moment. But as a visual, and to support the point Im making about fairy tales, consider the red and blue looks at Valentino. The whole collection had a wonderful and richly fanciful vibe, and included gowns for ice queens, regal ladies, fair maidens, and the schoolgirls who read about them. And while I still cant quite put my finger on why, Im sure the color palette has a lot to do with establishing the mood .







The braids the models all wore, which of course have their own richly mythical connotations, only reaffirmed the fairy-tale vibe. Its all so Hans Christian Anderson to me (moreso than the Brothers Grimm, in this instance, for reasons I cant explain) and I cant stop looking at it! So Disneys Sleeping Beauty, no?

Purely Magical!



 images via style.com & here

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