Wearing Brooks Brothers French cuff shirt, Corinne Collection pink sweater, Yohji Yamamoto belted long jacket, Prada mules, Monies earrings and Anne & Valentin eyeglasses

According to W Magazine, Pink is the color to wear in 2017. Now pink is not often a color I wear and I do not have much of it in my wardrobe. Nor am I trend follower. But rather than reject a trend on its face, I thought I might investigate it in a deeper way before making my final decision about pink. In my fashion bibliography this past weekend I referenced an article that looked at the history of the color pink in fashion and it got me thinking about the color in different ways. So this week, today and Wednesday, I will be interrogating the color pink.

The only way historically for me that pink gets to make an appearance in my wardrobe is when it is paired with black, leaning more heavily on the black. Even though I wore a pink pussy hat to the Women’s March, I really prefer the one offered by my talented friend Mireia Lopez (Milo Tricot) and pictured below. It satisfies my ever constant need to be subversive, supports good causes and will be very practical tomorrow during our expected blizzard.

I think this propensity is because I have the same gender bias that everyone else does about this color: that pink is girly, soft and feminine and reflects my internal ambivalence about everything. This bias creeps into my styling where I pair this soft, pearly pink sweater with an oversized Brooks Brothers shirt, a tailored long jacket and mules studded with metal. Somehow I am expressing through my choices, the sociological vulnerability I feel and have mentioned before (and thus the preference for the black pussy hat). Let’s see how I feel on Wednesday after I do my reading.

Further Reading:

Pink Wasn’t Always Girly

Like all interesting and complex things, the color pink in today’s world offers us both challenges and opportunities and I invite you to explore them with me by sharing your thoughts about why you do or do not wear pink and the readings I have referenced.