Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.
~ Oscar Wilde
You may have guessed from these pages that I love colour. As a young woman, my wardrobe was a profusion of primary colours — reds, yellows, royal blues, as well as lots of white. But during my declutter, I noticed that in recent years the colours of my clothes have undergone a transformation. There are lots more pastel shades, especially different shades of blue and beige. There are even brown items — a colour I avoided when I was younger because I felt it made me fade into the background because of my dark skin. There are a few yellows and reds — although I hadn’t worn them in ages, I was reluctant to discard them for sentimental reasons. (Marie Kondo would disapprove!)
Mature women are encouraged to tone down the colours in our lives — wardrobe, jewellery, makeup, we are told should be muted. Have you noticed that many mature women wear shades of brown, beige, cream and black? Perhaps it’s because magazines and countless blogs for the over 40s and 50s exhort us to subdue, soften, and diminish! Red is out, jewellery should be silver, platinum or white gold and no chunky gold necklaces or bangles.
Does muted = age?