Red Is Dead, Wear Green Instead
Designer Bill Blass once said, "When in doubt, wear red." But what about when red is in doubt? It's time to go green.
At the Fall/Winter 2024 Fashion Week shows held in Milan and Paris throughout early 2024, all of fashion's household names have either replaced or supplemented their prior readiness for red with great gobs of green.
Not that every show was drenched in Nickelodeon Gak, though, as fun as that'd have been. Bottega Veneta instead used green as a tasteful accent to give their otherwise sober ready-to-wear a crisp, grassy jolt.
Parakeet Green is a Bottega Veneta signature, consistent within every collection since the house's inception. If they were an isolated incident, Bottega's green gloves and handbags might look like green business as green usual.
But Bottega also dove deeper into the hue, utilizing a darker loam-y green for tote bags, knotted leather pouches, and, appropriately, croc-printed mules.
Still, you kinda expect Bottega to propose that green is good.
But Prada? That's a weathervane signaling the direction in which fashion's wind is blowing, even when green merely wafts through Prada's FW24 collection with notes as subtly tasteful as a feathery chapeau or tinted bag.
Prada always works in whispers, though, even when the rest of the industry so closely observes its dictums that they may as well be blasted from klaxons.
Madame Miuccia is so taken by the shade that she arrived backstage in a turf-toned blazer accented by emerald-toned jewelry. Faith and begorra!
Other historic houses, like Fendi, leaned into the look. Yes, the Fendi woman will continue indulging in yellow. No, she will not forsake blue.
But her scuba-style knit hoods will be rendered in green. Her thigh-high leather boots? Green. Her belted robe coats? Red. Just kidding! Green. Duh.
This is merely the tip of the Irish iceberg (because green, you see) as there was ample greenage at Bally, at Gucci, and at Burberry all the way in London.
Even at MM6 Maison Margiela, where trends are typically inverted and exposed at the seams, green blazers, green sweaters, green, green, green.
There are different flavors of green at play, to be clear: the lush, foresty richness of dark green, sophisticated in its subtlety, and its tart counterpart.
You tended to see more of the former in fashion even before green galloped to center stage because you tend to see more muted colors anyways.
But FW24 promises a surprising surge in both the tasteful type and rich, extroverted green, a hue that's not as much a screamin' statement as red but still a confident, clarion tone.
What does it all mean, all that green?
Well, according to probably-legit website colorpsychology.org: "Top name brands that are known for incorporating color green into their color schemes are usually associated with relaxation, reliability, high-quality products. Their green color is intended to promote calmness and comfort."
So, perhaps on a subconscious level, fashion's green wave is a response to cultural chaos, a stabilizing force amidst of overwhelming societal stimulus, the world's constant bad news, and doomscrolling.
These green clothes may reflect an unspoken desire to return to nature, to chill out, to live a less-loud life (but only slightly).
They're the inverse of red, the previous color of the moment, which is all about standing out as it howls: "Look at me!! I'm shouting because I'm about to hit the town and paint the town me!"
Red is bold, bright, and so uncomplementary to every other color that it is actually perfectly complementary to every other color. It is an audacious, confident enigma, as Blass well knew.
Green, meanwhile, is humble and patient with a bit of bite. A turtle, a leaf, an soon-to-be-ripe banana, good ol' Granny Smith.
It is not as mellow as blue, the other primary color. Blue is perhaps the most conventionally fashionable of the three, and as such isn't as much a statement as RED!! or green.
Perhaps the thought is: the party's over and angry, loud, fun red is so ubiquitous that its vim has faded and its vigor lapsed. It gives way to not sleepy blue but crisp green.
And so, come Fall/Winter 2024, you know what to do. Do the dew.
