Saturday 16 April 2011

Decades of colour

As I’m sitting down with darling daughter to watch the start of the film “Grown Ups” I turned to her and said “they got the colours right at least, that is SO 70s” and it got me to thinking…

Each decade is probably attached to a few colours that predominate; when you think of a decade colours spring to mind. So this is my take on the colours of the decades...

The Sixties…psychedelic man. Swirls of colour, the brighter the better, sunny and bright in a positive fashion

The Seventies are definitely brown and orange. No need to elucidate



My take on the decade... Escape from the 70s


I’d say the 80s were blue and white, with a teeny bit of red thrown in for good measure…there was a hell of a lot of denim going round (but let’s not forget black & chrome I suppose). The New Romantics were around with their white floaty numbers and I LOVED the Athena prints…I had this one on my wall by the amazing Syd Brak.

Wired for Sound (c) Syd Brak


Personally I think the 90s were a little non-descript, with no particular palette and a miriad of boy bands jumping around. But there were a lot of neon brights. The colours of the nineties were in yer face and loud - a bit like the Spice Girls, who to me epitomised the colours of the decade.






The naughties well..Id say that was gold. Bling everywhere, this bikini kind of sums up the whole decade. £2000 for a crystal clad bikini…ok its not gold…but you get my drift.




The 2000s…well back to a multitude of hues, but in blocks of colour. Colours were rich though, designers like Matthew Williamson and Alexander McQueen will sum up this decade. The 2000s were bright but rarely garish… unless you liked your world to make a statement…this decade I think will be remembered for jewel colours.

Alexander McQueen 2003, photograph (c) Nylon Magazine


And now? Double denim & back to blue anyone?? I wonder how we'll remember the colours of this decade?

So what are your thoughts? are your colours the same as mine??

3 comments:

  1. I had a sleeveless dress in those gorgeous burnt Orange colours,when i was about 17, made it myself, brings it all back, wish i had kept it now (katejordan1876)

    ReplyDelete
  2. ooh I found one on e-bay the other week...my size and EVERYTHING! but the price went to high for me.

    I really have a soft spot for the 70s :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. had a fab electric blue drop waisted dress with big shoulders and a neck tie in the eighties... and a wonderful(!) brown a-line zip up the front ployester dress from the 70's...
    my 90's covered goth to maternity clothes, but I did have a neon green with neon pink lightening bolts all over it in maternity dungerees with short bottoms, which may be best forgotten... I found my shoes are just as funny :-)

    ReplyDelete