Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Let it show.

In the wealthy private community called Forest Hills Gardens, you find restrained Tudor-style homes like this.


In just plain Forest Hills, you will find residential concoctions like this. (It's the sort of thing many of my relatives would have been proud to have built. The picnic table in the back was covered with clear plastic. I bet the living room furniture was also sealed that way.)


Have you ever known anyone who did not have a personal style? Hard to imagine, but when I see someone with extra verve and audacity of appearance, I like to let them hear my admiration, so when Joe and C and I passed this lady on our way into Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, I gave her props for color coordination right down to her husband's hat, and the bit of matching color in the plastic bag. She was happy to receive our praise.


Not many people can carry off the color orange. I know I can't. I stick to blues and purples. C can handle orange, red and all the greens. He can do bronze where I can do silver. I harbor opinions about the "color" key of people I have met, and I speculate about what your "color" might be if I haven't yet met you. (Joe looks great in maroon.)

6 comments:

Doralong said...

Props for the orange wedges if nothing else.. Interesting, I also find I can learn a great deal about other people by observing their color choices. But I must admit looking at the various versions of personal style humanity parades forth amuses the hell out of me on a daily basis..

Birdie said...

You: black or navy with red accents. And you would look hot in a black shirt with a silver tie. Hey! Do you wear ties anymore?

evilganome said...

I have to avoid yellow. It tends to make me look like I am in the last stages of some horrible malady.

I find that I do best in browns, blacks and greens. Though, I don't look bad in acid green if I want to go for bright.

I can't imagine either you or C. looking anything less than fetching now matter what you are wearing.

Anonymous said...

That chrome/clear plastic combo (like the awning of the 2nd house) is very popular these days. It's the new symbol of upwardly mobile. A lot of that chrome (or chrome-like material with gold accents) is being used for railings as well. The stuff is not bad when you look at it in isolation, but I still have not seen a single house that looks good with it. Maybe it is an acquired taste.

Mark said...

I could wear orange when I was younger; not so much anymore.

Nowadays, my color seems to be black. So slimming.

And oddly, I seem to look good in pink for the first time in my life. I guess that's why so many older people used to gravitate towards Lily Pulitzer.

Anonymous said...

natural tones for me. Colors are fine as long as they are muted.