January 12, 2022
It doesn’t take a genius to see why green feels aspirational at the precise moment in history when we humans finally seem to be twigging that a green future is the only future that is going to exist. Green is good. Green is the zeitgeist. So, what to wear? Green—but make it fashion, reports The Guardian.
The expression “but make it fashion” means to add a splash of showbiz, but also a hit of sharpness. A dash of syrup, plus a squeeze of lime. If the taste is too vanilla, that’s not fashion. Which is how we have ended up with a color-of-the-moment that symbolizes nature, but actually looks a bit synthetic. The green that is everywhere right now is a flat, saturated, straightforward green. It is not the color of moss, or of olives, or of sea foam.
It is not a color that sparkles from a cocktail ring or from a slice in a highball glass. It speaks of crayons and grass lawns and lunchbox apples. It is green at its most blunt.
And in fashion, this green already has a name:. This is Bottega green—some call it Zoomer green to reference the generation who wear it. It’s the green that is everywhere, that lurid shade somewhere between a shamrock and a matcha latte, has for the past year been effectively owned by the Italian fashion label Bottega Veneta. When Bottega staged a show at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, the stage was bathed in this green. Bottega has made the color a signature, just as Hermès has with orange, and Tiffany with duck-egg blue.
How did this green replace blush pink, which was the chic color a year or two ago? Green snuck in as an accessory first. Because you know what works great with blush pink? Green.
According to The Guardian, at a moment when sustainability is front and center of every fashion conversation, it is only logical that the hottest dresses would be green.
And there is another way of reading this color—one that decodes it not via a Pantone chart, but from the highway code. This is traffic light green, you see. A universal symbol, understood across ages and languages. It means that it is safe to proceed. After living life on pause for so long, the allure of a color that gives us permission to pick up where we left off is strong.
We want to wear green not because it makes us feel pretty or chic or elegant, but because it makes us feel safe.
A green light for a safe future? A handbag doesn’t get much more aspirational than that.
Research contact: @guardian
