I really like this lookbook for Rita Liefhebber, a Canadian designer completely new to me thanks to One Sleepless Night. It has extended the small consideration of colour which has been bubbling away in a corner of my brain just behind the bit that has been ignoring my alarm every morning for the last fortnight and slightly below my sense of humour. But I’ve been thinking more about colour recently and ways of incorporating it more into my wardrobe. I’ve never been a massive colour person, but recently I always notice if a person I’m with is wearing something bright. I feel like it’s my brain telling me something. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the bright green Kermity wool skirtI saw in Cos when I was in London a few weeks ago and now these little red booties are irresistible to me in an alien way. I look at them and think ‘Yes!’ and then the other half of me whispers out of the side of my mouth ‘Are you sure? They’re a bit, y’know, Alison Mosshart and not very you.’ When faced with an item of clothing available in a few colours, I’m often drawn to the safer colours; the navys or blacks or beiges not because I’m scared by brighter shades as such but because I always associate the plains as a more practical option ‘I can wear it with more’, I’ll nod as I tuck it under my arm. (To go and pay for it, not because I’m about to shoplift and sprint.) So flashes of colour are a good place to start, I don’t think I’ll ever be one of those people who ‘colour blocks’ and I like smaller flashes of something bright; some neon pink fingernails or a tangerine coloured jumper. Either way, the little red boots have signaled the start of my promise to myself to experiment with colour more. As close as I’ll come to a new years resolution. Less of the dark knitwear!
In similar revelations the ombre shouldered dress induces interested nods. Ombre shoulders! But of course! It seems like everything else in the world is ombre these days so I suppose why not shoulders too? It looks like the sort of dress that would be satisfyingly easy to recreate with some shocking pink or turquoise dylon and an empty afternoon. And hey presto, a flash of colour, hugging across the shoulders like a loyal pet cat.
And last but not least, in my ‘Rita Liefhebber lookbook analysis’, I really do love trousers with stripes down the side. I’ve been meaning to get classic Adidas leggings with the stripes down the side for an age but I like the idea of something more slouchy too, less Sporty Spice and more ‘woman about town’ in their tailoring. (Not that I doubt that Mel isn’t a woman about town.) The sort of trousers that require a Katherine Hepburn, hands in pockets stance, a handbag probably full of really good stationary and an all-round nod to the classic Kate Moss and Mario Sorrenti ‘his and her’ suit look which will never cease to be a much returned to style reference in my book. The charity shops are calling.
