In today's Reader Mail:
dear bunnyshop,
i'm not really sure how to phrase my question, so i'll just put up my whole story thing.
all my life, my mother has told me that i'm fat and ugly. however, on a recent trip to LA, i was persuaded to try on a gorgeous light purply-grey dress. not only did i look good, i also discovered that i'm a size 2. thanks to this realization, i'm now sick of hiding myself in baggy, black clothes and i want colour in my life! being asian, i've always been afraid of colours making me look yellow and so... i think my question really is, how should i start bringing colour into my wardrobe? and does the whole colour analysis thingummy work? should i bother with the what colours i can or cannot wear thing??
with love,
k.
Oh! Sometimes the people who are supposed to be nicest to you just aren't, and that is so ridiculous, and all you can do is be like, Can you not be approaching with the love? It sounds like you've gotten that part of this terrible dilemma under control, though, and good for you on that. We hope that instead of being defeated by this, you are all phoenix-like and ignoring the naysayer and being super strong and invincible, which we can tell just from this note that you are.
Moving on: color! Above is a photo of our traveling-clothes rack, which is basically just the clothing we can literally carry on our backs (or at least in little roll-y suitcases). Not much color there! (Do not judge us based on our traveling-clothes rack, as in our permanent space we are totally Mommy Dearest about our hangers.) So we get you. Whenever we come home to NYC, we realize two things: New Yorkers really do wear a lot of black, and we may very well be the loudest sidewalk cell-phone talkers on the planet. We buy a lot of black because it goes with everything, more or less. Well, and because it doesn't show most spills. We've realized it's what we buy when we're really excessively short on
cash, because it is, if nothing else, versatile—and specifically
because it is black, not memorable—a boon when you're trying to get
more than one occasion out of the same dress, but a serious con in any
other sense. We would have been so much more excited to wear something
super bright and awesome—something unmistakable and
stand-out-from-the-crowd. Black can be totally sophisticated but it can also be totally
hiding-in-a-corner. And this is definitely not the time for hiding in the corner.
Of course, this is the time of year to do it, since there's so much brightness in the stores anyway. We particularly like all the royal blue at Club Monaco and this acidic yellow at J. Crew. We don't love all the looks at Express, but that entire store is like exploding in neon.
As far as choosing your colors: We guess it's true—it's obviously true—that some colors suit some people better than others. We remember having our colors "done" when we were a kid, and we were informed that (thanks to the olive skin and light eyes) we were a fall, which meant we should be wearing autumnal colors like pumpkin and moss and other super organic shades forever. We have recently decided that we don't feel like giving this theory much credit anymore. (Check out Color Me Beautiful, but don't take anything in it too seriously.)
There's been a lot of rambling in this post. The only answer is to go for it, totally, because we can totally see that you're on the verge of something totally exciting. We say, sequester all the black stuff in the back of your closet, and brutally cull anything that doesn't make you feel awesome. And then, piece by piece, build up something new and better. We were about to say we'd start small, but forget that—start huge! There are a million bright dresses out there. Our first stop—since we're perpetually on a budget—would be Forever 21. BCBG has fabulous bright pattern dresses. And ditto for French Connection.
Finally: We know we have some Asian readers out there, so please please chime in if you have any suggestions specifically regarding skin tone and color management.