The Colour Collaborative: August: Dress

I decided to take this month's prompt quite literally; no interpretive stuff this time around. You see, I do own a few dresses. Not many, just a handful of them and most of those I've had for years. So some of them may look familiar to readers who've been visiting the blog for a while now...

First of all is my favourite dress. I don't generally believe in keeping things 'for best' but this one - well, it was bought many moons ago on a birthday trip to Paris. It's silk. It took up almost all of my birthday money. I don't want to snag it or stain it, so it's strictly for posh events - or those not involving Joe (probably explains why it's so seldom worn).

These colours. I do love them so. The print too, so old-fashioned and vintage-looking. But the colours most of all. In a way they reflect the rest of my wardrobe; if you open the doors and stand back you'll see it's predominantly inky blues, creams, brick reds. Add a healthy splash of grey and that pretty much covers it.

I'm not a pastel person. Rich shades and muted hues attract me. There's the occasional bright to punctuate this: red wellies, a yellow mac, a fuchsia-pink floral scarf from Krakow. 

But this love of rich and muted goes beyond my wardrobe. It applies to my home and garden too. I much prefer a deep crimson peony to a pale pink one, a dark purple cornflower to a chalky blue. Mustard yellow trumps lemon every time, and I like my shades of orange burnt.

It probably explains why I like this part of the summer most of all. The softer hues have given way to the more painterly colours as dahlias, rudbeckias and chrysanthemums start to dominate. And after that the sere, smoky, earthy shades of autumn.

As for dresses themselves... I tend to follow a script. Boxy shapes, loose-fitting. Sack dresses and tunic-style frocks do it for me. Easy, comfortable. Best worn with woolly tights and maybe even something long-sleeved underneath.

I favour stripes and checks over polka dots and ditsy florals. Folksy details rather than sparkle. Strong, serviceable and often with pockets.

Most of them were bought in sales. I prefer to buy quality and wear something for many years.

Jeans are my uniform of choice, so if something can be worn over them... well, it's going to see an awful lot of wear. 

And some dresses come to the rescue every time. A stone-coloured linen number (another sale find) is a wedding/Christening/party stalwart. I love it very much.

It's the only linen item of clothing I own but I can see why people swear by the stuff. It washes and irons beautifully and seems to improve with age. It hangs well and feels incredibly soft against the skin.

So there you have it: dresses and colours. Simple, really. You choose what you like, you buy (or make) it and then you wear it. Over and over again. There's nothing wrong with having a formula that works; I find it fascinating to see how we're all attracted to particular and often very specific colours. It represents so much more than whether something 'suits' us or not.

Don't forget to visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts, just click on the links below.

Annie Cholewa

Sandra at Cherry Heart

Gillian at Tales from a Happy House

CJ at Above the River

Jennifer at Thistlebear

What is The Colour Collaborative?

All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.