Apple green

I must say - I thought I'd never wear kelly green again. At least after I turned 12. Wore it all the time when I was little. It was one of the colors redheaded girls were allowed to wear. No pink, no red, no purple...those colors would (gasp!) clash with my strawberry blonde locks. (I finally wised up and wear colors relatively indiscriminately - including pink!) So I wore a lot of kelly green. It was my favorite color (until yellow turned into my favorite color - which is probably the one color I really shouldn't wear). And then I didn't wear it anymore. It didn't show up in the vintage shops (neé thrift stores) I frequented in my early teens. It wasn't a part of the pseudo-grunge thing I tried for a little while. Nor was it really the thing in Austria, when I lived there - circa 1991 Austrian teens were more into non-colors than colors. Honestly can't remember seeing anyone in anything stronger than a very respectable navy.

So the only place any green showed up in my wardrobe for a long while was in a scarf (which were my thing - ok, still are, but it's just too darn hot in the office to wear them regularly - somewhere between 1996-2000). Then I walked into a MAC store one day. I was bored with my routine, or maybe I was on my way to an event, who knows now?

Secret revealed - if you're feeling oily and icky after a long hard day of enduring the low levels of sanity and intelligence around you, and you still have to put your best face forward at a happy hour or dinner (why did you say you'd go to that fundraiser for the friend of a friend who's toying with a congressional run?), just swing by your favorite cosmetic counter and ask for a new look. A couple swishes of makeup remover, a white tea protectant, and a Q-tip of eyeshadow later, and you're all ready to go - with a professional's help. Just make sure you get your new friend to use one of those cute face papers to draw your new colors, ask when she (or he) will be working next, and say you'll be back. Sometimes I actually do go back...sure beats the heck outta dragging along all your brushes and makeup to "touch up" before going out...

...so I walk into MAC, explain to the nice lady that I need a new look for that season (for the life of me, I can't remember when it was - right when color was coming back onto our faces), and that I wasn't afraid of color. With absolute trust, I sat up in the high black chair, and she set to work. The next thing I knew, I had the coolest eyes ever...with one of those "limited edition" 4-packs - Brule, Pickle, Mystery, and Gleam. For the color-word challenged among us, that would be bone, pickle (yes, the crunchy ones the nice asian lady packs in with your deli sandwich with just a little sparkle), the deepest chocolate brown, and the most gorgeous soft, champagne-y, salmon-y, shimmery pink/gold. For a redhead with blue eyes, it worked out just peachily...I'm still in love with Pickle, and it reopened my eyes to green.

So now I'm drawn to All Things Green. An apple green cashmere shell shouts out a little with a grey pinstripe suit to wear to my fuddy office. A peek of green pops out in the swirls of my Pucci-esque halter dress. I keep Going to Green hanging in shops. I miss it this season - somehow greens didn't really make it into this cossack-inspired luxury we're experiencing (which I love, by the way).

But what made me write about Green today was my colleague's sweater . His casual Friday upper half was a Great Green ski-slope-style zip up sweater. For our less-than-daring world, it was a pleasantly bold choice. It wasn't bulky or slouchy. It was clean cut, punchy, and a refreshing splash of color in our normal khaki and short-sleeve logo polo Fridays. And it made me happy.

Remind me later that I have something to say about the logo polos.