I remember the old Soviet Union being cut up for having only grey skylines and grey buildings. This just showed to the west how boring and drab this country and its allies really were. It was an empire, but boring still.
Clothing styles in the eighties were also drab in the west. For a few years all it seemed you could get were grey, black and white outfits. Of course there was also acid washed jeans. But very quickly that changed into acid washed black jeans which had many shades of grey and even some white.
I remember coming out of that time in the early nineties, when colours started to make an appearance again. Buying colours was hit and miss because we blatantly didn’t know what colours looked good on us.
Finally my sister dug up an old seasons of colour book from the 70s. According to this book, I was an autumn and I started to dress accordingly. I don’t know what the other people were doing when it came to wearing colours. The point is we eventually figured out how to wear colours, but it took some dud outfits to get there.
We are in another period of grey, black and white being considered the height of fashion, with very little colour out there.
But this time it is worse. Almost all building colours are shades of grey. You see it in all those home renovation shows. Nearly everything is grey, black and white.
It’s even worse than this of course. They’ve been painting older high rises in my city to be grey, black and white. New high rises are also being made grey, black and white.
Congratulations! We have turned the west into the look of communist Russia. We may have outlasted communist Russia, but their style seems like it will last forever in the look of our buildings and our clothes. I’m just going to say it. The fashion industry is boring. And is doing very little innovating right now.
Colour isn’t all bad. Bring some of it back. In the clothes, in buildings and in our skyline. We look like communist Russia, only with blue jeans.
