ode to kelly green
29 september 2003

kelly green is the "in" color right now... "in" in certain circles in europe that is, not the u.s., because sadly, americans are generally slower to catch on to this sort of thing. but it's also a trend who has odds stacked against it in the u.s., because the last big thing, distressed denim, still lingers in the stubbornly slow moving american pop mainstream, like the houseguest that overstayed his welcome. the swedish department store h&m does a pretty good job of staying with the fashion trends, and hence, they have lots of kelly green in their spring 2003 collection. a friend of mine at comme des garcons offers this precious advice: "i like h&m.. i buy lots of it, hide it for a year or two, and then pull it out and wow my nyc friends...you can't wear it too soon or people just won't get you."

kelly green is a real gem of a color. i'll tell you why. it's not one of those low-maintenance fashion statements. with a pair of distressed jeans, you can treat them like crap, or bust out an old pair of painter's overalls from your daddy's closet, and you're en vogue. but kelly green is an obnoxious color. living in boston, i'm particularly sensitive to its irish connotations and will avoid it like the plague around st. patty's day. kelly green is also a very common color for extremely low-end clothing because the dye is so accessible. you really must take care in what neighborhoods you stroll down, sporting your kelly green peacoat. heaven forbid that you get caught in places where the wrong people match you. context is key, and kelly green, being such a high-maintenance color, should only be worn in extremely trendy neighborhoods like williamsburg, rodeo, or newbury. because it's so finicky, kelly green is a particularly regal color, and anyone who can pull it off is a real someone. and if it happens to be an american, extra kudos to her, because she's dressed herself into the ranks of the avant garde... a fashionista, a sentinel, in a country so polluted by the imitative mainstream.

speaking of which, why are people still stuck on distressed denim? i saw a girl strut down the street in very dark denim, with what appeared to be two big bleach stains on her thighs... then, passing her, i'm shocked to find a bleached white splotch covering her derriere. but the tragedy is not of this girl, it is of the whole of american pop culture. the pop fashion in europe seems to move quite rapidly. h&m, fcuk, and united colors of bennetton pluck styles from the runways with a delay of only a season or two, while american mcfashion houses like gap and express are both slower to catch on, and to move on. one can only speculate why this is. perhaps the europeans, being more concerned with fashion, invest more in fashion trends. or perhaps american pop fashion passes trends through a conservative filter because its consumers are more fashion risk-averse? for example, capris pants for men never caught on in the states.. i'm assuming this is why. sometimes it is so painful to live among such a populous. but then again, it's sometimes quite nice to never have to try very hard to differentiate oneself here. it's too easy to stand out if you have any fashion savoir-faire. return from a shopping trip in milan or berlin and you're guaranteed to be en vogue for a couple of years. and your goods are usually so avant that you run no risk of being imitated. so i guess fashioning in the states has its perks and drawbacks. you're guaranteed to be avant sporting your kelly green peacoat, but you also have to live in constant fear that you might have a run-in with your neighbors, sporting their vulgar kelly green celtics shirts.