With my general love of green and my particular fondness for weirdy green, it’s surprising that I haven’t published more posts on mixing greens. Apparently it’s been FIVE YEARS since my last (official) mixed green post. In the intervening years, I gave away the peacock patterned blouse featured in that earlier post. I wish I hadn’t. Where is it now?
Easy come, easy go, I guess.
One thing that will never go is this JCrew twin-set in the best shade of apple green.
Apple with loden green. Perfect together.
Rounding things out are platform Supergas in a camouflage print. These sneakers will be handy in case I ever want to appear footless while standing in the grass . . . although I will have to remove my white socks.
All of that is well and good but the real star here is my fine, feathered friend.
One of my male colleagues complimented this brooch, saying that it immediately made him think of Bjork wearing that dress for the Oscars — the one that both made her look like a swan and made her look like she was carrying a dead swan. We agreed it was an unsettling (but unforgettable) look. This brooch, however, he declared was “swan done right.”
Technically, this is a whooping crane, not a swan. But I have such a fondness for swans — dating back to reading The Trumpet of the Swan in elementary school — that I will continue to think of it as such.
Come closer my darlings, and take a look. This brooch, made by Emily Cobb, was fabricated with nylon and acrylic. It weighs nothing. I could probably wear it with a cotton oxford blouse.
Emily Cobb is represented by Sienna Patti Contemporary in Lenox, Massachusetts. Please take a minute to visit this beautiful gallery on-line and enjoy the beautiful collection that Sienna Patti has curated.
Moving from watercress to flight, I have flying dreams a few times each year and whenever I wake from one, I am briefly elated because I think that I can fly. And then I remember that I cannot. Sometimes, I remember that I cannot fly during one of these dreams and then my flying sputters and turns into something more enhanced like pogo-stick jumping, which can be very alarming.
Do any of you have flying dreams?
Switching gears to the meeting of The Directorate on Zoom: The date is Saturday, April 10th at 8:30 p.m. Does that work for North America and New Zealand/Australia? I will send an invite to everyone who submitted a comment last week saying that she wanted to join. Anyone who missed the first invitation can submit a comment below; just say you want in. And go back to read last week’s post!
How is this for format: We’ll chat for 45-60 minutes and divide the time between me answering questions (Ask the Directrice about her Middle East Peace Plan! Or for her budget for providing quality long-term care to the country’s aging senior population!) and a quick zip around the Zoom-room so that I can be properly introduced to each of you. I’d love to have faces and voices to match with your handles.
How I’d very much like to take part of this Zoom meeting… but I leave in Western Europe so would that fit in the schedule? And english is not my first language so there is that..
I’ve been reading, admiring your blog and the way you dress, live, for quite some years now but always to shy to comment (or nothing special to add…).
Anyway I will keep the date in my diary, just in case.
8:30 pm for means 1:30 for me so… I might very well be already asleep, even if it is saturday!
No flying dreams. On those rare occasions when I did dream I would sometimes levitate. Levitating is spooky and useful. Consider how helpful it would be in the time of Covid-19 .
The brooch reminds me of the crane wife, from the Japanese folk tale of the same name.
I do want to join the Zoom after all, so please include me. Also, I frequently dream I’m flying, but not always high enough to elude what I’m trying to escape.
This post is a great example of why I love the blog. It’s not just the style, but the variety of entertaining references from Bjork to E.B. White — “swan done right” (lol). Please count me in for the Zoom gathering.
I would like to join the Zoom call also. Is a notable piece of apparel obligatory? (It would be fun!)
I used to have flying dreams, but now dreams are few and far between because my sleep is so disrupted by menopausal hot flashes.
Jung had a lot to say about flying in dreams. If I’m remembering correctly he thought it might be an indicator of psychological inflation and of not being grounded enough, as in the Puer Aeturnus archetype. FWIW.
In the Relevant Anecdote Category, I submit this. You and I were in junior high. We were discussing our love of green. One of us pointed out, “But not *all* greens go together.” I fished from my dresser some loden green pants and a kelly green top. You looked at them, horrified and delighted, burst out laughing, and asked me, “How did you choose those so quickly?!?”
Laurette! xoxo! Thank you for providing this important glimpse into the folded brain of The Directrice. As I wrote this entry, I had a nagging thought at the back of my mind: “Perhaps I should say something about kelly green?” but I couldn’t have said why it occurred to me until I read your comment. And then I remembered! Well done then and now, to provide the exception that proves the rule. Part of the reason I omitted kelly green from the post is that I couldn’t explain why kelly green is so challenging. My only thought was that it’s such an intense color. There is no light kelly green or pale kelly green. Fortunately, Katie has provided a scientific explanation below: it’s a combination of intensity (saturation) and purity. It has no undertones or shading, which makes it much more challenging to wear with other greens.
But of course I will join the International Directrice Gathering (IDB for short)!
Meanwhile, every time we have the “Green Discussion,” I am reminded of a minor trauma I experienced during a spa vacation at Canyon Ranch. There I was, enjoying a hard-earned, healthy, pampered, restorative girls’ vacation. It has been my habit to engage in at least one off-beat service during any spa vacation. That year, the service involved some sort of psychic color-reading. When I expressed my affection for various shades of green (including the one represented by your twinset), the practitioner recoiled in horror and said: “That color is ANGRY DEATH. This is very serious.” I have never fully recovered from this Green Trauma, for which I believe I paid $225 to experience. But seeing this — and your previous (5 years ago) post on mixed greens does provide motivation for baby steps. It has been a travesty to have hazel eyes and avoid greens. The swan / swallow is most excellent and very evocative of the movie, even if you insist it is a swallow.
Swan done right, indeed – what a cool brooch. I once went as “mixed greens” to a Halloween party, dressed head to toe in all the green items of clothing I owned. I did not win the costume contest.
I also dream of flying from time to time (which I love), and I find it a little incredible that I have also had the dream-experience of flying which morphs into kind of boing-ing, jumping pogo-stick style (I love this, too). Is this a common dream?
I had a mixed-greens Halloween costume too! The best part was the two different green shoes over two different green socks with green fishnets over sheer green tights. Someone thought I was “sexy Grinch”. Someone else thought I was Cyndi Lauper. : /
I agree with E above. The brooch looks more like an egret or crane, but once you start to think of something in a certain way, it’s difficult to change that. It doesn’t look like a swallow. At any rate, some sort of white waterbird.
I also like green, but live in Wisconsin. Since I tend to shop thrift shops, it is difficult to get green here. Why, you might ask? Because everyone is a Packers fan. The thrift stores know this, and even if you find something green, it is often priced waaay above other similar clothing. Very annoying.
I went and looked at the peacock blouse, and agree that you shouldn’t have given it away. It looked fabulous on you. Oh well, maybe it will come back someday.
I would very muck love to hear your plan for peace in the Middle East, I bet it would include a complete wardrobe-plan! If it´s possible I would like to attend the meeting!
I often dream that I can fly, not in a very elegant way but rather clumsy. However, it feels very good and someday I will probably step out from a cliff and on the way down realise that oh, this wasn´t a dream!
Green is my favourite colour and I`m continuosly building on my Green Bag Collection, where the queen at the moment is a Mulberry Bayswater in jungle green – a perfect shade of green!
Immediately inscribing Directorate meeting for 4/10 in my calendar. I had a momentary horror there was a scheduling conflict with my book club, but that was fortunately a mistaken fear. Looking forward to seeing and hearing from this crowd.
FWIW, I have NEVER dreamt I am flying, and I am jealous of those who have. My recurring dream is of standing on a steep beach as a massive tidal wave approaches.
Do you still want to me to attend.
Weirdy-green fan checking in! I find the swan comforting, I can imagine it cooing to you softly throughout the day (though I don’t know if swans — or cranes — actually coo). I haven’t had a flying dream since late childhood, when I had them regularly and remembered them very vividly. My flying was more like swimming in the air, I propelled myself with kicks and strokes, it was quite relaxing.
Looking forward to April 10!
I would like to be part of the Sat zoom. Your swan/ crane is beautiful, however it seems to me a cat might easily mistake it for a plaything! I also dream of floating/ flying above crowds, hopefully not due to inflated ego though.
Yes please count me in too, for the Saturday Zoom. I cannot wait to hear about your latest cashe of obscure websites that offer the most enticing treasures. Thank you!
The greens are wonderful! The pant pockets are sublime.
Can’t wait to put a voice to the face Directrice! See you in April!
Love all your posts and wonderful accessories! I’d love to attend the zoom on April 10.
My absolute favorite piece of clothing that I’ve ever worn was (is) a celery-green silk copy of an Adrian gown in the color fashion-show montage in “The Women”. It’s funny now that I think about it, everything I have that’s green is something I love so fiercely that I remember exactly when and where I got it. (And I hope to come to the Zoom!)
I would love to attend the inaugural Zoom meeting of the Directorate! Please count me in. I comment rarely but read religiously, and particularly admire your eclectic taste in brooches and necklaces. One of my favourite colours to wear is what some would call acid green, and what I prefer to call chartreuse. Is there a difference? Not sure.
I have never had flying dreams, only falling ones. Wonder what Jung would think of that?? I have just bought the most fantastic green jacket on yoox. It will go with some gorgeous green pants and dresses from sezane which needed a bit of winter proofing. It’s light in tone and warm rather than cool in undertone. A light bright yellow green. As a professional colour analyst I will weigh in on why your greens work. The twin-set is a definite warm and the loden a soft warm. They are also both somewhat muted, unlike a kelly green which is a very saturated colour. The twin-set is muted or diluted with a large shot of white, the loden with grey and also brown. The kelly green that someone mentioned is clear, a very pure unmuted colour and pure colours often don’t look great with browned/greyed colours. (Although they can look ok with certain browns and grey’s). That’s my long answer
Thank you for this excellent explanation, Katie! Follow-up question: Can kelly green be paired with any other green?