The fad not to be all "matchy, matchy",
Has truly become quite tacky, tacky.
I've lived so long, I've see all kinds of styles for dress and interior decorating. What for one generation is a sign of poor taste will become a fad a couple of generations later. But, really folks, the styles of the young stylists and decorators are going to invoke the need for eye transplants if we don't watch out. We are subjected to clashing, gaudy colors and clashing, clashing patterns ad nauseam.
Once in a while, we win some when the fads change. Some of my favorite color combinations today were once forbidden as style ineptitude. The use of brown with black as well as blue with green were seen as faux pas when I was in elementary school. I remember the great pleasure I found in the blouse I got after high school which showed a rusty brown and black on a white background. It was around all of the time after that. The banishment of blue against green was perhaps the most mysterious rule. I don't know how designers and decorators could have looked at God's blue sky against a green hill and found something wrong with that. Finally, they got some sense. We use them together in all shades and tints now.
During the early eighties, the big thing was to consult a specialist to find out our colors. We were divided into four groups based on the seasons. There were certain colors a "winter" should and shouldn't wear. Actually, most of the time it did improve the way women looked. The biggest mistake of this trend was telling us if we couldn't match the hem of our skirts with our shoes, then we should wear shoes that matched our hair. I still get a toothache thinking of seeing a woman in a print dress of wine and white and black print wearing rust colored shoes that did, indeed, match her poorly dyed hair. And, no, I would never say a word. Doing that would be in poor taste. She was an acquaintance who had just paid a color consultant for advice. By the way, our seasons of color were based on our skin tones and eye and hair color.
The trend not to be all "matchy, matchy", has been around a while. Apparently this new generation of style gurus sees something wrong with having shoes and purse in the same color, so they might choose black shoes with a red purse and an outfit that neither matches nor complements the combo. Say what? I've seen some lulus being shown as "a proper way to dress."
There is a long-term trend I can't wait to see end. This thing of having a blouse or shirt hanging out below a sweater or vest, like a high school kid's mother's worst nightmare, is a fad that should have had no beginning. It's almost as bizarre as watching a teenager's underpants show above his jeans or shorts.
The nightmare trends in decorating are almost as bad. A person could go cross eyed looking at pictures of rooms that combine geometrics with plaids, stripes, etc., etc., etc. It really does assail the senses. One or two predominant designs per room is really quite enough. Overkill in any endeavor has never been in good taste, fad or not.
And then there is the problem of designers going in and telling a client that their current scheme is not "them" at all. Now how in the world would the designer know what "them" is? Besides, it's downright rude. One article published had the designer telling the client that silks and colors were not them and switching the client to fabric that looked like pillow ticking -- changing her from luxury fabric to something that is commonplace among poor people who can't afford sheets and pillow cases. Beware of designers looking for work.
Just about bottom line is that nobody knows what you like better than you, no matter how experienced, famous or wealthy they are. If you feel peace or serenity or get a sense of thrill when you walk into a room, then you are the expert on what is you. I've heard such bizarre things as "you shouldn't use end tables at either end of a couch. You shouldn't use tables as they were designed to be used? Get real. But never fear, next year or the year after, everything will change again. How else can they keep those dollars rolling into their coffers if they leave everything the same?
