IT BY SARAH G. SCHMIDT

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Change is a Calling... My Colour Palette?


I have been sitting with the idea on change in a deeper way these past few weeks. While I know it’s constant and I feel the urge to pull over to different territory as soon I settle into something. I do find it slightly odd, conceptually.

Can we find something odd even when we know it’s coming, we know it’s going to happen, we try to comfort others when they are going through change, but when it happens directly to ourselves – or perhaps me specifically - we’re like, “Hold on just a minute, cowgirl.”?

This is my reality.

My current state of simmering change on the horizon has to do with my clothing. Certain shades of colours are interesting me more than before. As a light featured faux blonde, I tend to stay away from colours that are close to my skin tone. I like a pop and a rosy beige makes my face disappear. That said, colours that are a bit adjacent to that – muddy taupe and deep, warm caramels – are started to sing the sirens call. Milk chocolate hues entered my closet party in 2023, perhaps it was the gateway to a more brown closet town?

“Why this change? And why now?” I ask myself in an effort to confirm or discount my impulses…

Is it societal pounding the volume of neutrals in my face finally seeping in?

Is there anything that is “off limits” for change in my closet aside from shorts? I know that it must feel fabulous on to get to come outside in the world with me but what “feels fabulous” on must change over time, no?

Is it a side step away from crème and ivory – which I love – for a more stain-friendly option that is trying to pull me in close?

Though I loathe to admit it, has becoming a parent changed my taste?

Could I be the person who narrows their wardrobe as opposed to constinuosly evolving?

Or maybe more to the nut of it: why am I pushing back on liking a new-to-me set of colours just because previously they didn’t interest me?

With life, I uphold the idea that one should change their mind. With more information and experience I think it quite mystifying that one would hold fast in former ways. I believe that when we know better, we do better. That’s the point of staying curious and seeking to learn. Like how could one ever possibly know all they want and need to know and hold doggedly onto that state?

Can and should clothes be the same? My quick reply: of course they will change. Don’t over think it.

When guiding my clients to embrace new phases of their life - be it life changes, mindset changes, or body changes – I encourage them to go where they feel best.

Had a baby a couple years ago and this is your latest version of your body. A literal miracle.

Have you went down or up a couple sizes? Cool. Let’s flatter your body today.

Are you spending more time in a city away from Calgary? Let’s get you looks that work for that climate or vibe.

New promotion, position, or point of view at work calling for a tweak? Let’s do it.

You’ve sharing a life shift and desire for a style pivot? Let’s get you freshened up and feeling fine, fashion friend.

If I can do it with clients, why am I being so extra existential with it personally? Can I chalk it up to being a high generating, intense vibing Pisces, or is it something else?

However much I respect folks that have their look established and love themselves in it and sometimes sheepishly wonder if that could ever be me? I say sheepishly because I already know my current answer to that deceitful question. An insatiable maximalist mood dresser you are and that is where you’ll thrive. As such, you’ll change with the tides, moon, seasons, and whatever life takes me.

Change is good, change is great, and change is inevitable. “Get in loser, we’re going shopping,” springs to mind. First stop that’s tickling my fancy: taupe-ville followed by caramel land.