What Is Timelessness?
Does it even matter?
The other day, I posed an existential fashion question as an attempt to start a conversation about an overarching concept with my Twitter audience. What can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment.
That concept, as you may have deduced from the title, was “timelessness”—specifically, why color, or the lack of, is such a strong focus in advice on how to achieve a timeless wardrobe.
My question, to sum it up, was “why do you feel non-neutral colors are considered incompatible with a ‘timeless’ wardrobe?”
Now, obviously, I didn’t get this sentiment out of nowhere: the majority of guides and advice and affiliate link-laden articles about “How to Build a Timeless (Capsule) Wardrobe” focuses heavily on neutral colors that “match everything” and “never go out of style.” Black, beige, grey, brown, maybe a little navy—you know, as a treat. No bold colors (beyond a “pop of red”) just in case they don’t match every other thing you own, and absolutely no patterns outside of maybe plaid or a stripe. But, what about neutrals specifically are “timeless?”
A lot of people mentioned that certain eras are associated with a specific color palette—neon for the 80s, or earth tones for the 70s, for example—and therefore can be “easily dated,” but, while it’s true that every era has a fairly representative color palette…those colors are still sold, now. Colors trend, but other colors don’t stop existing in the meantime. But, even beyond that, is anyone really looking at a burnt orange top and thinking “this top reminds me of 1974, when that color was popular?”
Remember “millennial pink?” It popped up on the scene around 2014 and was immediately everywhere, to the point that multiple articles were written about how it was the color that defined a generation. The exact shade was and still is hotly contested but general consensus says it’s a pale, slightly warm-toned or slightly cool-toned or fairly neutral-toned pink, occasionally referred to as “rose quartz.”
If you’re around my age (31), you probably know what I’m talking about. Maybe you bought something in this color. Maybe you bought a lot of somethings in this color. It was truly everywhere, with even Apple dropping a “rose gold” aka millennial pink version of the iPhone. It was being touted, essentially, as a new, non-neutral neutral that goes with anything and, as we know, neutrals are timeless and never go out of style…right?
But then, perhaps because of its association with Those Darned Millennials, it also drew a lot of backlash (I know…a color causing controversy…slow news decade, I guess). It was rejected for being too trendy, too commercial, even anti-feminist. Entire brands built their identity around millennial pink (ahem, Glossier) and then, in a flash, it became the worst thing you could be: basic.
My question today, is: do you think about millennial pink at all, now? Specifically, if you were to see someone wearing this color, would you think “oh, you definitely bought that between the years of 2014-2021…and that’s bad?” Or, would you hardly notice?
So…why would others think that about whatever color we’re wearing?