Saturday 26 June 2021

There's Something Iconic About Pink And Yellow

 


5 Iconic Pink Outfits: (in no particular order)

1. Jackie Kennedy's Pink Suit


2. Marylin Monroe's pink dress (Gentleman Prefer Blondes)


3. The 'Pink's' jackets (Grease)


4. Marie Antoinette (Marie Antoinette 2006)


5. Audrey Hepburn's pink dress (Breakfast at Tiffany's) (I haven't officially watched this one to the end yet)




5 Iconic Yellow Outfits:

1. Clueless (1995)



2. Belle (Beauty and the Beast 1991)



3. The Bride (Kill Bill 2003) (I haven't seen this one yet either, but the outfit is really famous)




4. La La Land


5. Mirror Mirror



There's just something about pink and yellow. Especially blocks of pink or yellow. Something about these colours, particularly in an outfit, that make it iconic. Although that is true for most colours since blocks of colour usually grab our attention anyways, but I'm curious as to why these colours stick out so much. Maybe it's simply the fact that pink and yellow are very bright, showy, care-free colours and thus, they make an impression with all it's timeless simplicity. Maybe it's not any deep sort of answer except that pink and yellow are just fun colours. So many things have a deep meaning, or require some heavy thought that having the bright pop of it feels like a relief. It's pretty, so we enjoy it without worrying about it, because there are no consequences liking a colour. Maybe it's the contrast that appeals to us. Maybe there is a deeper answer in some cases. Maybe it's all of the above. It doesn't have to be one thing.

Common colour theory associations with yellow according to, alumni.sae.edu/2016/03/08/what-do-colors-mean-and-represent/: Yellow is a color associated with sun. It symbolizes optimism, energy, joy, happiness and friendship. It might also stand for intellect. On the contrary, yellow can indicate jealousy, betrayal, illness and danger

Pink is one of those colours that is usually seen as a very feminine colour. Sometimes pink has been associated with being weak, being girly, unable to take things seriously. A lot of people, myself included, seemed to go through the same 'against anything girly' thing because for whatever reason we thought that enjoying feminine things meant you couldn't be smart, or you were weak or whatever it was. At least as far as I went, I never cared if other people liked it, but I just didn't like it personally at the time. It seems silly to me now, but it's kind of nice to know that I wasn't the only one who had the same aversion to it at the time.

 And that goes for guys too, guys that liked pink were strange and obviously couldn't be manly at the same time. But now, despite the fact that throughout film history in particular we've clearly always loved pink and yellow, the general cultural view on pink (or yellow) seems to be that it's more of an empowering colour now. Pink is a colour to have fun with. Loving pink doesn't always equate to being silly or vapid anymore. Which again, there was never anything wrong with pink or yellow, and clearly a lot of people have always loved pink and yellow, it's just sometimes that's how it's been portrayed. Now movies like Clueless for example, took advantage of this stereotype by taking the (at first) seemingly spoiled, rich, dumb blonde girl who only liked to shop and wear (iconic btw) outfits by dressing her up, reveling in the femininity of it while also fleshing her out and showing that she was much more than a 2-dimensional mall-shopping teenager. 



Some (More or Less) Iconic Outfits that only have a touch of pink or yellow

1. Grace (Ready or Not)

2. Harley Quinn (Birds of Prey) 

3. Emma (Emma 2020) (Emma always has some yellow around her wherever she is)


4. Harry Styles

5. My Neighbor Totoro



6. Debora (Baby Driver)


So what do you guys think about pink and yellow? Like it, hate it? Why do you think it's so iconic? What's some of your favourite iconic outfits that have these colours? There's so many outfits I could have put in this post but I didn't. I've been wanting to do this post for awhile and a pink-suited vampire finally pushed me to get it done. I might go watch Pretty in Pink for the first time after this. It seems fitting.

8 comments:

  1. I adore when costume designers or artists go crazy with the color palette. So glad Ed Sheeran decided to embrace it. It felt very K-pop which I loved!! Fantastic choices, all iconic. Harry Styles whole wardrobe has been a moment of it's own. I hope this trend sticks around.
    Hope you like Pretty in Pink it's my favorite 80's movie.

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    1. Same! Costume designer's going crazy with their colour palettes is the best. Me too, I love his vampire look. K-pop really has a specific colour style to it and I love it too.
      Right! Hopefully, considering how pink has made an impact throughout a bunch of eras most likely it'll never completely go out of trend.
      I did!

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  2. I love the story of theory or meaning of colors. I think a lot of pink is maybe a more modern color? At least shocking pink because I don't think it could be achieved through many natural dyes as easily as other colors?

    I never went through an tomboy anti-pink phase, but I have long preferred purple (which is apparently a color that people either love or hate). I gravitate towards roses and mauves rather than "true" pinks it clothes now.

    I think color, like so many other things in clothes is important to movies, I don't understand when people just brush off the costuming, clothes are a form of expression, they need to match the character.

    I've yet to see Emma 2020, my sisters and I think are going to watch it together, but I noticed in Emma 2009 there is quite a bit of yellow and blue (love that combo) that Emma wears (I just love the costuming in that version, the prettiest of all the adaptations I've seen), and she wears a pale pink silk to the ball.

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    1. Same! Colour theory is so interesting to me. It probably is, that would make a lot of sense actually.

      Purple is really pretty colour. That makes sense, there's something timeless about those shades. I've gotten a few light pink shirts recently so I think I'm finding myself doing something similar.

      Agreed! Colour and costumes in movies deserve so much more appreciation than the get a lot of the time. Exactly.

      Ooh! I hope you like it. It's a gorgeous movie and Anya Taylor Joy is my personal favourite Emma. The costumes and style of the movie is incredible, a couple people have described it as looking like a Faberge egg. Oh that's right! I totally forgot about her pale pink dress. It was so pretty. I should rewatch that adaptation, it's been so long.

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  3. Ooh, great post! This just made me so happy. I love both colors, and I loved all of your choices for iconic outfits.

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    1. Thanks! Aw, I'm glad! Same though, I had way too much fun badly singing along to the songs I put while looking at pictures of iconic outfits. I kind of want to do another post like this for different colours but we'll see if that happens or not. Glad you liked them! I wouldn't necessarily say these are my all time favourite pink or yellow outfits in some cases, but they're really pretty or iconic still on their own.

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  4. I hadn't thought of this, but I love it! Something about pink and yellow just pop off the screen. I think you've nailed what it is! That outfit with the hood from Mirror Mirror is one of my favorites.

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    1. I'm glad! It really does. Glad you agree! Livia Rachelle's point about shocking pink in particular being very hard to replicate naturally and so it's kind of a modern colour made so much sense to me so between that and the points I mentioned it does seem to make a lot of sense. It's such a pretty outfit!

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