on personal style + some colour palettes
I've never been much into fashion and, for the most part of my life, have not been very good at "presenting myself." I don't think I've ever given anyone shit for it, but I think somewhere deep down, I held the opinion that caring about your appearance or style beyond the bare minimum was superficial, consumerist and vain.
However, over the years, this attitude has changed a bit. For one, I started playing around with the idea of "personal colour palettes" using my fountain pens, i.e. combining different inks or choosing good pen-ink-matches.
Another big, noticeable shift occured sometime last year, when I watched some videos by Percia Verlin on YouTube. Until then, "fashion people" and the things they talked about had always seemed foreign and inaccessible to me. But these videos were different. I liked how they weren't so much about "always having / getting the latest fashion" but focused on slowly building a wardrobe you felt comfortable with and that looked good.
I still hate clothes shopping, but I've been thinking more about things like style and colour palettes aside from their application in art. Clothing, furniture, accessories, that kind of stuff. I've found that having some kind of guideline for my personal style makes it easier to choose things when I have to choose something, and generally speaking I find it very satisfying to put together a "set of things" (be it an outfit, a collection of stationery, design elements on a website...) that fits well together.
Of course, when it comes to colours, everyone has their favourites. Personally, I'm a big fan of green and other "nature / earthy" tones. Here are some of the color palettes that I've been interested in. The images below are screenshots from Adobe Color (Adobe sucks, but at least this tool is free to use. Doesn't even require a login).
01
This is an example of a colour palette variation that plays in a visual space that I've codenamed "Woodland Winds." Beige functions as the base color, and on top of that are (mostly desaturated) greens and browns. These colors make me think of Japanese woodblock prints or sliding screen paintings showing rocky coasts with pine trees, or the landscape along the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. I associate it with a maritime, rough kind of airiness and an ascetic sense of calm, being unbothered by needless worries ... all things that are very attractive or "aspirational" to me (they represent some kind of ideal that I want to get closer to / embody more).
02
This one is closer to what my current wardrobe leans towards (or at least the part of it that I've "curated" so far). It's still focused on the same colours, but a bit darker, with some yellow (or brass/copper) as an accent colour. The yellows can be a bit lighter and more saturated than the one in the picture, I like it when they "pop." I often use Magic: The Gathering card illustrations as jumping-off poitns for colour exploration, and this one for Eidolon of Blossoms by Seb McKinnon is one of my favourites. I have a physical copy of it that I use as a bookmark (since I don't play MtG anymore).
03
Aside from the "green-brown + accent color" combo (based on trees and plants, of course), green and blue is another combination I like. These palettes tend to feel a bit "fresher" than the ones using brown / beige as their grounding colors. In my experience, they're also not as easy to put together in real life. I've chosen the codename "Springwater Country" for the visual space they represent. I associate them with images of lush, rural landscapes crisscrossed by rivers and streams.
04
A more vibrant, summery variation of the green-and-blue-based palette. I'm not brave enough (yet) to choose overly bright colors like this for clothing, except for some individual summer pieces. The colours here make me think of limes and lemons. I love almost all kinds of citrus fruit. A texture / material that works really well with these palettes is that of smooth, slightly green- or blue-tinted glass, like an old coke bottles that's slightly warped and has tiny bubbles suspended in it.
I might turn this into another garden post and add or exchange some of these palettes as my style of tastes change and evolve.