Combining Color: Part II - Urban Cues
When a color scheme is inspired by an urban environment, it’s not so much about pulling together different colors as it is combining shades along a continuum of the same color. Urban color schemes, if not on a grayscale, tend to be washed-out. When traditional urban garb is grayscale, greater attention is paid to the silhouette - the architecture of the silhouette mimics the architecture of a cityscape. This description defines the first of two genuinely urban looks: the Urbane and the Post-Apocalyptic Urban Primitive.
image: Yves Saint Laurent a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Undercover a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
The more traditional look, the Urbane, is one that I imagine would materialize from Ayn Rand’s objectivist universe: sophisticated, geometric, monotone and tailored. The Urbane tends to be synonymous with the Cognoscenti, regardless of whether or not that is truly the case. It is a look that is premeditated and geared toward plush interiors, not physical demands.
image: Ayn Rand stamp www.wikimedia.org
When designing these clothes, cues from the urban environment have equal chance of being inspired by a classic Gotham cityscape, such as that found in works by Tamara de Lempicka, or modern-day Tokyo.
image: “Portrait of Madame Boucard”, Tamara de Lempicka (1931) www.goodart.org
image: “Shibuya Nights” www.rasterman.com
Miuccia Prada comes from a background in architecture, which makes her label, Prada, quintessentially Urbane:
image: Prada a/w 2005-6 www.style.com
image: Prada a/w 2005-6 www.style.com
image: Prada s/s 2006 www.style.com
image: Prada s/s 2006 www.style.com
The following examples typify the Urbane look:
image: bruno Pieters a/w 2006-7 www.vogue.co.uk
image: bruno Pieters a/w 2006-7 www.vogue.co.uk
image: Jonathan Saunders a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Jonathan Saunders a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Jonathan Saunders a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Alice Roi a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Alice Roi a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Yves Saint Laurent a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Yves Saint Laurent a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Yves Saint Laurent a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
The less traditional urban look is what I call the Post-Apocalyptic Urban Primitive (PAUPer). The origin here is entirely Punk, and its nature is anti-establishment or anarchist.
image: Anarchist 2006 (I can’t remember where I got this…but I know that it was in response to a Bush visit.)
image: Undercover a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Undercover a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Undercover a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
The fabrics used for the PAUPer look take after a distressed urban environment, perceived from the grittier viewpoint of urban blight:
image: Buffalo, NY 2002
image: Gasworks Park Seattle, 2006
image: Buffalo, NY 2002
image: Graffiti Art Tacoma, WA 2006
image: Graffiti Art Tacoma, WA 2006
image: Rick Owens s/s 2006 www.style.com
image: Rick Owens s/s 2006 www.style.com
The PAUPer can also be reminiscent of costumes created for Japanese anime, particularly anime set in a futuristic Japanese city such as this:
image: screenshot from, “Ghost in the Shell: Innocence” (2004) www.gallery.point-blank.cc
image: Junya Watanabe a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Junya Watanabe a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
image: Junya Watanabe a/w 2006-7 www.style.com
What I find fascinating is that both the Urbane and the PAUPer are city dwellers. They are products of the same environment and can be found side-by-side navigating city sidewalks. It is startling, then, that reflections of the city in these two modes of dress are opposite visions: one viewpoint is from the high-rise, the other is from the pavement.