The Art of Style by Kit Mills 030: Orange is the New Black

Poll: Would you rather spend a year in prison or a year in the subway tunnels?

When I’m standing in a crowded space, I like making visual connections between people who are wearing the same color, or a similar outfit. Sometimes I’ll look at two people who are next to each other and figure out which elements of their outfits are the most similar. There’s always something, even if one has to shift the interpretation from the visual to the conceptual end of things.

For example, the comparison between a feathered and sequined drag queen and a suited-up businessman is easier to draw than you might think. Both are wearing a specific “uniform” for a specific space, and with those uniforms each is signifying their ability or willingness to perform a specific role within that specific space. Each uniform brings with it the expectation of certain mannerisms, ways of speaking, and ways of occupying space. However, choosing whether to perform within the confines of those expectations or subvert them is up to the “performer” in question.

Or, you know, there could be two people wearing teal sitting next to each other. It’s a roll of the dice.

Sometimes, however, two people waltz down a mostly-empty subway platform with outfits that mesh together perfectly. In this case, I can’t tell whether it was intentional or if these two were just on the same sartorial wavelength while they were each getting ready to go out. Either way, they both wore that fruity orange really well.

Orange is the new black.

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