Green 'n go
MEDIUM RARE
When I showed up at lunch one day, there began immediately a smallscale debate on what color I was wearing. Salmon? Orange? No, I said, peach, or better yet, peachy.
Color of the year, I added. Thereupon began another debate. Peach is not the color of the year, someone said, it’s green because it’s the year of the Wood Dragon, wood signifying the green of trees and nature.
All right, correct, green may be the year’s feng shui color but peach is Pantone’s color of the year, Pantone being the people who pick colors from their palettes to determine THE color of the year for fashion, i.e., clothes, as well as interiors, furnishings, signages and such. Basically, there are only the seven colors of the rainbow, but we all know that’s basic physics. For example, I read somewhere that there are 42 shades of white – and all along we thought white was a noncolor. But if white was a noncolor, what did that make of black?
Not to be technical about it, but white is all colors, such as light going through a prism. Brides wear white to symbolize their purity. Black, on the other hand, is a noncolor because it indicates the absence of light. It’s the color of evil, darkness, the absence of good, it’s worn by witches and warlocks, by children playing ghosts and ghoulies on Halloween. Some ladies you know won’t be caught dead in any color but black for formal evening occasions.
Between white and black is a glorious range of colors. “What’s your favorite color?” is a question strangers ask to break the ice. The Chinese love red to celebrate life, happiness, vitality.
When Fermin Reyes celebrated his 70th birthday last month, he asked his friends to “come in green,” thank you for not specifying which green. Evelyn Tan wore jade green prints. Olive Ang came in a rich emerald green. Manny Samson’s green plaids were streaked with blue, white, yellow. Baby Arenas came in red. Benjie Yap was in sage. Fermin wore an apple-green Lacoste with little crocodiles. For obvious reasons, Marivic Vazquez’s frothy pink and Nancy Yang’s birthday-red stood out, but not as dramatically as when Annie Giger arrived, late, wearing acid-green hair. Way to go!!!!