The colours of my soul

My favourite colours are teal/green/aqua/turquoise colour and a plum/purple type colour

My mum has been making fun of me recently for my ‘obsession’ with the two colours I wear most often. I know these are my favourite colours (well the green teal is my favourite and the plum purple comes a close second and I like wearing them. Actually it's hard to find the right colours on the internet. My favourite green colours are a little richer and brighter than that shown.) She was showing me dark blue shoes from Clarks that she thought I might want for Christmas. She said that they were pretty close to perfect and fulfilled all the other specifications of shoe (comfortable, flat, good quality leather, Mary Jane style). I politely declined saying that the colour is most important.

I was having another conversation with a friend the other day. He didn’t understand why I had to have a purple or green backpack because I wouldn’t see it and it didn’t matter. I know it matters to me. The colours I wear and own really matter to me so I’d like to share my feelings.

They make me feel very good. That green/teal/aqua/turquoise colour makes me feel calm, peaceful and contented and that plum/purple colour makes me feel creative, happy and full of possibilities. I think these are the colours of my inner being.
I have spent most of my life feeling miserable, at this point I am growing and developing. I am on the road to healing and feeling great about myself, I need to do everything possible to not feel depressed, miserable and dead. Wearing these colours plays a big part, as does seeing those colours.

This is why I not only wear purple and green clothes, I also have teal/turquoise bed linen, necklaces, accessories, phone and iPod covers. I feel happy and like me when I see those colours and so I surround myself with them to create a welcoming, nurturing environment for myself.

In addition to those two colours I also like wearing rich, bright colours and lots of bright flowery dress. Most people I see wear black, white, brown and navy all the time. Occasionally I see pastel colours and toned down, muted colours of light brown, orange, peach colours but mostly I see the first four. To me they are so boring. They are very dull colours with no feeling, no life at all.

Black is such a depressing colour, it is the absence of light. It is the colour of nothing, literally. Yet this is the colour most people choose to wear all the time!

I actually conducted a survey in my town centre of colours worn by people. I saw almost exclusively denim jeans on the bottom half. Black was the most popular top and jacket colour. The next most popular colour was white. The next three were brown, navy and grey. This contributed about 98% of all colours worn. This was in the summer. It’s no wonder why there is so much misery in Britain today.

I have noticed that wearing certain colours affect my mood and my mind and feelings. When I wear black or white I feel so boring and like I blend in with everyone else.

When I was little girl I mostly wore bright dresses often with lots of bright flowers on them. When I was 11 I wore almost exclusively jeans and white polo shirts for a year. No idea why. When I was a teenager I developed my own style. I wore black, white, brown, pale pink and pale blue. All plain clothes, no logos or floral prints or anything. Those were the the only colours I wore.

I was really miserable back then. In fairness I did hate school, I didn’t fit in, I had trouble being myself and I had extremely overbearing, high academically achieving parents so I had a lot of problems.

Looking back however, now I only wear colours I like and make me feel calm and happy, I am wondering if I had worn different colours whether I would have felt more comfortable, I would have been able to handle the issues I faced a bit better?

I’m half caste/mixed race/ dual heritage, whatever you want to call me. Although I’m less half and dual, more like a complete mongrel. My father is white and my mum is black but not very, very dark. Her father is Indian colouring and her mum is very dark black African colouring. They are both from Trinidad. Beyond them I’ve got Nigerian ancestry, Carib Indian, Scottish, Portuguese, all over the place ancestry so I am more mixed than many people.

I have noticed that I can pull off wearing most colours because of my light brown skin, although I look best wearing my favourite colours. They complement my skin tone and make it glow; bringing out the warmth of my skin colour. Maybe that’s why they are my favourite because they suit my skin so well.

Maybe most people wear dull colours because they’re the ones you see most in shops, the ones fashion gurus are always telling people to wear?

Maybe people like wearing dull colours to blend in with everybody else? Maybe they also want to blend in with our dull, boring concrete architecture that’s mostly greyish, brownish; all our roads are black tarmac as well.

Maybe they’re too afraid of standing out? I know I stand out amongst the crowd now, I like doing so but many people do not.
Maybe people are too afraid to be themselves? We're all taught to fit in at all costs from childhood. Could that be another way people fit in? By wearing the same colours as everybody else?

I know my personality now, I like standing out. I am not as afraid to be myself these days and I think a proportion of it is the clothes I wear. I also wear exclusively dresses and skirts now and I wear necklaces every day. I feel more confident.

There is so much misery in Britain and the world today: Are the colours we wear a symptom or a cause?

How important are the colours we wear and the colours we see?