‘Mimosa’ is the uplifting color of the moment
Not so mellow yellow
It won’t make spring come any faster. Or make the economy any better. But a little bit of yellow can brighten the day. And come spring, and even beginning now, there’s a lot of yellow to go around.
On the fashion runways, designer Michael Kors showed playful separates in bright yellow with big white polka dots.
Ann Taylor, Target and other retailers are showing yellow totes, yellow belts and other accessories on the sunny side.
In home magazines and catalogs, you’re seeing yellow walls, yellow accent tables, yellow bedding, yellow pillows, yellow clocks.
And click onto the Williams-Sonoma Web site, and an array of yellow cookware greets you.
No wonder. The word from Pantone, the global color-forecasting company, is that mellow yellow — or specifically a color it calls mimosa — is its color of the year.
The reason: In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow.
Local design consultant Karen Fick Arrison is one woman who has added yellow to both her wardrobe and surroundings.
“I used Benjamin Moore’s Hawthorne Yellow on the outside of our cottage in Chautauqua a year ago, so I’m way ahead of you, baby,” she laughs.
She also chose “reader” glasses in brass with yellow accents. And she wears yellow.
“I started wearing yellow four years ago. I do better with a buttercup color — something a little more subtle,” says Arrison, a brown-eyed blond.
Yellow is comforting and uplifting, she says.
Margaret Jendrejzak feels the same way.
“I could not live without yellow in my house,” says Jendrejzak, the in-home decorator at Calico Corners, 5501 Main St., Williamsville.
Five years ago February, she hung yellow-and-white-striped wallpaper in her living room.
“I have to walk by the living room every morning to make my coffee. And every morning that wallpaper tricks me into thinking it’s sunny outside,” she says.
“I surround myself with bright happy color because it affects me tremendously. Bright yellow is inspiring, but I also think one of the reasons it is so popular — with the economy the way it is — is that it offers hope for the future.”
And here’s something else to think about: Yellow goes with many other colors.
Jendrejzak likes it with black, white, blue, even raspberry.
The warm, cheery color is especially popular as an accent this season.
Expect to see it in women’s accessories, home furnishings, active sportswear, men’s ties and shirts, even on signs, the color experts at Pantone tell us.
That’s not to say that yellow is entirely new. Mustard yellow was trendy for fall, while a full range of yellows including citrus brights surfaced last spring in some collections.
Liz Claiborne, for one, showed a soft lemon yellow with gray last spring.
But, for now, it may just be what the style doctor ordered.
Some things to try:
• With the nautical look popular once again for spring, add a splash of yellow instead of the more typical red. Consider a belt, a bag, a scarf, even shoes or sandals.
• Perk up the kitchen table with a vase of daffodils or yellow tulips when you see them at the supermarket or florist. Or go for silk yellow flowers if you want something that will last longer.
• Treat yourself to some golden highlights in your hair.
Yellow also surfaces in menswear on the fashion runways — and some yellow ties have already been spotted on men around town.
Yellow ties, in fact, may just be the easy update for men — as opposed to wearing a canary yellow sport coat, for example.
“For men, we’re not pushing yellow — except for some fun ties,” says Bernhard Huber, of O’Connell Lucas Chelf, a clothier at 3240 Main St.
“Yellow is a really important color for women,” he notes, “but men are still buying the oranges and purples — predominately purple.”
Those who want to surround themselves with yellow, on the other hand, have a wide palette of colors to choose from.
Longtime decorator and author Alexandra Stoddard has said that yellow is an excellent color for halls where there isn’t much daylight, for example.
“This is a good color for a front hall because it’s a fresh color to come home to,” she wrote in one of her decorating books.
And the late legendary interior decorator Mark Hampton once proclaimed: “Candlelight in a yellow room is sensational.”
Arrison’s suggestion for people wanting to add some yellow to their homes: “Fear not.
“Color is our least expensive tool and our most powerful tool. In this economy, who wouldn’t want to use their most inexpensive tool?” she says.
Forever Yellow
Yellow may be the trendy color of the year, especially as an accent in fashion and home decor, but these items are synonymous with the cheery shade:
• The long yellow coat and hat worn by Warren Beatty in “Dick Tracy,” 1990.
• Big Bird
• Smiley faces
• Rain slickers
• Daffodils
• French’s Classic Yellow Mustard
• Cabs
• Kids’ drawings of the sun
• No. 2 pencils
• School buses
• Legal pads
• The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”
• McDonald’s Golden Arches
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