I Would Buy Myself a Gray Guitar and Play

I didn't love it all, but Alexander Wang did grey great for his Spring 2010 show. Deconstruting the American Jock, all gym wear gone couture, Wang continued to show a panache for smart and cool. Here, I love the unexpectedness of the skirt. I think the top would look kick ass with some high-waisted, black, stovepipe pants and chunky, tan heels.

Sartorially, I have been gravitating frequently to gray these days.

This is arguably the penultimate look from the collection, with those killer shoulders and sleeves, the high point color contrast of neutrals, and a tongue-in-cheek slur against sportswear and high fashion. Socks like that make my knees look weird but I'll take the shoes please.

I’ve got this gray, Silence and Noise tank, the tank version of this leotard, that I have been rocking frequently. Out of embarrassment I wore my striped shirt today to get my coffee but then changed back into this comfy number once again home. I’m washing it tomorrow so it can come to the wedding in Philo with me this weekend.

The color palette here is mostly grays and greys and tan and khaki, laced with red and denim. The knits are sloppy chic and I drool. The black looks at the end of the show were no good to me.

I’ve got a treasured, heather gray maxi skirt that hangs off the A quite nicely. It’s a bit moody and a bit blue in some lights but I love it. I got it at a clothing exchange years ago. The silhouette is statuesque yet flowy, and it somehow makes me seem taller than I am. And, again, it’s GRAY so it too has been put into rotation quite frequently as of late.

But I keep thinking about this collection as I keep straying to the gray knits every morning. It's a bit odd, but I'd love it right now. It's so Bay Area weather-appropriate and cool.

Finally, I’ve got that rad fur vest that Erin gave me. This is maybe my favorite thing ever.

Calvin Klein is just one of my favorite brands ever. The tailoring and cool simplicity kicks it out of the ballpark again and again. And Francisco Costa can do no wrong in my eyes, so I of course love this line for Spring 2010.

I want to stress that this does not mean my mood is grey nor should this suggest to anyone Not in the Bay that we are currently plagued by gray weather, because my mood is pretty high and the weather is AMAZING, all blue skies and warm temps and “Man I love it here.” I think the lack of color here has more to do with a desire to pop.

To me it's simple yet interesting, somehow both tailored and voluminous. I love the smoky palette that turns pastel. I love that how ethereal and messy the fabric appears.

See springtime in Berkeley is an explosion of color, the brightest in the spectrum, everywhere, everything in bloom, flowering, bitchslapping my sinuses with their pollen-heavy splendor, Roy G. Biv dropping rhymes all over town, Nature just showing off–so wearing gray is almost the only way to be seen.

Look how the material just suddenly becomes diaphanous. Notice how the crinkles defy gravity. Check out the cool, Asian-inspired shoes.

Plus, gray has always been a favorite color.¹ It’s soft or bad-moody, heathered and feathery, cloudy, stormy, smoky and sullen, ash and stone, concrete and cerebellum.

For Spring 2010, Gucci sent out all these amazing hardware splattered dresses and frocks, like this one here. The clothes were all athletic yet sci-fi fantasy.

It’s also a variant spelling word, which as a Grammar Dork and Crossword Doer and Logophile I think is really cool. G-R-E-Y, like the Metric System, appears to be the preferred everywhere but America. “GrAy” in America and “grEy” in England. Both me and Wikipedia have heard that gray can refer literally to the color and grey to the metaphorical mood or state of being. Or GreyvsGray.com says they can refer too to different shades of gray.²

A lot of the great outfits in this collection were white, but this grey monochrome is quite alluring, and I love the idea of a close-cropped, tight throughout suit.

1. And August and Everything After has always been one of my favorite albums.
2. Words are so badass.

This is another monochrome look from Frida Gianni that I'm quite taken with. I could done without the all-black looks in this collection, because, well, boring. But the tribal-esque ikat looks were good, and all blue, red, black, and gray. I'll take this coat right now though please. Thank you. Ok, I love you, bye-bye.