Two comments about what I’ve been wearing have made me chuckle lately. One was Karen’s on my last post about colour: she reminded me that, especially compared to her recent experiments, my combination of red and purple wasn’t as daring as I’d thought. Have you seen what that woman can mix together? — brilliant!
The other comment was made by my colleague/buddy in the next office (a young man whose humour and temperament keep me sane as we share student stories and commiserate through the darkest part of term). I wore the mauve cardigan, purple scarf combo as above the other day, and my colleague observed, “Hey, that purple looks good — you’re really getting your Advent on!”
Those of you not familiar with Christian liturgical observances might not have got this reference, but I grew up with the purple-ribboned Advent calendars, priestly purple robes and purple altar dressing at this time of year, so I knew what he was talking about — still, I’d have modified his observation to allow for the regal quality of my purple as well as its nod to the Advent season.
And if you want more evidence of the Advent season’s purples, look no further than the stunning purple berries of this grouping of callicarpa shrubs spotted last weekend (pre-Nola) on our walk to Granville Island in Vancouver. I’ve shown you photos before of the single small callicarpawe have in the back yard. This scene convinced us to put several more in with ours for a massed effect like this — so unexpected and so welcome in November and December.
All of the purples look great on you, but I LOVE those glasses! They are formidable!!!
This colour looks fantastic on you, and it’s exciting to me to see someone who can wear it. The blued and grayed purples are so different from a vibrant electric purple (which looks amazing on many women of colour). I too love the glasses!
Love the purples on you, and I have to agree about the glasses! They are fabulous!
Thanks all — you probably won’t be surprised to find that these frames are by Anne et Valentin. Their main store is in Paris, which is not where I bought mine, but I like to think the glasses are Parisien nonetheless.
All the purples are complimenting the red in your hair, which also looks terrific! What a happy new grandma smile! And no one would suspect grandma!!!
Purple is everywhere right now and rightly so – a rich, deep purple such as yours is perfect on men looking for an alternative to straight blue/black.
Get your advent on is my new December phrase.
Not being an authority on Christian liturgial observances, I’d never have gotten that reference! But the advent of purple in your wardrobe is nonetheless adventageous.
groan.
I had to.
Thanks, Dana — yes, I did notice that after my efforts to integrate red and purple in my wardrobe, I’m putting them together with my hair and glasses.
Thomas: I’m liking the phrase too — my boy Clay has a way with words!
Enc: Gotta love a bad pun!
I’ve never heard of callicarpa before, but it looks like we’re just on the tip of its hardiness zone here in Boston. I’ll have to look for this come spring, as I love purple!
Oh that is a good pun from enc!!
And only a Canadian would get this one. I have a friend who would constantly be mistaken for the figure skater Toller Cranston. One day I asked him how he could tollerate it . . .
Couture Allure: It’s becoming easier to find at nurseries near us, but we got ours at our favourite specialty nursery. We’re pretty spoiled zone-wise on the coast here. If you can manage callicarpa where you are, you should try it — it’s so pretty (it’s common name seems to be Beautyberry).
Miss C: That would be intollerable, groan . . . But a good pun. I’ve been told often that I look like Ms. Atwood (altho’ Dennis Lee told such commenters at a party once that I “don’t look at all like Peggy”!), and I don’t see how I could get a pun out of that — a limerick, perhaps, but not a pun.
Viva la Purple! Why don’t you post that famous poem about “When I am an old lady I shall wear purple?” I am sure you know it!