What’s With Brown?

There’s more to fall colour than red, you know. Take these gorgeous birch trees for example. Delicious golds, honey yellows, and soft browns.

One might be persuaded that Michael Kors was power walking with Hubby and me when we passed this stand of birch trees on Thanksgiving Day morning. That he used these trees for inspiration for his cosy fall 2015 looks. I mean if one didn’t know better.

Seriously, it’s the brilliant red, and bright orange fall leaves that get all the attention. But I’m very partial to golds and browns myself. I remember a few years ago when somehow my predominantly black and grey winter wardrobe had morphed into brown. An outfit here, a new purchase there, a dark chocolate sweater and blouse, a gold hounds tooth jacket, a brown tweed skirt… pretty soon I was wearing brown most days. And I didn’t notice the shift until one of my male colleagues pointed it out to me. “Uh, Sue?” he asked one day. “What’s with brown?” “Dahling,” I replied,  “Didn’t you know that brown is the new black?”

And, you know, I’ve hardly worn brown the past few years. Suddenly I was all about grey and black and charcoal. But now that I have my new brown Paul Green ankle boots, I can indulge my taste for brown again. Not shopping for new sweaters and pants, though. Just shopping my closet and hauling out a few things that I haven’t worn in a while.

Like this brown J Crew sweater. I bought it last year, and only wore it a couple of times. But I like it with my black leather pants, my old Elie Tahari coat, and my brown boots. And I’m thinking I like black and brown together.

And I really like my new brown boots with my 7 For All Mankind boot-cut jeans. And this Elie Tahari brown and black animal print cardigan. Not sure if you can see here but the sweater has black lace appliqué down the front. I love this sweater and I’ve not worn it out the door since I retired.

Brown and gold and red can be lovely together, I think. This gold and brown Max Mara houndstooth check jacket is also from quite a few years ago. I love it with jeans and boots. And my vintage croc bag.  And maybe this red Gap tee? Or even something a bit brighter. Hmmm. Maybe I do need to go shopping after all.