Loose Ends
My memoirs in living color
Susan Nienow

I have friends who mark their lives with important events or personal accomplishments. On the other hand, I have color periods like Picasso. But, just the word "pink" makes me feel old. For reasons that have remained unclear through the decades, I once thought I looked good in pink.

This was the year before I met my other half. Thank goodness I came to my senses before he came into the picture.

It was a photo of me wearing a pink T-shirt that set off this cascade of fashion fiascos. Maybe it was the sunlight or maybe it was a Kodak moment, but I thought I looked great in that pink T-shirt. So I got pink shorts, pink tops - pink, pink, pink. And then I came to my senses. It dawned on me that it wasn't chic to have a monotone wardrobe - particularly a pink one.

I ought to have remembered my bubble gum pink moment, but then I made the same mistake with blue the spring before my son graduated from high school. I bought a blue paisley skirt, and the color took on a life of its own. It had several shades of blue.

I did find both a blouse and a sweater to go with it. After I wore them several times, I decided that the colors really didn't complement the skirt. In fact, I may have picked them out in the dark. So I bought two pairs of pants, then a jacket…

Eventually, everything was blue - or had blue in it. Still I kept looking for something to go with that paisley skirt. By the time I found the perfect blue top to go with the paisley skirt, more than half my wardrobe was some kind of blue, and no one was wearing paisley.

Some people know where they were when an important moment in history occurred, but I remember the exact moment I knew blue was over. My daughter's graduation was coming up - a shopping opportunity. I headed for the racks of blue clothes and realized that the color world had moved on without me. No blue clothes - except for the dark blue "office suit" color and perennial denim.

Without a second thought, I moved into my brown period. It was touted as the next "black" and besides, the brown pants fit. It doesn't take much to send me careening into another fashion galaxy. The displays in the store showed brown with kiwi, berry, vanilla, butterscotch and even blueberry. With all of those flavors, who could resist?

Since my pink period was in the '70s, and the blue in the '90s, those clothes were either gone or outdated. I clearly needed to look for some butterscotch and kiwi in current styles. It was at this point that my other half made the unappreciated observation that he has had two moments of color in our 30+ years together - khaki and blue denim.