Yayoi Kusama and the Colors of Optimism.

I'm guessing the botanists, elderly volunteers and groundskeepers at Fairchild Tropical Gardens don't know it, but they're cultivating Spring 2010.  No, not that kind of Spring Spring.  I mean the Fashion Spring.  When you do visit (you can be my guest member if you buy me lunch or a box of chocolates), it'll be hard to miss the psychedelic oevres of the sometimes orange-haired, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and her compulsive, avant-garde polka dots and her colorful monster-like flowers and pumpkins (yes, flowers can be monstrous).  Kusama got it.  Right on the dot.  (Bwa ha ha.)   http://www.fairchildgarden.org/art-at-fairchild/Yayoi-Kusama-/   For those of you who aren't ready to part with the dark, edgy, metal studded, biker jacketed, strong-shouldered, acid hued, vampire obsessed of the 2009 80s revival, you're in luck.  Just keep the 80s in the back of your closet because they'll be back in 2029, maybe 2019 for a brief season if you're lucky... or maybe even tomorrow.  With retailers like H&M, Zara and even Target, trends are sucked in and purged faster than you can turn a page of Vogue.  The Wall Street Journal reported: "David Wolfe has been analyzing style trends for 41 years [...] Mr. Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group consultants, stood up in a room full of retail executives and told them: "There are no more trends. Everything is in style. (http://www.doneger.com/web/112119.htm)."

                                           http://www.fairchildgarden.org/art-at-fairchild/Yayoi-Kusama-/

And so, a question I love to ask for the non-fashion obsessed among us.  "So, who the heck cares? You want to wear a metal studded, polka dot, floral dress, go ahead!  And why am I reading this anyway? After all, everything is in style!"  Here's why.  No matter your fashion, you'll likely still buy into the trends that have been dictated by the elusive fashion and color forecasters.  Yes, they do really exist and have predicted what we will want to wear because they've decided that that's what we should want to wear even though we've become rebellious fashion wearers of late.  Turns out Kusama's flowers and pumpkins were perfectly hued, as orange was and still is big and Mimosa Yellow was the 'it' color.  Positive change, optimism, brightness, warmth, passion; yellow and orange.  It seems that the color people might actually know what we might need too, not just what we should want.  And so, you might consider wearing Turquoise (and Aurora and Tomato Puree) this Spring/Summer 2010.  "Turquoise transports us to an exciting, tropical paradise while offering a sense of protection and healing in stressful times (http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=20706&ca=10)."  Does the whole print and polka dot thing make sense to you now?  Maybe the orderliness, yet innocence of the polka dots and the cheeriness and femininity of the prints are what we need to bring us out of Vampiric 2009.  You may have had some blood drained out of you, but Mimosa Yellow and Kusama's The Flowers that Bloom at Midnight were there all along reminding you that tropical paradise was within reach.  And if you still feel the need for some good ol' 80s armor, it looks like you may be able to protect yourself with the military inspired trend for Spring/Summer 2010.  Orange, yellow, turquoise, polka dots, military, patterns, pastoral, less is more, more is more... By the time you finished reading this, another trend just passed on to the fashion catacombs of New York, Paris and Milan.  Hopefully Yayoi Kusama and the Colors of Optimism will influence the decidedly boring achromatic trend in Fall 2010. 

Sasha Fierceness: Being Yourself

Have you heard of Sasha Fierce? Even if you aren’t so au courant with the pop music world, I bet you could guess. Three guesses. “All the single ladies”, “I’m a survivor”, “Destiny’s Child”. Yup, it’s Beyonce’s fabulous, confident, entertaining, powerful other self. In Allure magazine’s interview with Beyonce for February 2010, she confides: “Sasha Fierce is my alter ego, this other side of me that’s most animalistic and strong and fearless, and I have used this person to take over when I’m too scared or too shy… The thing that’s interesting is I don’t need Sasha Fierce anymore, because I’ve grown, and I’m now able to merge the two. I want people to see me. I want people to see who I am”. http://www.allure.com/ So, why does this matter to you? Do you really care that Beyonce has “found harmony in the contradictions”? I bet it matters more than you think. Think. Who is your Sasha Fierce? How many social masks do you put on every day? Even if you’re truly uber-confident , you probably put several on from the moment you wake up to greet your day. There’s the eager, go-get’em one that you put on at work to impress your boss or your clients even you want nothing more than to go back home and have a ‘me’ day. Or the one you put on when you really need a lazy, uninterested, unhelpful service person to help you out and you really are in a rush. Or the one you put on when you don’t know anyone in the room. What about the one when you do know people in the room, when you’re among other women?

And so, my sing-song is for all the ladies, single or not. Is your mask made of stone because you’re afraid to reveal yourself to a woman who isn’t as intelligent, well-connected, powerful or pretty as you? Is your mask painted with red stripes because you want her to understand that you are way more important than most people in the room? Is your mask a multi-colored coat because you want everyone to like you so you could add another notch on your Facebook page of popularity? Is yours wallpapered on the outside because you’re shy and you want to blend in, but spiky on the inside because you’re really angry no one notices you? So here’s my Beyonce-inspired anthem: I’m going to challenge all you women! Challenge all you women! All you women! No, I’m not going to ask you to rip off your masks to expose your raw face. Because I think a little Sasha Fierceness is a good thing and it can actually be really human, not so animalistic. It can make you feel more confident, feel more beautiful, feel stronger, and even act more kind. Just sheer that mask out a wee bit (the orangey line around your jaw is way too obvious!), allow your sisters to truly connect to you. You may be surprised at how fierce it makes you.