Loobylu's Colour Palette of the Year - 2023
A colour palette that's retro, romantic, adventurous, brainy, and knit.
Hi again,
The end of the year is creeping up fast. There are lists and lists of good things and bad things about 2022, but I am looking towards 2023. There are plans to be made and dreams to be had, but obviously nothing really can be known for certain - except the official “Colour of the Year.”
Every November/December trendsetters, influencers, and designers wait with anticipation for the appointed Colour Gurus to make their big proclamations. It arrives with fanfare, social media hype and the sound of a hundred-thousand designers gasping, applauding, and ditching last year’s ill-hued pants in the garbage.
Pantone is the biggest of these biggy gurus, with all the sway over all the industries. Their official colour for 2023 is Viva Magenta. ”This year’s Color of the Year is “powerful and empowering... encouraging experimentation and self-expression without restraint, an electrifying, and a boundaryless shade that is manifesting as a stand-out statement.”
Whew. The introvert in me is cowering away from Viva Magenta. Doesn’t Viva Magenta know that boundaries are not only good, but to be encouraged? “Boundaryless shade”? I fear Viva might be a little narcissistic.
All the paint companies follow suit with their own special-mention colours. Benjamin Moore’s Raspberry Blush even has an its own special electro-funk song “to underscore the upbeat and optimistic tone of the palette and the dynamic role colour plays in self-expression.” Honestly, I’m worried that Raspberry Blush also has trouble with boundaries.
Here’s what I think: Let’s not just leave this to the influencers. In this day-and-age of niche fashion and hyper-individualized cultural experiences, I think we should all announce our own Colours of the Year, colours that reflect our personal hopes, dreams, desires, and experiences. Also, maybe I’d like a bit of variety, a bit of nuance. I think I need a Colour Palette of the Year. With vaguely matching songs that don’t quite make sense in context, but are nice to listen to anyway.
Loobylu’s Colour Palette of the Year, 2023: “Doctor Who’s Scarf from the 1970s”
Retro, adventurous, romantic, big-brainy and knit. Some great words that sum up the vibe of Doctor Who and the scarf from the 1970s, and might be a good guide for my year to come. I don’t know if I have the correct colour combination that makes up Doctor’s actual scarf, but this slightly brown photo is the one I am going by. Let’s go colour by colour.
Montreal Streets Brick Red
Song: Hailu Mergia, Yefkir Engurguro
2023 will be the year when (hopefully) we will visit our daughter in Montreal. We were supposed to get there in October but covid meant that we were all in bed with fevers instead. While tossing and turning I spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at YouTube videos about Montreal. I now know where you can go to shop the best vintage clothing, get the best bagels, see the best views and the secret green laneways, and where to meet a bearded gentleman who sings beautifully as he walks his dog.
The Most soothing of all these videos is a series of hour-long walking tours of Montreal streets. A nameless, voiceless, faceless person holds a camera on a stabilising stick and wanders through neighbourhoods and parks, letting us truly experience what it might be like if we were there wandering. I also strolled vicariously through the streets of Paris, and returned nostalgically to the streets of Kyoto and Amsterdam. I’m not sure who would watch these videos, unless they are someone who was meant to be somewhere else but was stuck in bed with covid. I guess I was the target audience. One afternoon I virtually wandered the streets of Mile End, a hipster neighbourhood ranked 5th coolest in the world by Time-Out Magazine. I dozed a bit, I drank some healing soup, and watched people coming in and out of jazz cafes, or holding groceries, or stopping for a chat, crossing over at crosswalks etc etc.
At one point I recognised the shop front of my favourite book publisher in the world, Drawn & Quarterly, publishers of the finest of fine comics. Its brick red facade was familiar to me from their Instagram. The camera swung around and did a 360° and I saw a nice little leafy corner and a cross walk… and three little people crossing over at the traffic lights. Three little people wearing cute sneakers and baggy shorts or jeans. Three little people … who just happened to be my daughter, her boyfriend and her best friend. I played it back, wondering if my feverish mind was playing tricks. Nope, there they were, crossing the road, my daughter, her boyfriend and her best friend, walking past a florist, where my daughter sneezed.
WHAT THE HECK? What are the chances?
My advice to everyone in Montreal, and everywhere else in fact, is make sure you realise that you might be filmed at any time, anywhere and there is a chance your mother will eventually see it.
Studio Refurbish Yellow
Song: Patrick Watson, To Build a Home
My home studio is starting to look like a holding station for tall piles of stuff and dust bunnies. It is most definitely not sparking joy. I need to climb over the treadmill to get to my overflowing box of packing materials and my laundry basket full of discarded sweaters from everyone in the family. I have to clear the bags of old yarn from the desk before I can start shovelling piles of sketches on to the floor so that I can try to find my favourite drawing pen. Definitely not joy. After visiting Austin Kleon’s new studio on his Substack this week, and after discovering this fabulous studio/apartment of the architect Peter Bleter, I have decided that I will bring order and harmony to my studio this year. This might mean I need to get busy with some power tools to put up shelving, but I am determined. If I can do it miniature1, why not maxiture? "Studio Refurbish Yellow" is all about golden light and golden wood.
Journal White
Song: Vampire Weekend, Oxford Comma
Journal White is the colour of creamy, off-white sketching paper, especially like that in a Moleskine journal*, my current favourite. I am wary about optimistically planning projects for a new year, but I know that I need to put pen to paper, whether it’s in a sketchbook or a diary, with way more regularity than I have been. So I am warily planning a year long journal project (no promises). Maybe this newsletter is also part of my 2023 not-plan to do more journaling. I will share lots of journal, sketchbook and diary links here. The first is David Sedaris on keeping a diary in the age of over-sharing. 50 years, 63 thick volumes. That’s something to aspire to. Here is the very first page of my very first journal in 1979.
Wall Oven Grey
Song: Still Woozy, Goodie Bag
We have a new oven. Our old one totally burnt itself out one day, after threatening to set fire to our house for months before that, and being an undependable piece of junk for years before that. We finally found an oven that fits the very specifically-sized space in the wall, so now I am tentatively stepping back into the world of culinary delights. 2023 might see some exciting cooking developments. To celebrate I subscribed to the New York Times for the introductory offer of 40 cents a week* (approx) and I am spending stupid amounts of time going through the recipes. Does anyone have any favourites?
On my list:
The World’s Best Chocolate Cake
Butter Mochi
Soft Sugar Cookies with Raspberry Frosting
Lemon-Almond Butter Cake
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Failing Flamboyantly Brown
Song: Pretty Ugly - Tierra Whack
Man, I am so completely sick of self-doubt and fear.
I was listening to a podcast conversation between Mike Birbiglia and Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) this week (recommended!), and Abbi mentioned a quote by art critic Jerry Saltz: “If you fail, which is fine, fail flamboyantly, don’t be mediocre. Mediocre people don’t even like other mediocre people.” If you haven’t seen this already, here is Jerry Saltz’s article for Vulture from 2018, How to Be an Artist, 33 rules to take you from clueless amateur to generational talent (or at least help you live life a little more creatively).
So here is Failing Flamboyantly Brown. It’s for trying all the crazy ideas. It’s for following your heart, and for figuring out what you want to make, say, do, and create without worrying how it might look on social media. It’s for secret projects and kick-ass experiments. It’s the essence of inspired sleeplessness, it’s big laughing with food in your teeth, it’s excitable, it’s enthusiastic even if it’s a little scattered, it’s weird, it’s cringe, it’s brilliant splashes of truth and authenticity. Call it ugly and beautiful. It even has boundaries! I know it’s brown, and it’s a stretch to call it any of these things really, but the best thing about it is that it’s unexpected.
What’s your Colour Palette (or singular colour) of the Year for 2023? Let me know in the comments!
That’s it until next time.
xo
Claire
* Loobylu is entirely affiliate-free. I make all my recommendations on things I totally and truly love, and pay for.