Feb 12, 2021 4 min read

Yellow is having a moment.

Maybe Amanda Gorman set this trend ablaze when she wore that bright-lemon coat to recite her beautiful poem at the inauguration. Or maybe it’s just that, after all we’ve been through, we feel like we deserve a little light.

Whatever, I am considering yellow as a fashion option, probably for the first time in my adult life.

Remember when we all had our “colors” done? In the 80s, we were told that it didn’t matter what clothing we wore so long as we were in the right season. I had my colors done: a consultant held swatches up to my chin and proclaimed that I was a “spring.” Or was it “fall?” I don’t remember, nor did I adhere to the rules about what colors I should avoid so as not to look drab or sallow. I do remember a warning to “avoid certain yellows and golds.”

My hair color has changed a few times since then, and in summer I’m pink with freckles and in winter I’m something more in the oatmeal family, so I wonder what a color consultant would tell me now. When I was on television every day, I’d occasionally get letters from viewers commenting on my appearance. I laughed at the one, scribbled on note paper but unsigned, that said (ital), Your hair looks terrible. I can’t believe they let you go on TV like that. I pinned it to the board on my desk. After nine years it had grown curled and yellowed and I finally threw it away.

Nobody ever commented that I looked great in bright blue – my favored color back then because I thought it brought out the green in my eyes. Turns out that people with green eyes should wear more lilac and purple. Go figure.

Now, finally free of the chains of young vanity, I am looking for yellow. Gayle King on the CBS morning show wears yellow because it reminds her of “sunshine and light and butter.” Yum, butter! I once painted a kitchen a yellow hue; it was the exact color of Irish butter.

I’m looking for a yellow blazer, something I could wear on Zoom calls, with pajamas on my bottom half or, if we ever go back out into the world again, with jeans on the bottom half. But yellow is tricky: too much green and that yellow is too harsh; too much brown and you get gold. And although I am proud enough of our Pittsburgh sports teams, I never have purposely dressed in Steelers or Pirates colors.

I live in a yellow ranch now and my previous house was a tall, yellow Victorian. In fact, my kids and I now refer to that one as the “yellow house.” The summer we came home from vacation to find a swarm of ladybugs covering the outside wall, we were told that insects are attracted to yellow, because it’s warm.

Maybe that’s what all the yellow fashion is about: after a metaphorically cold 2020 and a literally cold 2021, we are open to some warmth. The office where I’m typing this has the pale yellow walls that were here when I moved in. If I were to repaint, I’d go brighter.

Benjamin Moore has a paint color called Old Straw Hat. That might be too pale. Lightning Bug is closer, or Yellow Highlighter.

And there’s a dazzlingly bright one called Sunburst. It might be even too much for an office, but find me a blazer in that shade, and I’m all in.

Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.