Red Lady
Since I’m still suffering from PCSD (Post-Coat Stress Disorder) and can’t quite look at my sewing machine yet, I’m going to throw in a bit of blog padding :). To start with, I wanted to talk about the Lady (Grey) In Red Club. (And yes, I am shamelessly stealing the name from Ali.)
Did you know this club existed? You do now. I made it up myself. And if you made your Lady Grey in red, you’re a member! Isn’t that exciting? 😉 Membership benefits include, well, having an awesome red statement coat.
The Lady Grey really is a statement coat—not for the faint of heart, nor for the shrinking violet. It thus really deserves a statement colour (although there’s some lovely more restrained versions, too). And while there’s some terribly striking versions in teal and mustard (AKA blue and yellow, the other primary colours 😉 ), I have to say, when it comes to a statement colour, for me red takes the cake. And probably the ice-cream and the sprinkles, too.
As of this moment, other people who’ve agreed with me on the awesomeness of red members of the L(G)IRC (okay, not the catchiest acronym, I know)  I’m aware of include:
If you made one and I’ve missed you, or know of another one out there, let me know! Now it’s conceivable that some of you will argue that we’re being trendy (or just terribly obvious) in our colour choice, but really—there are not many colours out there more awesome than red. Seriously.
My first day of school... I remember picking out the outfit so carefully.
Okay, I’m not dissing on the other colours of the rainbow, I’m really not. There are fabulous Lady Greys in plenty of other colours, as I said above. I don’t think less of any of these coats for their colour, and many of them are probably more original than red.
It’s just, none of them would feel quite as much me.
My fondness for red goes back for as long as I’ve had the power to choose my own clothing. The picture at right is from my first day of school, way back in 1985Â (behind the big yellow bag you can just see bits of the red skirt and socks. Probably knee-highs). Back in early Uni I gloried in my original HBC blanket coat. I love red for its intensity; I love the ambiguity of its symbolism—blood and sex; violence and passion; left-wing and right.
My old HBC blanket coat, c. 1999
Do you have a signature colour (or palette?) One of my friends is all brown and teal, all the way. My mom thrives on the classic autumn palette. When I’m feeling summery I toy with cream and pale blue, as in the blog theme (but it was a bit of a wrench to change it away from the old reddish theme), and other colours catch my fancy again and again, but I always come back to red.
Tanit-Isis Sews 