My scarf opened up a number of questions about sartorial choices; in particular, questions about the relationship between man and pink.
For many men, wearing a
pink garment or accessory can be an audacious choice. For others it is a
regular accoutrement. One man told me he wears pink boxer shorts. This is not
adventurous, unless the man in question sleeps with many, many people.
In financial and banking
circles a pink shirt is an essential thrice weekly affair. It is debonair,
confident and associated with wealth and aspiration. For a farmer, perhaps it
is a less obvious choice. Pink wellies are still the domain of the festival-going
female.
I sit between these two
stereotypes. I am not an investment banker in Moorgate. Neither do I know how
to milk a cow. I am not wealthy and harbour few aspirations. Therefore why
would I decide to wear pink?
My sister gave me the
scarf for Christmas. She sees me as a metrosexual. But I’m not. I don’t
moisturise.
Ella de Guzman,
proprietor of Siopa Ella, a high-end swap boutique in Dublin, says, “I love
seeing a man wearing a pale pink shirt but he needs to wear it with
confidence. Bubblegum pink polo shirts are also great - especially if
you're also sporting a tan”.
This advice deepens my
unease. I have neither confidence nor a tan.
Nick Sullivan, fashion editor
of Esquire magazine, has said the way
we perceive pink now is contrary to opinion in the first half of the twentieth
century. “It was traditional for boys to be dressed in pink (a derivative of red,
thought to be the most decisive, masculine colour),” he writes. Meanwhile, blue
was the consistent choice for girls because in Christian tradition it
symbolized virginity.
The Virgin Mary is the most potent
example of this. Apparently she hated pink. Few people know this but Mary was
obsessed with the way she looked. She never left the stable without full
makeup.
Beyond this, there was an
aesthetic reason too. In 1918, the Ladies
Home Journal wrote, “There has been a great diversity of
opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and
blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger
colour is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty,
is prettier for the girl".
As the conversation
about my pink scarf unfolded in the pub, I came to a realisation. The group was
not actually worried about my choice of pink. Rather, they were troubled by the
marriage of my pink scarf with the colour of my hair. I say hair. In reality,
it is really more of a suggestion of hair at this stage. A whisper, say. Some
people would describe it as “ginger” (that hateful word). However, I have been
assured by an expert de coleur that
it is in fact “sunset explosion”.
Does this mean pink and
I must part ways?
Of course there are
many, many different shades of this colour. Pink is a crude term which envelops
an abundance, an entire spring meadow, of hues. The different shades say different
things.
Fuchsia, for example,
is a shade of pink which one rarely sees on a man. It is a noisy colour which punishes
the retina. To wear this colour is to throw acid in peoples’ eyes. Exceedingly
unpleasant.
Salmon is one of the
most popular shades of pink for men. It is the shade which sits on the
proverbial fence. Is it pink or is it something else? Men take refuge in this
ambiguity. It is also the entry-level shade for pink virgins. It allows them to
dip their toe in the sea without going all the way.
Ruby is to be avoided
by men who blush easily. You will look like a lollipop.
One man I spoke with
said that he owned one pink pair of trousers, two pink t-shirts and three pink
shirts. That’s alot of pink. Many of the people who talked to me agreed that
men should only wear one pink item at a time. A pink tie is good. A pink tie
and a pink shirt may overwhelm. A pink tie, a pink shirt and pink trousers will
make you look like a milkshake. Children will want to drink you.
However, de Guzman says
that occasionally a pink cocktail can work. “I don’t think there should be
rules in fashion but if a man is wearing a pink shirt, a pink tie would also
look amazing accessorized with it”.
Where do I go from
here? My research has led me to believe that pink, just like a sunflower,
requires a specific set of conditions in which to bloom. Alas, I am not
convinced that I am fertile ground for such a cultivation.
ENDS
