50 shades of beige

By Elloise Alexander

Is colour being replaced by shades?

Why is everyone dressing the same? When you walk down the street all you see is a field of beige, mauve, white, cream, and boring! Look in your own wardrobe! No colour, no creativeness nothing resembling individuality. And who’s to blame? Are people scared to ‘stick out’ or have the shops actually fooled us into thinking a skin tight beige leotard is a good idea?

High-street has been getting its beige inspiration from designers since way back in 2015 the worst offender being Kanye West with his importance of colour Yezzy collection, which I would say is the beigest any collection could possibly get. Featuring everything skin tight, see through and paired with legwarmers! That was nine years ago, you would think that this drab colour palette would have disappeared but it seems that even awful fashion trends really do come back in style.

From there it’s trickled down through the High-street shops until everyone looks the same. Our most important retailers are still at it! The entire 2024 Primark fitness line is neutral colours or skin tones making anyone who wears them look like their working out naked! H&M is one of the worst offenders with their ‘trending’ collections weather its their city-chic women’s clothing line, their monochrome menswear or their sports core collection everything is devoid of colour even the baby clothes are beige – a sad beige mom’s dream. Even plus size retailers have jumped on the beige bandwagon with YOURS clothing being either in beige, beige-brown, kaki or black – oh the diversity!

Now I’m not saying dress like you’re going out to a rave and if beige is your bag, then you do you. But why dress the same when you could show your personality through your clothes and wear what you want, not what others say is trendy. I’m not saying be fully maximalist, all im saying is dress how you really want to not how shops say you should and from my experience as someone who enjoys showing my personality through fashion, I can say that it is daunting at first and there is indeed that feeling that you ‘stick out’ but as soon as you realise that that’s not true you start to feel more yourself, confident and happier.

Plus, anyone who stares at you probably isn’t ridiculing but instead are envious of someone who has made themselves happier by embracing their individuality. So, I say banish the beige and bring back colour!