A Color Story

Ever since I started at QVC in September, I have been thinking about what it would be like when I was close to the end of my internship. That was six months ago. With Daylight Savings time this past weekend as well as the nice weather that has been occurring lately, I think it's safe to say that a lot has changed. I find myself looking at the clothing samples and thinking, "I won't even be here when this launches."

I have seen Pantone's color of the year enough to want to dismiss it from my vocabulary. The color being, emerald. I was always a fan of the color, I can still remember my strong desire for an emerald green prom dress from Escada that I saw in a magazine. (I never got that dress due to its' hefty price tag, but at this point I'm happy that I didn't because I would never be able to look at it the same again.) I bring up this color because over the time that I have been at QVC, I have done numerous pitches of the emerald color story, but I also witnessed people going absolutely bananas over it to not really mentioning at all anymore. I guess that's why they call it a trend, it only lasts for a short time.

Speaking about colors, I have realized that some brands do not really stick to a color scheme for their lines each season. I think that it's especially true at QVC. I went to Diane von Furstenberg's store not too long ago and one of the things that I picked up on was the striking colors that stood out to me. There were mint greens and corals along with navy blues and whites. Those colors are clearly very Spring oriented. At QVC however, the exclusivity of a color palette has not been very evident to me. For example, I was looking at Jennifer Hudson's designs for late summer/early fall and it stood out to me that there was no common thread with colors. There were purples and blues along with reds and pinks along with olive greens and turquoise. That got me thinking about the QVC customer and who the designer is really designing for. I think that the reason that there are so many color options at QVC as opposed to other designers is because if the customer likes something, they want it in every color. It is certainly something to think about. With lines like DVF, the shopper is spending money to have more original pieces with color that applies to the season, but at QVC, the shopper is spending less money for clothes that fit more of their personality than the trends that are relevant that season.

Color is big for me because a lot of times I tell myself that I am going to pull a "Kelly Cutrone" and dress in all black. Then, when I actually try to put an all black ensemble together, I feel as though I am going to a funeral, not like a chic woman going to work. Sometimes I feel like I wear too much color because I really like pops of color in pieces such as scarves. Clinton Kelly, the infamous What Not to Wear host, has a line at QVC that I really admire because it uses pops of color in an interesting way. There are these two blazers that we have of his. One is orange and the other is blue. They are lined with a silky fabric that has cream, brown and both the blue and orange of the blazer in a print that shows when the sleeves are rolled. I love this because if you are wearing the blue blazer, and orange scarf may seem too out there, but if you roll up the blazer's sleeves, the print makes the orange seem more applicable to the look.