The return of brown: When, exactly, did brown come back into fashion? I've been looking around at what the trendy well-dressed types, especially blokes, are wearing at the moment, and brown is most very definitely 'in'. Look, he's wearing a brown shirt with brown stripes. And there's a brown corduroy jacket with contrasting brown collar. And a nice pair of brown slacks with a light brown pinstripe. And a sharp brown tie with paisley brown motif. And a pair of dark brown shoes with matching brown laces. And a wholemeal scarf with alternating browny threads. Call it whatever you like - copper, chocolate, tan, russet, sienna, beige, biscuit, umber or buff - but brown is most certainly back in vogue.
Brown used to be the fashion colour of death. You only wore brown if you were a sad geek with no sartorial sense whatsoever, perhaps to match your National Health specs and tank top. In fact the last time I deliberately wore brown would have been in about 1976, back when I was far too young to know better. But I notice that most of the bright young things sporting brown today weren't even born back then, and therefore have no negative associations with the nightmare that was 70s fashion. These blokes will happily walk around beneath shaggy brown hair, carrying a retro brown sports bag, dressed top to toe in brown, looking to all the world as if they've walked straight out of the first ever episode of Grange Hill. To them, brown is natural style.
I'll admit that brown looks better this time round, 30 years on. But to those of us of a certain generation there will always be something deeply unsettling about being seen wearing brown in public. It's not for me. Still, I guess I should be grateful. At least lime green and tangerine haven't made a comeback yet...
