It’s time we had a discussion about brown. Not light brown, caramel or sand. Not mocha, chocolate, tobacco or espresso.
I’m talking about actual brown. The ugly shade of brown so unspecific that brands rarely give it hip marketing names—you know the one I’m talking about: muddy brown. If I had to take a guess, you might be imagining that ugly brown as a skirt suit worn by an accountant who lives to pin loose change to her blouse with tiny brass safety pins.
Or maybe you picture it paired with chunky, sensible shoes and maybe even a few dad socks poking out from underneath. You might recoil a little bit at the thought of dressing head-to-toe in that unsexy shade.
I know I did too.
Until recently, my entire wardrobe was exactly zero percent brown. OK, maybe chocolate. And caramel.
And nutmeg. And coffee. But actual plain brown?
Not you. I loathed brown. There was nothing cute about brown.
Things stop being cute when you call them cognac and pair them with glasses and a fireplace. When I thought about brown I thought of all those hideous platform flip flops we were forced to wear in the year 2002. If I saw an article of clothing in brown I immediately justified why I didn’t need to own it.
It went in one mental drawer marked Avoid at all costs. Brown was never cool when I was a kid in the 90s. Unless you were shipping packages for UPS all day, or if you were going full “natural granola” brown just wasn’t it.
My go-to trendy sleepover shirts were bright Aztec plaids from “Clueless” and boxy Calvin Klein tees. I studied fashion in college and brown was considered passé; the moment you ran out of ideas in the design process was when you “went brown.” My very first fashion director told me years ago that “brown is only for shoes and maybe bags. On clothes it looks cheap.” She said it so matter-of-factly that I filed it away in my brain and ignored brown for over a decade.
You Might Also Like
Boy was she wrong. It started a few months ago when I noticed muddy brown cropping up on spring runways. Not just any runways.
Some of my favorite designers were eschewing the safe brunettes of camel and chocolate for…this. Closer to dirt than anything else in the closet, muddy brown seemed like an unfortunate color trend I could do without. I shrugged it off until I noticed mud brown showing up again and again.
And not just on runways—I started noticing it on the coolest girl at every fashion party I went to this spring. Stylist, blogger and personal friend extraordinaire Emma Cook wore a mud brown oversized sweater to dinner one night and looked like she was modelled the world’s most upscale furniture catalog. When I asked her where she got it she shrugged. “It’s just brown,” she said.
Bless her little heart, brown was high fashion to Emma. But it wasn’t just Emma. Last weekend I stopped by my 68-year-oldNeighbor Diane’s house to return some baking sheets I’d borrowed.
She answered the door wearing a mud-brown linen dress that stopped me in my tracks. Diane has been working in textile merchandising since before I was born and has seen more trends than anyone I know. “Oh this? I’ve had this dress since the 70s,” she laughed. “Brown always comes back when people get sick of trying too hard.” Brown makes you work for it.
In a world where we’re used to colors that pop and “wow” at every angle, muddy brown forces you to dress well in order to look good. After a year and a half of joyful bright colors and cute sweaters, maybe we’re all just ready for something a little less trying. I went home that day and bought myself not one, not two, but three different mud brown items.
And wore that bad boy to work the next day.
The responses were immediate. “That’s…brown?” our adorable baby millennial social media manager sniffed, not knowing whether to praise my funky outfit or shield her son’s eyes from such unpleasantness. “THIS color is perfect for you,” Katherine, our wise and wonderful editor- in-chief (who would literally never say anything about my outfit if she didn’t like it) stopped to let me know. I’ve worked at Marie Claire for seven years and this is the first time Katherine has ever offered up an opinion on my wardrobe other than, “nice haircut!” when I rocked the chop last summer.
Now I’ve been on a mission to brown everything in sight. I’ve added a muddy brown sweater, muddy brown trousers, and even ventured into muddy brown territory with a dress that my mother INQUIRED ABOUT, using air quotes when she asked me where I got “that interesting dress.” Friend me on Instagram if you want to see what I’ve been wearing. Here’s the thing about boring brown: it’s wildly sophisticated because it has zero interest in being trendy or flattering.
Brown is whatever color you want it to be. Wear that mud brown shirt and no one is going to think you’re dressing to attract the attention of strangers on the street. There’s a cool, self-assured confidence in boring brown that makes you look…instantly fashionable.
Like I said, once you start smelling like a bog you never stop. PS: Looking for some easy ways to get started with brown? Head over to my Instagram Stories and check out some of my favorites as I’m wearing them right now!
