I’ve fallen in LOVE with tangerine and am here to evangelize its appeal for those hazy days between summer and fall. If you’re not convinced, read on!
The end of summer is always a doozy here in the Bay Area. For whatever reason, our hottest days often come in September, and many of us near the Bay don’t have air conditioning. True to that California hippie spirit, we go natural and just sweat it out.
Such was the case last weekend, before the ash and historically apocolyptical skies of the wildfires. Saturday was particularly languid, one of those drowsy days when your skin is always dewy and everything seems to smell like ripening fruit and spice.
It was also date night, and I had gone through the trouble of curling my hair overnight in hopes of it cascading down in dazzling mermaid waves – alas, no. It was too hot to let it down, as (I’m not kidding) my sweat would have immediately straightened all my efforts.
Tangerine Appeal
Or shall I say, a-peel? š
There is something about those sweetly sticky days that I hold dear. Maybe it reminds me of my first days in Lisbon when I was eighteen, getting lost in the city as the late summer humidity poached me alive as I struggled to speak with strangers, navigate the labryinthine streets, and find my way home. I remember how those strangers, over the weeks, became friendly faces in my neighborhood, how in such a short time the language began to flow out of me, of all the cute boys running into lamp posts as they stared (pumping my own ego here, but that actually did happen once and I cling to that story to tell to my grandchildren one day, proof that I was once a S N A C K).
I don’t know about you, but my association of color with scents, weather, and memory borders on synesthesia. Tangerine drips with optimism, but also has a lushness about it. It’s just … ripe.
As I read that last sentence, I realize how … hmmm … oddly …. wanton that sounds. I suppose a part of me meant it to sound that way, because there’s a facet of tangerine that reads a bit voluptuous, isn’t there?
In any case, on Saturday I reached for this gorgeously pleated, tastefully bustier-ed, slightly retro, vision-of-tangerine-splendor dress by the Delfi Collective. Yes, it does have a pinkish-orange ombrĆ©, but that didn’t overshadow that zesty tangerine print in the least. I loved how the warm shades played with each other – that flushed coral, so evocative of summer, fading into an almost autumnal orange.
Styling This Look: Nostalgia
Nostalgia also came into play when I styled this look. I’ve been pouring over the Instagram account @classicportugal recently, and it shows:
Needless to say, the messy hair and scarf were inspired not only out of necessity due to the heat of the day, but also from these gorgeous shots from the past.
What’s not to love about those photos? I truly want them blown up (as in enlarged, not as in TNT) for my apartment. There’s something soothing about these old images, some kind of connection to the past, to an ancestral story that brings comfort. After all, if my Portuguese antecedents could pick bananas in high summer and hike them over the mountains to the market in wool midi dresses then by God, I can survive the afternoon with a glass of red wine on my sofa – also, incidentally, in a fabulous midi dress.
Tangerine for Fall
I’ve mentioned this before, but I am NOT one of those basic bs to get excited about fall. Yes, I look forward to fashion month, and the holidays, but really I want summer to stay and to be at the ocean indefinitely. Getting pumped for fall just falls flat for me. I hate wearing bulky clothes, my Renaud’s syndrome acts up at any temperature below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and if I see one more Instagram post with someone posing with LEAVES and saying “Welcome, Fall!” I swear you will hear me scream with the chorus of a thousand Pumpkin Spice Lattes. I’m over it and it hasn’t even started yet.
[I’m beginning to wonder if I actually don’t mind fall, and if my real beef is with fans of fall, somewhat like how I felt about Avril Lavigne circa 2001 – just a thought.]
The beauty of tangerine is that it is both a summer and fall color, thus allowing me to sink slowly into the reality that the PSL cheerleading squad will be on the prowl for the next three months. It’s warm and welcoming, yes, but still hangs on to that heat from summer.
Mercifully, it’s available everywhere nowadays, in knits, slip dresses, and activewear – so it’s super easy to pepper it into your summer-to-fall transition outfits! Check out my shopping suggestions at every price point below.
Have I sold you on the beauty of tangerine?
love,
Stig.
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