Consumption palette: what role does the color play in choosing clothes?
'02.08.2017'
Source: N + 1
The old proverb “they are greeted by their clothes” is still relevant in our time. Previously, clothes were a person's business card, a complete description of what a given person is. In appearance, it was determined where a person was from, his social status and marital status. Now, having met a person for the first time, it is enough to evaluate his style of clothing in order to already have some idea about him. The color of the clothes can also tell a lot.
Edition “N + 1”Decided to find out what role color plays in the choice of clothes.
The choice of color is almost never random. It is influenced by many factors, ranging from the ability of people of a particular culture to distinguish between certain colors, to a hierarchy of colors in a culture, and features of the psychological perception of colors.
Although the ability to distinguish colors is given to people at a biological level, not all people do it the same way. The fact that between different cultures there is a discrepancy in the perception and interpretation of certain colors, we are told by linguistics. In different languages there are from two to eleven so-called color categories, each of which includes one basic color and many of its shades. For example, a full set of categories is available in Russian and most other Indo-European languages (black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, pink, gray, brown, orange and violet), but in Darkyung, one of the languages of the Australian aborigines, only two words for individual colors - black and white.
It is also well known that the representations of different language speakers about the same color may not coincide. So, in the Russian language there are two separate words - “blue” and “blue”, unlike many Germanic languages, where the range of colors of one part of the spectrum is characterized by a common designation like English Blue. At the same time, the addition to the language of words denoting colors follows a stable model, the violations of which have not been recorded by linguists and anthropologists anywhere. It all starts with two words, “black” and “white”, then “red” is added, then “yellow” or “green” and so on.
Anthropologists agree with linguists: the human perception of color begins with three primary colors: black, white, and red. These colors are fundamental to all nations - it seems that all ancient communities recognized their symbolism. According to the study of John Baines, even the words for them are similar in different language families.
Why are black, white and red everywhere vital colors? The assumptions that exist on this subject are diverse, but today the theory put forward in the book of art historian Manilo Brusatina has prevailed. The History of Colorsaccording to which they are the colors of shadow, light and life (blood).
Black color is everywhere a symbol of death, separation or submission. For carriers of Haus culture in Nigeria, Sudan, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Chad, black denotes negative and socially undesirable qualities and things that harm a person. White is a symbol of purity and “all that is good”: with the help of white you can expel evil and prevent trouble, even the dead were buried in white clothes as a sign of purification.
Legendary color: black
Everyone is familiar with the usual interpretations of black: depression, mourning, mysticism, evil. In Europe, the XVI century black suit not only expressed grief, but was a weapon of "mods". Black meant “anti-fashion” for the elect and served as a way to frame oneself like a painting.
Black has become fashionable with a touch of luxury in 1926, thanks to Coco Chanel. In 1960, the black leather jacket of Marlon Brando became the personification of the spirit of freedom, underground, youth protest. In 1970, Yves Saint Laurent introduced black as universal, and 90 with the cult of Japanese designers made color synonymous with intelligence and artistic glamor.
Now black in clothes is a universal code for Bohemians. Such neutrality is often occupied by fashion designers: Karl Lagerfeld, Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wong and others. All of them appear in public exclusively in black.
It turns out that the emotions associated with the fact that these colors personify give a symbolic meaning to various colors. Therefore, in any culture, color is not a symbol in itself, but the personification of a symbol, just as the red color personifies blood, which, in turn, itself carries a lot of symbolic meanings.
A special role in the development of this color symbolism of colors played world religions. Thus, the Christian church adopted green as a symbol of new life, replacing it with red, and white gave it a new meaning - holiness and innocence. Blue replaced the pagan meaning of white as the color of wealth and health. As Brusatin notes, blue and green began to personify monotheism. Islam followed Christianity in its color symbolism, adopting green as a symbol of religion and a prophet and blue as the color of a new community of true believers.
But the role of color designations in a particular culture is also influenced by other factors: natural phenomena, social hierarchy, everyday realities. Thus, Maori peoples in the deserts of New Zealand distinguish hundreds of shades of red, the Inuit language in the Arctic has seven symbols for shades of white, and modern Europeans who live in cities have at least a hundred shades of gray.
Legendary color: pink
Traditionally in modern society, pink is the color of women, and this is the result of many years of imposed stereotype perception. Initially, pink was the color of youth, but in the XIX century, blue and pink began to label babies to demonstrate sexual differences. Professor of the University of Maryland, Joe Paoletti, in his book Pink and Blue, writes that pink became a female color after World War II as the bearer of positive. The advertisements for the end of 40 and the beginning of 50 were full of pink - from kitchen sets and children's toys to Cadillacs.
Now pink is the most popular color in the segment of women's sportswear. “This is the color of infantilism,” said Professor Cheryl Kooki, a sociologist at Purdue University (Indana). “This is a color that we associate not just with a woman, but with a young woman — and, buying pink clothes, a woman also diminishes her age and feels younger.” But despite the fact that pink is still the king of female flowers, in 2016 there was a paradoxical gender shift - the myths about the beginning of the Third World War created a new color trend, but in men's clothes.
Paul Smith, Raf Simons, Jil Sander and Marc Jacobs They brought men to the podium in pink - from shirts to the Adidas shoe, and the press began to write guides to create a pink-onion. This is the result non gender- trends in a liberal society, and fashion in particular.
Back at the start of 2000, designers began to treat pink as “cruel” and “strong.” For example, Rei Kawakubo, the creator of the brand Comme des Garçons, developed a black and pink biker jacket. The very image of a man changes under the influence of color - the preparation of pink symbolizes individuality, getting rid of stereotypes: the modern man has become softer, more responsive, he is open and vulnerable, and this only emphasizes his masculinity more strongly during times when unequivocal images have lost their expressiveness.
Casual clothes of rich people now look inconspicuously (unless they go along the red carpet). This is due to the fact that wealthy people, as a rule, wear clothes made from natural fibers, the dyeing of which rarely gives a bright color, but most importantly, modern ethics dictates that they do not stand out, emphasizing that they treat their own consistency as a common fact .
Having dealt with the presence of general trends in the perception of different colors, psychologists began to think about the issue of personal color preferences of people. Karen Schloss and Stephen Palmer of the University of California at Berkeley staged a series of experiments in which color slide shows were shown to different groups of volunteers. The images were biased: one group was shown red objects with pleasant associations, such as ripe strawberries, and green objects with repulsive associations, such as mucus. Volunteers from another group observed unpleasant images of red - puddles and blood stains, but pleasant images of green - tree crowns.
After examining the reactions of participants in the experiment, Schloss and Palmer concluded: people prefer the color that is associated in their minds with positive associations, be it red or green.
Thus, the experiments of psychologists confirmed the long-term observations of linguists, anthropologists, ethnographers and cultural historians: the human perception of color is set by objective biological parameters, but the actual color preferences of different people at different times and different places remain quite flexible, dictated by countless unique factors.
Consumption palette
But this does not mean that the features of the color perception of people cannot be controlled. While scientists are struggling with inventing new experiments, marketers have learned very well how to benefit from people's addiction to different colors.
Marketing exploits the human associations that arise with a particular color in order to evoke a certain emotion and influence the attractiveness of the product. Thus, in the apparel industry there is a system of consumer stereotypes: the elderly are small ornaments and pastel colors, the impulsive shooter is caught in sharp contrast, consumers of men's wear - in solid dark blue, and online stores selling clothes are usually pink. or blue tones.
In clothes, the king of flowers is blue, he is considered the most pleasant in 57% men and 35% women. At the same time, buyers of things of different colors, of course, are not familiar with the works of Luscher, but are only guided by momentary emotional state or pure utility, for example, black is chosen to hide excess weight, and so on.
Expert Opinion
Anush Gasparyan, Director of the Educational Center “Management and Communications in the Fashion Industry”, HSE; Candidate of Sociological Sciences; co-founder of Fashion Consulting Group
Identifying new color "preferences" at the stage of their origin are engaged in a special forecast bureau (forecasting agencies), who are researching and building scenarios for the future development of style, color, and so on. It can be argued that the trend for color is really the result of marketing analytics.
Experts in the field of fashion forecasting identify emerging social changes in society based on research by sociological scientists, and then translate these phenomena into concrete recommendations for enterprises in the industry.
Before the product appears on the shelves, a forecast of textures and color palettes is compiled for two and a half or three years. Examination of fiber manufacturers that develop the structure and texture of future fabrics and demonstrate them at specialized exhibitions and conferences is being conducted. Further professional organizations, such as “color forecasting groups” (color forecasting groups), solve the problem of identifying color preferences that will become widespread in the coming years.
This forms a palette of approximately 250 dyes for fibers of all types and thicknesses. Twenty percent of these dyes are key and do not mix, the rest are transformed further into the most complex color palettes.
Color forecasts are created by experts in the field of color forecasting, which is the result of analyzing data obtained from a large number of very different areas, and the result is a color board that first affects the production of fabrics of a certain color and texture, and then on specific large brands that decide join the trend.
As a rule, in all brands and at any time, models of so-called “base colors” are selling well: white, black, blue, gray, beige, and burgundy. In the collections of colors that are guaranteed to sell well, buyers make the main bet. As a rule, they are not afraid of re-ordering the products of these colors, because the surpluses that were not sold this season can be easily sold in the following precisely because of the color, but on condition that the model is rather classic.
Check your wardrobe - regardless of taste and style, you will definitely find yourself wearing T-shirts, pants, skirts, sweaters, dresses and sweatshirts of these colors, not to mention outerwear.
Modern clothing, footwear and accessories shops are hard to imagine without visual merchandising technology. For convenience of choice, but first of all - with a specific marketing goal, clothes are hung on the sales floor by color - this is done by visual merchandising experts.
There are several rules of this type:
- clothes in the entrance area of the store should continue the color theme of the showcases, so that the buyer immediately finds what was attracted in the showcase;
- the number of color themes in the sales area depends on the brand and the number of collections developed by designers. Signing by color themes not only allows customers to find the desired product in the desired color, but also to make a set (cool);
- the sales area must be "read" by customers. One color theme should smoothly replace another, which subconsciously motivates the buyer to view the entire range.
There is a whole organization in the USA Color Association of the United Stateswhich carries out marketing research and is an expert in the field of color trends for various market players. Her research relies on medical experiments — for example, the association claims that men and women see colors differently. Men are attentive to small details and sensitive to fleeting impressions, but women distinguish colors better.
According to brain studies, male sex hormones (androgens) are concentrated in areas of the cortex that are responsible for image processing. Androgens are also responsible for controlling the development of neurons in the visual cortex during embryogenesis - in men these neurons are about a quarter more than in women. Consequently, men's shirts will still be in small stripes, and women's flying chiffon dresses will be bright and in a large flower.
Another study confirms that men are truly slaves of blue, and women of blue and violet. Even if you are not among the lovers of these colors, alas - you have to obey what the industry dictates. Marketers have been studying color for years to see a few steps ahead, and the consumer is happy to learn the stereotypes that are broadcast through the media and rulers of ready-made clothing manufacturers. The circle is closed.
So, the choice of color in clothes is a very complicated process, in which many people participate, not only the consumer; There are many factors behind this choice that are often unaware of the consumer. That is why, when we meet a person by the color of clothes, we beforehand, before we get to know him, make up an impression about his cultural and social background, as well as about the peculiarities of his temperament. And as a rule, we are not mistaken.
