look11

My 75 mother and her sisters travel to Europe every year and insist on wearing nothing but black and grey. I see this suggestion ALL OVER the place on here. What is wrong with color? What about personal style? Surely there are different factions of people in Europe, who wear all sorts of clothes. I'm taking a stand for color, pattern... STYLE. Now, I'm not talking Tommy Bahama print shirts and tacky, floral mumus here, just the same fabrics and styles I would wear at home.
I'm going to Italy in a month and have been personally struggling with the pressure to dress like I'm going to a funeral or business meeting. I'm taking the leap! I'm going to wear color! I would love to hear from others who have done the same.

This is the end of my happy rant. Good day ;-)

ileen

I hear you loud and clear and also wonder what is the obsession with wearing black, gray and navy for every occasion as well as travel.

Well, I love color and enjoying wearing all sorts of color for most occasions and travel too. Color makes me happy!!! I feel well dressed, and look little different in a sea of insipid no fun shades of black, gray etc.

Often have similar arguments with 30-something daughter, a high placed professional, who insists of always black, gray,navy and brown. Even though all through her childhood, I was dressing her in!!!

Color is so fun, go for it and love it. I dont think we need to follow the crowd and be in colors that are no fun at all.

Love to hear what others have to say. Good luck.

StCirq

I never, ever wear all black or black and gray. Nor do I feel any pressure to dress any way other than the way I want to. You are literally "struggling with the pressure?" I think we have bigger worries here on earth.

Wear whatever you want to. Europeans do. And you're going to Italy...hardly a fashion downer type of place.

Dukey1

Are you hot? if the answer is "yes" wear something that EMPHASIZES that..be a nice change and make a LOT of people here jealous as hell!

dutyfree

Personally I think that most people do black as it seems it is easier with purses,shoes and coats to match(in regards to packing and your limits). I usually wear some type of black clothing on all of my airline layovers but always wear color to punch it up. The joke among my flight attendant friends is that its "our other uniform" because we all seem to wear the same stuff!

kerouac

One of the reasons that a lot of people find European cities harmonious is because the population respects an unannounced but innate color scheme. Most of the clothing in the cold months is indeed quite dark and more or less colorless, but there are a few highlights to make it acceptable. However, if you want to dress in orange, pink and/or charteuse, you will brighten everyone's photographs and become a conversation piece.

nochblad

You will never go wrong wearing black in Italy

yorkshire

I wear black at home so I wear it abroad, but I do not restrict myself to black. I do, however, always select a color scheme so that my limited travel wardrobe is interchangeable.

november_moon

I think people should go with their own personal style, keeping in mind packing constraints and the social conventions of the place they are visiting.

I like black, but I rarely wear all black. In winter, I wear darker colors than in the summer. I am an autumn/winter in my coloring, so I look best in darker colors rather than pastels and brights anyway. And in winter, you can always add fun colors with scarves. In the spring and summer I have some lighter colors, but generally don't go too bright.

A couple months ago I went to Spain for a week. I saw a lot of denim, black, brown, tan - mixed with dark colors - burgandy, purple, teal, red, etc. Most of the color was in women's scarves and their tops, with a few women with really great colored coats. Colored handbags were popular too. So color is clearly not a fashion no-no.

sassy_cat

Love black! It's the backbone of my wardrobe most of the time and I frequently do wear all black with accessories in jewel colours especially red and purple.
I'll wear more colour in the summer but often with black. I like black tops with white shorts.

The only time travel with only a few items of black clothing are trips to the Caribbean or Hawaii and even then half my swimsuits are black.

I hate grey though!

Ackislander

Male point of view.

Black has been the "latest thing" in big cities for the last 25 or 30 years. Big cities are usually dirty, and black doesn't show the dirt as much as lighter colors.

Black and dark gray also smooth the silhouette, mercifully as we grow stouter. But it is also thought to be artsy and with it. You won't see a French intellectual in beige

My travel wardrobe is now almost all black, white, and dark grey, and it makes my packing and dressing easy.

The problem with black is that there are a great many shades that fall under the heading of black, and women can look quite odd when their trousers are at the purple end of the spectrum and their top is at the blue end of the spectrum. Men goof by mixing both shades _and_ fabric textures, which lead to some even stranger combinations.

The somewhat depressing effect of the dark palette in northern cities is relieved, as several people noted above, by bright scarves, wraps, shoes, and purses and other accessories in France. But I have hardly ever seen French women wearing navy.

Even here in the US I spend my time in three different places and have found that if I don't want to stand out in any of them, I need three different wardrobes.

If you don't care about standing out, hey, as also advised above, just wear what you like! As things go, it isn't really very important.

kerouac

In terms of colors in Paris, the main color that you will see with people who want to break from the dark colors is red. Perhaps 0.5% of the ladies' coats are red.

Otherwise, you will see tourists wearing windbreakers and such in all of the usual bright colors.

danon

"My travel wardrobe is now almost all black, white, and dark grey, and it makes my packing and dressing easy.'"

ditto, although I prefer light gray .
I wear the same colors at home because they look good on me.
orange, green, red, blue etc.. don't do it.

quokka

"My travel wardrobe is now almost all black, white, and dark grey, and it makes my packing and dressing easy."

Ditto but - I pick one of my colour schemes, i.e. either blue/navy with either pink or turquoise accents, or violet/aubergine with matching tops, or dark green with matching tops. That's what I wear at home and what I look best in. Thanks to a certain colour system in my clothes supply (I'm a summer) I can easily find clothes for a week or 10 days in either (and I never pack more than that). Black does not suit me - I wear black only when I'm forced to, i.e. choir concerts and funerals.

The only advantage of black is that it does not show stains.

P.S. I am European.

LSky

I pack dark colors because I travel during the autumn and winter when light brights would be out of place. On the few occasions when I travel during Spring or Summer I wear other colors.

One reason that dark colors are preferred for travel, for me, is the dirt and stains. If you try to get a spot off of a light colored top it's a lot more noticible than if it's a dark top.

I never wear all black like I'm channeling my inner Johnny Cash. In my view, black needs to be spiced up but I'm from California.

danon

P.S.
I lived in Europe for may years, it is a big place...
women in small town Austria don't exactly dress like the ladies who lunch near Le Bon Marche.

Micheline

Love love black. Sure I wear other colors but in black I feel chic.

look11

Love the responses, thanks!

travelgourmet

Another male perspective: I wear color in Europe. The only comments I get are the occasional compliment. Many of my co-workers wear color too. We aren't talking about hot pink track suits, but there is a diversity of color. Basically, anything from the likes of Banana Republic, or similar, would fit right in.

As noted, the benefit to limiting your color palette is that you can limit the number of shoes and accessories that you need to pack.