Red is more than a colour: it’s an attitude
If I asked you how wearing a red dress makes you feel, what would you say? Glamorous? Confident? Powerful? Sexy?
Red definitely makes me feel a little different to usual on a night out. More badass. And I firmly believe that every multitasking woman, juggling career and family commitments, owes it to herself to feel this way whenever she can.
I love admiring other women in a red dress, whether it’s at a party, across a restaurant or on screen. So what’s the big allure?
Red is a colour that simultaneously semaphores danger, love, passion and rage. A red dress says, without apology: I’m celebrating my life, my ability and my own powerful femininity.
As for the effect on men, a new study has proved that a flash of scarlet makes them go a little weak at the knees – even if in these #MeToo days they feel they can’t show it. (A good friend commented recently that now it’s always other women who compliment her outfits, never men.)
The study, by psychologists at the University of Potsdam in Germany, also found that women were twice as likely to wear a red dress, blouse, scarf or lipstick when meeting a man whose photo they took a shine to. But when the man was less attractive, little more than a quarter picked a red outfit, which I think is hilarious.
Society’s attitude to red has evolved through the decades. Back in Hollywood’s golden – but completely sexist – age, a red dress was sometimes used as a weapon to shame women for their sexuality. Think about the doe-eyed cartoon character
Betty Boop or Gone With the Wind’s Scarlett O’Hara, forced to wear a feathered red gown by her husband when he hears rumours of her infidelity.
These days this unforgettable
It’s a shade that says, without apology: I’m celebrating my femininity
colour is associated with being beautifully independent and with women who are comfortable in their own skin. The only shame associated with a red outfit would be if you didn’t ever wear one.
My most recent favourite was a red jumpsuit that looked like a dress, worn by Jennifer Aniston playing TV presenter Alex Levy on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show. Levy was battling male TV executives doing their best to oust her. They didn’t stand a chance.
The fashion industry has got
the red memo, too. Nearly a year after designer Pierpaolo Piccioli debuted a Barbie-pink fashion agenda for Valentino at the A/W 2022 shows, the runways for this autumn were done with thinking pink: Tory Burch, Burberry and Proenza Schouler all favoured red. And thank heavens! Who feels remotely powerful in fluffy rose? Red, of course, is a completely different story.