Glancing at the typical person on the street, I mostly find attire consisting of jeans or shorts and a neutral tee, and plenty of athleisure wear. Even at the coffee shop where I write this, most everyone is wearing some type of “uniform”: jeans or dark colored shorts with a basic tee – nothing colorful or interesting. While guilty myself of wearing jeans, my saving grace is a dark brown paisley long-sleeved silk shirt and my tiger’s eye earrings. The barista did compliment my outfit – perhaps she noticed my non-conformity to uniformity?
Theologian Abraham Kuyper lamented the lack of splendor in men’s fashions in his day: “today, unfortunately, little of that splendor of forms has remained. By comparison with the luxuriant dress of the past, male attire…is flat and undistinguished. There is no fanciful form which has not been trimmed, no color combination which has not been dulled, no widening which has not been taken in, no collar which has not been shrunk, no pleat which has not been ironed out.” Kuyper appreciated taste and variety in men’s fashions of the past, something that added a touch of splendor. It seems that we lack that sparkle today as well.
Beauty makes its way into different forms, and one of its powerful expressions is color. Look around you: God infused color into his creations: animals (such as peacocks, birds of paradise, butterflies, fish, etc.), a myriad of flowers of all colors, the glowing sunrise and sunset that paints the sky a hue of pink, the bluest ocean, the lush green grass and the beautiful gemstones we find within the earth’s formation.
One of the ways to add sparkle and color is through clothes and accessories. Personally, I love to embrace color and though not every color may suit me, I enjoy playing around with colors but tend to stick to those in my color wheel. That is what color does–it allows you to play, to add some fun to your outfit. Color lifts my mood and on a particularly gray or rainy day, I opt to wear a bright color to nicely balance the color temperature around me.
Colors are present in scripture: green, white, silver, gold, scarlet, blues, purples. God instructs his priests not to be clothed in drab colors but in rich blues, purples, and scarlet yarns and decked out in luminous jewels. Color is also used as a covenant: God formed a colorful rainbow as a fulfillment of His promise. It is evident that God created and enjoys using color for various purposes, and it is indeed a gift that we get to enjoy through various forms, including what we wear.
“While you lie among the sheepfolds, the wings of a dove are covered with silver, and its feathers with glistening gold.” – Psalm 68:13 HCSB