Главная страница «Первого сентября»Главная страница журнала «Английский язык»Содержание №38/2001

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COLOURS MAKE US FANCY AND MERRY!

Autumn brought a merry collage of many colours into our streets, which became golden and red. The trees branches painted with the autumnal hue are visible through the window panes. Why does this real profligacy of colours on the first cool days make people put on dark coats and jackets?
Nature shows us a great variety of different shades. We can observe colourful reality in the woods and meadows. The fields are a riot of colour. The brightness and sweet scent of flowers attract the insects in nature. Why do people think that they can become more attractive and elegant in black, which became the curse of the last century. It was considered as a refined and official colour. Though nature associates it with the death and misery.
Colours influence our psychology and our perception of the surrounding world. The shades of the colours we wear, we make up with, and the patterns of the materials on our clothes – are sending the information into our environment. Colours have a great effect on the subconscious feelings of the people we deal with, telling them about us more than we do with our verbal means. It happens in private and in business life. That’s why it’s very important that the information your clothes implies correspond with what a person intends to bring about himself.
From the psychological point of view black and grey colours are not colours at all, as black is a denial of any colour (shadow, emptiness), and the grey is neutral and colourless (like a fog). When grey or black is preferred – a person usually has a negative attitude to life and a pessimistic view. More often, sane-minded, mental healthy and well-balanced people feel distant to those colours, or even try to avoid them.
The neutrality of grey brings in boredom. Many heads of enterprises in business give their preference to it. This proves that those people who have achieved a great success in life become more significant not because of their unique talents, but due to the deep-seated inferiority complexes which cause anxiety, discomposure and dissatisfaction. It doesn’t mean that grey should be deleted from our life completely. No, but when it is everywhere – it brings indifference to life, and fills it with languor and passivity.
Now let’s get back to our co-citizens’ favourite colour: black. Black symbolises the border, that divides life from death. It is the line where life stops and death comes. So it typifies the idea of destruction. The mourning clothes traditional in most nations prove this point. Black means a complete capitulation. A person who gives a preference to black – is trying to rebel against his destiny, against his life’s direction. Such a rebellion is often thoughtless and imprudent. An addiction to the black influences not only the character of a person and his relationships with the surrounding people but also his appearance. Usually one looks older in black.
Many people are sure that a black costume is the only suitable thing for business meetings as it brings elegance, chic and strictness of lines into a man’s look and adds stylishness and mystique to a woman’s appearance.
But not all of us know that black does not suit so many people. It breaks the harmony of the natural colouring of one’s look. It makes faces toneless and dull. So black is problematic and not suitable for most of us. When the colours of the clothes and their combination are not well-chosen and well-matched, it changes the visual perception of a person. Black is a warning about danger, it is always something negative (black soul, black magic, black envy, black market, black list, black despair).
People in black are special objects of psychologists’ researches. They either want to show off with pressure on others, or they trample on their own inner ambitions, which causes depression and stress.
The Western designers have understood those qualities of black. So they drop that colour from their last (modern) collections. Black is not modern any more. It is becoming out of fashion.
The Russian national costume excluded black. It means that it isn’t suitable for us genetically. Our ancestors avoided it intuitively (they were wiser than we are). By the way, all the crisis situations in Russia were dressed in drab clothes. The past years of the black fashion have not brought prosperity and welfare to Russia. Black is levelled in the mild climate of Spain and Italy where a revel of southern colours conquers its darkness (gloom, blackness). The climate in the central and north-eastern part of Russia is rather hard. The hues of nature are pretty calm in comparison with the south. The black in Russia seems even gloomier, and carries more negative information. Probably it’s time for us to stop complaining of our destiny and searching for somebody to blame – who is guilty of all our problems. Isn’t it high time for us to follow nature’s brightness – to take off the black clothes and change them for the colours that will make us cheerful and confident.
Nature is wise. It gives us really great examples! The colours of our clothes will return colour into our lives. Just let’s try!

Compiled by Svetlana Zaskoka