By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam photos
The brightly colored windows at the Louis Vuitton store at Ala Moana Center pays tribute to the late designer Stephen Sprouse.

Someone asked me last week what’s coming for spring and I said “bright colors.”

She seemed puzzled by the response, saying, “Really? I thought in times of recession people wear black.”

Well, given that my last three purchases had been a black skirt, a black jacket and a black bracelet, I had to reconsider. Sure, retailers are showing lots of brights, but that doesn’t necessarily mean people are in the mood to buy them.

My mood has been black so maybe that’s been reflected in my color, or non-color choice. The other thing I wanted to buy was a dark navy T-shirt with black sequin bow at J. Crew on the Island, but when I went back after two weeks, they had sold out of them. I was too busy to try it on when I saw them, but they had so many at full price I felt certain they’d still be there. I didn’t think people were paying $80+ for T-shirts anymore.

But there’s only so much dark colors a person can take. It makes me somewhat depressed to go into stores now and see racks still filled with fall stock in their somber colors. There’s a dearth of new stock, but if people are not seeing anything new, they’re probably less inclined to buy.

The design on the Louis Vuitton window echoes the design on its latest collection of handbags.

I applaud Louis Vuitton, who’s showing neon brights and graffiti scrawl in an eye-catching window display, a tribute to 1980s pop designer Stephen Sprouse, who died in 2004.

The lettering was done by Stephen Sprouse as part of a collaboration with Marc Jacobs for Vuitton about eight years ago.

I was just talking with someone about the art of the window display, and it’s refreshing to see this splash of art and theater in the mall. It made me stop to look.

The Gap necklace set against my Roberta Oaks skirt.

I’m not quite ready for Day Glo, but eased into color with a purchase of a costume necklace at The Gap. I was wearing a purple T-shirt and my Roberta Oaks patchwork scarf skirt that day, so it just matched. It was one of those iffy things I don’t really need, so my b.f. asked that question we ask now with every purchase: “Are you going to get $14 worth of pleasure out of that?” So, that was a pretty easy decision.

The Gap is embracing color this spring, recently partnering with Pantone to create a line of limited-edition T-Shirts in the season’s hottest colors. They just opened a T-shirt shop in The Gap’s rotating concept venue adjacent to its flagship store at 54th and 5th aves. in New York. It features The Gap’s upcoming spring tee collection in true Pantone colors, including a limited-edition tee in Mimosa, Pantone’s color of the year for 2009. The display will be up through Feb. 8.

Lisa Herbert, executive vice president of Pantone’s fashion, home and consumer division said Mimosa was selected because the sunny yellow “best expresses hope and reassurance.”

The Gap/Pantone collaboration features Pantone’s 2009 color if the year Mimosa.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 2:11 pm and is filed under T-shirts, Accessories, International fashion, Pop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.