Rushed headline writers and lame copywriters keep hijacking the ploy of riffing off the cliché of basic black. And the tactic has long since escaped, like some genetically modified seed, into croplands far afield.
Cases in point: Jack Shafer’s 2007 critique in Slate of “green” journalism “Green is the New Yellow,” an argument that ecologic reportage veers toward the cataclysmic and inaccurate (a Google search reveals other posts under the same head on a variety of subjects including a urine-diversion toilet); and Tamsin Blanchard’s just released guide to shopping green is entitled Green Is The New Black.
Little did I know how long ago this linguistic twist started. With the help of Wikipedia, which does have an entry for “the new black,” I found an early instance of what is called a snowclone attributed to an ur-fashion doyen, in which pink was called "the navy blue of India." I am putting my money on Diana Vreeland (it has also been attributed to Gloria Vanderbilt). And it is amazing how rare the sightings of navy blue, that archetypal color of basic banking, are these days. However, thanks to the intrepid ladies of Code Pink, pink in their own politically hot version, is at every protest I’ve been to.
And speaking of the politically correct color, I must acknowledge the Web site of journalist Will Potter, “Green Is the New Red.” His argument is that the harsh prosecution of “eco-terrorists” is the new “red scare.”
As for red, it’s everywhere in two distinct and very now versions: what I call Williamsburg Bridge faded red and Coliseum blood, the color of Christie’s auction house shopping bags. (Here I am stealing from a writer whose name I have forgotten who described the color of nail polish as “the nails of a Roman matron ecstatically dipping her hands into the blood of a fallen gladiator.”)
Yes, I do prefer the color of weathered metalwork—not pink and not rose-- looking great in a leather jean-styled jacket. The other red bloodies toenails in, yes, gladiator sandals and provides more than a streak of red in the still popular oversize bags. (Watch out though for the return at long last to the strapless clutch bag.) And I do love red patent flats in an uncoagulated red.
Meanwhile, black is still basic and remained the default color of leggings and tights on these coolish June days. Even when a pastel might have been more interesting. On the B61 bus, a spectacular baby doll dress in pink pleated all around, nearly ruined with black tights when white fishnets would have looked truly fantastic.
http://www.slate.com/id/2169863/
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003981.html
http://www.amazon.com/Green-New-Black-Change-World/dp/0061719307
http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/
