Content area
Full text
WHEN the Princess of Wales stepped out in a vivid purple trouser suit this week, she joined the swelling ranks of women — and fashion designers — for whom the hue is a winter favourite.
At the autumn/winter shows, purple appeared on the catwalk at Burberry, Fendi and Versace, to name but three. Rich, bold and regal, it's a shade that's guaranteed to cut a dash.
But there is far more to read into Kate's sartorial choice than the fact that she keeps up with seasonal trends.
They say the mind wears the colour of the soul — a lyrical way to express the idea that we gravitate towards hues that reflect our mood on any given day.
While we may not be conscious of it when we fling open our wardrobe, the colour of the clothes we elect to wear says more about our mindset than we might think.
We know that Kate is a believer in expressing emotions via colour-codes. Speaking at her Shaping Us National Symposium event on Wednesday, she revealed that her five-year-old son, Prince Louis, and his classmates at Lambrook School in Berkshire use a 'really good' Feelings Wheel to 'represent how they feel that day'.
A what-what?, I hear you ask. A feelings wheel is a circle which displays a range of emotions radiating out on spokes, with the strongest at the centre and the subtler, harder-to-pinpoint 'secondary' emotions on the periphery.
Designed by an American psychologist Dr Robert Plutchik, back in 1980, the Wheel of Emotions is very much back in vogue as a tool for getting in touch with our innermost feelings — even among the youngest school children.
Now that it's been given the royal seal of approval, the question must surely be: does Kate use it when she is considering what to wear?
While the theory of dressing to reflect our emotions may sound flaky, there is a body of scientific evidence to back it up.
The US National Library of Medicine conducted a study in which participants were exposed to test patches of various hues, and noted that reactions to specific colours were consistent, indicating that specific...