The Great Gatsby and Summer Fashion Trends
The Color Yellow in The Great Gatsby
When I was fourteen I had a yellow dress and I still remember it as my favorite dress of all time. Yellow for me then was the color of sun and growing up and feeling confident in bright clothes. And the happiness associated with wearing that dress probably explains why yellow has always been and always will be my favorite color.
Imagine my surprise when I recently discovered that the author F. Scot Fitzgerald in his book The Great Gatsby uses the color yellow as a symbol of moral decay, decadence and death. Oh dear!
Daisy and her friend Jordan are first described as dressed in white, but as the story progresses they gradually change to yellow, and this shift is supposedly meant to reveal to us that the characters are not as pure as they seem and that they are gradually changing from the pureness of white to the corruption of yellow.
Scot Fitzgerald actually tells us that Myrtle's dress is 'cream colored' and that with the influence of this new color her personality has 'undergone a change'. This change in the color of Myrtle's dress to a more yellowish hue is meant to show us that she is dishonest and pretending to be what she is not.
But Yellow is On Trend This Season
Call it by a fancier name, citrus, if you like, but there's no denying that the Fashionistas have now given all things yellow the thumbs up.
I'm totally OK with that, despite the subliminal messages delivered in The Great Gatsby movie.
This great doctor-style handbag is definitely on trend this season. I like that it has a padlock locking device for extra security. Useful when traveling!
The Great Gatsby Movie
Baz Luhrman has of course used this color to great effect in the movie of the book.
Gatsby's car that later kills Myrtle (sorry, spoiler) is yellow and Daisy and her friend Jordan are shown wearing light yellow clothes as the story progresses.
Daisy in Yellow Gold
Spot the Color Yellow in The Great Gatsby Trailers
Go Ahead - Wear Yellow!
Looking in my closet I find I actually don't have anything in yellow. But that's about to change. Here's a few suggestions for brightening your life with yellow.
Gatsby and Daisy are Together
Vote on the color yellow
What does the color yellow represent to you?
Read the Book Yet?
If you read The Great Gatsby in high school as most of us did it's probably a good idea to read it again. Once the characters seemed romantic and enviable. Now to me they just seem shallow, and Gatsby's idealization of Daisy is pitiful. Well, times change, but this does not detract from the Scot Fitzgerald's great achievement. He wrote a book that will always be considered a classic due to the author's brilliant prose and insight into human nature.
