hashtag mood

Tired of Millennial Pink? Try Melodramatic Purple

Photo: Courtesy of the Vendors

In August, Lorde arrived to the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet wearing a pastel purple Monique Lhuillier gown with a billowy feather skirt. She was there to promote her most recent album, Melodrama, and her look perfectly complemented its message of post-breakup, pop moodiness.

The color she wore was particularly fitting, as purple occupies the fluid space between red and blue; anger and sadness; masculine and feminine. In a pastel lilac shade, this attitude translated as approachable — lighthearted, even. It’s a color that allows you to air your feelings out in public, without alienating yourself in the process. Since darker purples can be so serious (royalty, power, Gothic gloom), this one reads as girly and almost lovely, despite the earnest subject matter Lorde is trying to express. We’ll call it “melodramatic purple.”

For whatever reason, these days we feel inclined to label colors and hang on to them for dear life. First, there was millennial pink, which refused to go away. Then, it was Gen-Z yellow, which Man Repeller described as being a “bright, sobering respite from the barrage of over-saccharine bubblegum.” Melodramatic purple seems like an appropriate mixture of all of the above. All the feels. All the colors. In simple terms, it’s both sad and happy at the same time — a state of being I think a lot of people can relate to for spring 2018.

If you’re into melodramatic purple, the next step would be to wear it from head to toe. Commit to something, right? Below, we’ve culled the internet for clothes and accessories that best represent this “hashtag mood.”

Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor
Photo: 18-02-13 chaneldeleongomez AM2 B2 benbrubaker W
Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor
Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor
Photo: Courtesy of the Vendor

If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.

Tired of Millennial Pink? Try Melodramatic Purple