Ladies & Gentlemen: The Colors of Spring in New York

There are awards galore, but the news is always only about mega-events like the Oscars, which is a real burnout. That's a shame, because the micro award ceremonies are more fun. The people who accept and celebrate lifetime achievement awards are often not exactly young and totally trendy. That's why they aren't dressed up by overzealous stylists in dresses and diamond necklaces designed to generate maximum attention for the brands that provide them. And that's why these celebrities are certainly not at Ozempic to quickly fit in somewhere. In short: people who go to small award ceremonies have fun. Almodóvar's muse Rossy de Palma, for example, last week in New York at the Chaplin Awards: She wore a lace dress with very broad shoulders, the origin of which we were never told for the reasons mentioned above. More interesting, however, are the accessories. Instead of diamonds, she wears a handful of real roses in her hair, as well as her trademark fan and enormous sunglasses. Each of these accessories is actually a minor disaster for people who make a living from show business coverage: The sunglasses block photographers' eyes, the fan, when spread out, blocks everything, and the roses? They can't even be branded! Is that refusal? Of course, you can't really accuse a woman who poses so amusingly (from the front, from behind, with her legs spread wide). Rather, the actress reminds us that as a woman, you can accept Hollywood statues, but you should never become one.

A major life task: Grow old, but not turn beige! For many people, beige, gray, and brown tones inexorably find their way into their wardrobes from around their 60th birthday. For women, the development often starts with the feet, while for men it usually sneaks in in the form of vests or trousers. This may be due to the assumption that one should make oneself invisible during this phase of life, or at least attract as little attention as possible, because the big stage belongs to others. But that's not true, and 75-year-old Pedro Almodóvar demonstrated at his appearance in New York that even older people can wear supposedly young colors.

It's always important that the bold use of color doesn't overwhelm a general sense of style. It's not about color at all costs, but rather about harmonious use and well-dosed visual stimuli. A perennial negative example in this context would be the fop in Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice." When first encountered, this character wears a "fashionable" light yellow summer suit and a red tie with a brown wig, clearly misusing the colors. Director Almodóvar's look, on the other hand, doesn't seem overly loud, which is probably also due to the fact that the colors chosen are not banal. The cyan suit is refreshing, yet much quieter than if it were to lean toward cobalt, which has indeed recently been a color of youth. And the scarf shifts elegantly from orange to pink, so it's not one-dimensional, like a bright red scarf would be. The best insurance for old age is, of course, to maintain high artistic, fashion and moral standards for yourself and not to think only in shades of grey or brown at some point.