Today Monday January 16 – the third Monday in January – is considered the most depressing day of the year. Dubbed Blue Monday, due to the combination of post-Christmas blues, returning to work, cold dark nights, grey skies and unpaid credit card
Today Monday January 16 – the third Monday in January – is considered the most depressing day of the year. Dubbed Blue Monday, due to the combination of post-Christmas blues, returning to work, cold dark nights, grey skies and unpaid credit card bills, on AnOther Loves we have instead attempted to turn today into a day of happiness by inviting contributors to only post yellow products.
A patent pseudoscience, Blue Monday has been calculated in a formula released by a mental health charity as, as seen below, where weather=W, debt=d, time since Christmas=T, time since failing our new year’s resolutions=Q, low motivational levels=M and the feeling of a need to take action=Na. 'D' is not defined in the release, nor are units.
We ask some of our AnOther Loves contributors to explain their yellow choices...
Canary by Luke Stephenson chosen by AnOther senior fashion editor Sofia de Romarate: "It's by a photographer called Luke Stephenson from a series called The Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds. I love all of them but when you said yellow i remembered the picture of the canary popping his head into frame! The song of a canary is said to raise your spirits and lower your blood pressure, perfect for Blue Monday."
Anna Wintour by Alex Katz, 2009 chosen by AnOther Good Book columnist Nathalie Olah: “This weekend I strolled through the National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection; something I haven't done in many years. This painting is one of the best things in there. It's yellow in colour and in tone. Wintour's steely image is cast aside and replaced by a much more inviting, warm glow. It really shows the power of the artist and how he/she is capable of refiguring the world and shifting people's perceptions.”
Yellow Neon Jersey T-shirt by Christopher Kane chosen by AnOther editor Nancy Waters: "It's happy because it's yellow and it looks pretty comfy too. Could also double up as a sexy high-vis outfit for cycling in."
Yellow Tang Fish (Zebrasoma Flavescens) chosen by Senior PR at A Number of Names* Annoushka Giltsoff: “I chose this fish as he seemed that cute neon yellow-ey colour – really really bright! It also looks as if he is illuminating the sea. It made me smile.”
Oof by Ed Ruscha, 1962/1963 chosen by AnOther Website commissionuing editor Laura Bradley: “I love Ed Ruscha – his work never fails to put a smile on my face. The colour palette in this work is perfect; yellow works beautifully with navy blue. And it reminds me of the brilliant modern word ‘yoof’.”
Goats Head Soup by The Rolling Stones, 1973 chosen by AnOther intern Tish Wrigley: “What a trio of joy giving properties – a young Mick Jagger, shot by David Bailey, suffused in yellow. It's also the album with Angie on it, which is one of my favourite RS songs. The album was recorded in Jamaica – so is filled with Caribbean sunshine.”
Spongebob x Marc Jacobs chosen by Fashion PR Mandi Lennard: “It's a newly released project by Dutch illustrator Mike Frederiqo who has taken some of fashion's most iconic characters and reinterpreted them as Spongebob Squarepants. In addition to Coco Chanel and Terry Richardson. I love the way in which he has shown Marc Jacobs with clues such as facial stubble, and his Scott Campbell tattoos. It's humorous in its audacity but has a right to be as Marc Jacobs once walked the whole perimeter of his runway show, sporting a luxury handbag that incorporated a TV screen playing an episode of Spongebob.”
1920s Wellsworth Motorcycle Goggles chosen by AnOther fashion editor Agata Belcen: “I chose these goggles because I like having the sun in my eyes and riding in the side car of a 20s motorbike”
Chanel No. 5 chosen by Freelance editorial project co-ordinator Felicity Shaw: "I bathe in it everyday... just joking. But I do wear it because it reminds me of my grandmother (you might have seen my picture I posted of her and my granddad on Facebook looking like silver screen stars) – and this makes me happy!"
The diagonal of May 25, 1963 by Dan Flavin (to Constantin Brancusi) chosen by A Magazine Curated by editor Dan Thawley: "When I thought of yellow I immediately thought of light, and Dan Flavin remains one of the 20th century's most iconic light artists. Researching his work I came across this singular yellow piece, an ode to one of the greatest sculptors, Constantin Brancusi."
Untitled (field of yellow and purple flowers) by William Eggleston, 1978 chosen by AnOther intern Daisy Woodward: “This image is one of my favourite photographs by William Eggleston (who used the dye-transfer process to achieve the amazing colour saturation). It reminds me of the brilliant yellow rapeseed fields in the English countryside and provides a much-needed antidote to January's grey skies.”
Banana Earrings by Prada chosen by AnOther fashion co-ordinator Mhairi Graham: “I chose these earrings as they were one of my favourite accessories from SS11 last year. From Stella McCartney's citrus prints to Charlotte Olympia's Leather Fruit Pumps, SS11 was definitely a moment for fruit within fashion. Muiccia Prada led the way in a pair of kitsch banana earrings, which have since become an iconic representation of the season. Perhaps it is because they also fondly remind me of Billy Connolly's pop-art banana boots. Definitely one of my five a day, any day."
Chanel Mimosa Nail Polish chosen by Freelance writer Fiona Cook: “I'd say yellow isn't normally something I'd wear clothes wise, it's too daring, but wearing it on your nails is a nice touch. You look at your hands a lot when you're typing at work, yellow nails should stop you feeling downcast. It’s also a great way to grab a bit of Chanel when you can't afford what's on the catwalk. They always seem to get it spot on with the colour of the season.”
Les Enfants Terrible chosen by Stella McCartney visual director Jonathan Schofield: "I love the colour yellow in general. I love the line in The Great Gatsby when F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the party as having "yellow cocktail music". And that yellow roses are the sign of flirtation, and that Van Gogh saw yellow as a devotional colour and that the sunflowers were in part about this devotional attachment to Gaugin. It is the colour of emotional instability, of mutability and change. It is dangerously contingent and unstable, people are scared by yellow, It can seem to be flighty.The third chakra, located in our solar plexus is said to be yellow, the solar plexus is where we gather our energy and will power, so to be yellow bellied is when our third chakra isn't functioning. Mondrian liked yellow, but he didn't like green. Kandinsky wrote a play in 1909 called The Yellow Sound. The Yellow Sound is a one-act opera without dialogue or conventional plot, divided into six "pictures". A child in white and an adult performer in black represent life and death; other figures are costumed in single colors, including five "intensely yellow giants (as large as possible)" and "vague red creatures, somewhat suggesting birds."
Text by Lucia Davies
