How Green went from left-field eccentric to fashion mainstream | Jess CartnerMorley

What's weird about this picture? Trick question: nothing. Not anymore, anyway. An all-green outfit? Nothing to see here, people, move on. Perfectly normal.

But rewind five years and the answer would have been quite different: green was what you wore to be quirky or to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. So here is the story of how the last alternative color became mainstream.

Green is nature, the planet, the environment. The fact that wearing green once marked your map as a little left of center, but no longer does is a basic sign of the blindingly obvious - that we now take green things seriously.

Green made fashion hit the headlines last year when Bottega green was proclaimed the new black. A juicy and bright apple shade, Bottega green was hugely popular, initially as a surefire way to get as many people as possible to notice your new Bottega Veneta handbag and soon after as a fashionable quick fix. Nobody wears Granny Smith green by accident, so a sweater in that shade tied around the shoulders, or even a neon green manicure, worked well as a way to semaphorize your membership in the trendy club. This kind of thing works like a front row version of the old school tie, but the thing is, the design changes every six months.

This year all kinds of greens were given the green light. Not just acid neon, but olive, mint and emerald. And the Kermit and Radox bubble bath. A Wimbledon grass green cotton blazer or shirt as a splash of saturated color against white jeans and chunky flat boots is very typical of Copenhagen Fashion Week (currently the hottest fashion week. Keep it up). In Paris, an elegant mini phone crossbody bag in Kelly green is the accessory to update your marinière and your jeans.

And there will be others coming. Because if you're dressing for a party, you're going to wear a flowing silk or satin dress, and ever since Keira Knightley wore that green dress on screen in Atonement 15 years ago , she's been hard pressed to argue that emerald isn't the best of all possible colors for bringing maximum drama to a slippery cocktail dress.

One of the reasons green hasn't been a fashion mainstay is that, like yellow, it's neither masculine nor feminine. Being on neither side left green, well, sort of nowhere. But the conversation around gender is a bit more complex than it was back when pram covers were blue or pink and that was it. Green doesn't give you a gender badge, which makes it modern and relevant.

A soft green is a way to do pastels without being twee. A recent Boohoo study found that Google searches for "sage bridesmaid dresses" rose 476% this year, with its subtle chic hue being as much a cool modern wedding calling card as flower bouquets. wild. Katie Arnott and Frances Cookson, founders of contemporary and sustainable London bridesmaid dress brand Rewrite, have been selling green dresses since their first range five years ago. “We joke that we should be a green bridesmaid dress brand because they sell so well,” they say. Forest green is popular. "And olive dresses are like gold dust."

Green also has an interior moment. Chances are you've figured it all out by now - is there anyone who hasn't purchased a green velvet sofa, presumably from Made.com? Green is everywhere, from indoor plants to Bordallo Pinheiro cabbage tableware. My latest style obsession isn't a pair of shoes, but the desire to paint a room in Palm, a shade Farrow & Ball described as "a love letter to the iconic palm trees that dot the skyline of THE". Plus, it now pairs with some of my favorite outfits.