I recently ran across a thread that posits Beau Brummell was single-handedly responsible for eliminating most colors and frills from menswear, damning genetic males for centuries to a drab palette of black, grey, olive, and navy, practically forever separating the genders and building an invisible cultural barrier that keeps us from dressing as we like. Has it become so ingrained that we're stuck in that palette, even when we consciously choose to step outside the norm?
I was discussing this with my SO when she pointed out that most of my dresses, skirts, blouses, pants, and even my boots fall in the range of darker earth tones. I have a few pieces that are rich jewel toned blue, green, and red (which look fabulous), but only a single pink dress, which I've never worn.
Help! Am I color-stuck? Do I have any hope of breaking out of this drab mold? Who else is so bound by our indoctrination of what we should wear that, even when we try to break the style boundaries, are still stuck in the same drab colors?