In Fashion Part 29

Companies would love to put a science around color so that they could manage it and put in their frameworks and processes. But the cool thing is that color cannot be managed that way.

Also frightening to purely business types? Disparate ent.i.ties (Gucci, Apple, and a fabric stall at your local flea market) using completely different frames of reference eerily strike on the exact same shade at the exact same moment. "Unconsciously we are being guided by signals in society and popular culture," explains Harrington.

Color Decision Rights

"If you're a designer, you make the decision," says Harrington. At Target, usually the buyer is making the color calls. The problem with this structure is that buyers are naturally very risk averse when it comes to color. "If they can produce only four colors, which one are they going to drop? Not the black, gray, or navy-they'll cut the new muted green neutral."

If the color is right, it will sell; if the color's off, it'll land like a big obvious mistake on the sale racks. Here's a color conundrum: We all know if designers don't add breadth to their line, things won't sell. But stores, especially today, are hesitant to invest in unproven shades. They need to understand the basic role of color: Will it play the role of color per se (more risky) or be a new ground color or neutral (a lot less risky)?

COLOR a.s.sOCIATION INTERNs.h.i.+P PROGRAM (WWW.COLORa.s.sOCIATION.COM).

The Color a.s.sociation interns.h.i.+p program is small and highly compet.i.tive: Only one intern is accepted for every twelve-week stint. Says Leslie Harrington, "We often have international interns from India, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and j.a.pan. The international appeal of this program attests to the fact that it is hard to get real color learning. They come across the globe to get it."

FORMALIZING A COLOR EDUCATION.

In conjunction with FIT, the Color a.s.sociation is in the process of developing a color certification program, the first of its kind.

COLOR COLLEGE: EXECUTIVE LEVEL.

Harrington explains: "What happens when you've been in this business for four years and you need to know more, and you realize you are not up to speed. The topics I am teaching in this cla.s.s are for these professionals: It's the big picture of color strategy and of color and branding."

"If consumers are hesitant to invest, they may instead choose to buy the gray blouse over the white one, hoping to try to use it to update their wardrobe rather than buying another black or brown suit."

Color and Project Runway

"Almost every time the judges critique, color comes up with a comment like this: 'I am really disappointed that you didn't do something more interesting with color.'"

Color and the Red Carpet

"When you look at the awards shows, they talk about the color of personalities' dresses. They always talk about color."

Companies Starting to Get It

"Companies are becoming much more aware that both their bottom and top line performances are linked to color strategy. With a down economy, companies rely more on innovation: Innovation will force us to do more with less. If you need to breathe new life into an existing product, color is a great thing to consider."

Color as a New Business Frontier

Futurists predict that 50 percent of the jobs our children will have don't exist today. The field of color and business may well be a new frontier. Says Harrington, "In the future, businesses will require more innovative, creative thinkers, not more a.n.a.lytical thinkers. MBA programs mold students in a way that is becoming obsolete. Building business awareness into MFA programs or more innovative thinking and visual stimulation into MBA programs makes sense." (Harrington's reference is to a cool book called A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink.)

Color Career = Right Brain + Left Brain

What's fascinating about this whole field of color is that it is a blend of right-and left-brain thinking-a blending of the traditional MBA and MFA training. Harrington suggests that "to be successful in business, you'll need conventional business tools as well as an understanding of human behavior and dynamics. Interestingly, computers actually feed off both sides of our brains. Completely in step with their times, kids today, born and raised in the Internet era, are naturally attracted to careers that aren't totally right brain or left brain focused."

The Way You Learned About Color? All Wrong

Thanks to computers and digital images, the light theory of color (in which there are various sets of primary colors) is replacing the traditional teaching of red, green, and blue as primary paint colors from which all other shades are created.

Remember: Color TV Was Invented Only Sixty Years Ago

Perhaps more than any other innovation, color TV had a huge impact on the world of color. For most of history, the colors people could buy and wear were limited by our ability to manufacture them. Wearing and living with color diversity is, in itself, a modern phenomenon. Take, for example, purple. Throughout history, purple was the color of n.o.bility because the pigment could be produced only by using ma.s.ses of crushed mussel sh.e.l.ls as dye, rendering the color prohibitively expensive. Then, in 1856, a British college student named William Perkin was fooling around in his chemistry lab at school and struck on a way to distill coal so that it would produce a carbon-rich tar that proved to be a suitable fabric dye. It was the first new color in a generation.

Color Challenged for Its Greenness

At same time, color will increasingly be challenged for its possible negative effect on the environment with a call to account for which dyes, potentially harmful, helped create any particular shade.

Color Arbiters Are Everywhere

Everything we buy has a color, and we had to make a color decision in order to purchase that item. And someone in the manufacturing world has made a decision about that color: You name it-snow shovel, juicer, jeans. Today, cotton is even grown in color.

PROFILE.

ROOPAL PATEL Senior Woman's Fas.h.i.+on Director, Bergdorf Goodman One way to get to know Roopal Patel is to read her "fas.h.i.+on show round-ups," blogs that she updates from Milan and Paris during show season. These casual missives feel like notes from a friend rather than a dictate from an intimidating, luxe retailer. You quickly learn what she likes (she diplomatically omits her dislikes) and, thanks to her edit, develop a short list of what you'll want to buy next.

Another way to get to know Roopal is to log on to www.Style.com to scan her sixty-nine-image slide show. A stunning Roopal in a black one-shoulder dress by Narciso Rodriguez. A hip Roopal in a headband, fur neck scarf, and black Marc Jacobs short dress. How is it that Roopal, not an actress, an heiress, or a socialite, gets paid to wear designer gowns, attend A-list parties, and sit in the front row at all the fas.h.i.+on shows? She'd tell you it was "destiny and fate." We'd add something about discipline and starting at the bottom and working your way up. Oh, and watching Elsa Klensch on CNN as a girl.

BACKGROUND.

Born in the United States, Roopal grew up in Muttontown, New York, a small community on the north sh.o.r.e of Long Island near Oyster Bay. She is the oldest of three children. A doctor specializing in cardiopulmonary and geriatric medicine, her father practices at Mount Sinai. Her mother, who once ran her own travel agency, now has a more leisurely life, focused on her family, yoga, and golf.

KEEPING THE TRADITIONS.

Both of Roopal's parents were born and raised in Kenya, where their families, Indian emigrants, had moved. (Both Kenya and India were once under British rule.) The couple met at university in India. While her parents speak Hindi, Gujarati, and Swahili, Roopal speaks only Gujarati.

EDUCATION.

High school: Old Westbury School of the Holy Child College: NYU Stern School of Business ACHIEVER FATHER.

An irrepressible student, he just received his MBA at the age of 55. He is also a big supporter of the Indian community.

STYLISH ACHIEVER MOTHER.

"My mom ran her own travel agency and, when my parents would go out, she wore the most amazingly elaborate saris in colors like fuchsia, orange, and turquoise with over-the-top jewelry. Watching her get dressed when I was a kid taught me to love the art of dressing up."

CHILDHOOD EXPECTATIONS.

"To do well in our studies. The dream for all three of us was to be doctors. Beyond that, the idea was that we would choose a profession, be it business or law."

CHILD HOOD DREAM.

To be a dancer. "I loved Martha Graham, the Joffrey ballet, Bob Fosse."

A VERY LESSONED GIRL.

Roopal studied dance from the age of four, and she also took tennis lessons and played the flute for many years.

FAs.h.i.+ON ORACLE.

"I'd wake up and watch Elsa Klensch on CNN. That's how I learned about Gianni Versace, Giorgio Armani, and Donna Karan.

"I grew up with Vogue and liking to shop. But I had no clue that if you weren't a designer you could make a living in fas.h.i.+on."

RETAIL FRIDAYS.

While at NYU, Roopal had no cla.s.ses on Fridays so she took a job at Urban Outfitters, folding sweaters, sweeping the floor. "It was fun."

Next, she sold jeans at the Diesel shop where she met a woman who invited her to intern at her showroom over the summer. "That's when I realized there was this whole other world of fas.h.i.+on."

SIMPLY CHIC SHOWROOM.

"It was really fascinating to see the collections and the process that needed to happen from showroom to store." During this time, Juicy was launching from the showroom, and Roopal actually modeled the brand's first T-s.h.i.+rts for stores.

NEXT STOP: JUSSARA LEE.

"It was a new company so I wore many hats. I was doing mailers. Helping with the fas.h.i.+on show at Bryant Park. I learned that sales wasn't my calling. And I saw how much I liked to be stimulated by many different things happening simultaneously. I felt suffocated looking out of one person's window.

"At the time, I had no idea how important this education would be to what I do today. I learned about advertising, marketing, public speaking, presentations."

JOB TIP.