Wearing Matching Clothes

I am sitting here waiting for my virtual yoga class. Since I always sit “like a lady," I can look straight ahead to my knees. Feet propped on the couch and the rest of me slumped. Not good yoga posture, but that is beside the point.

My yoga pants

My point is going to center around my yoga pants, wrapped around the aforementioned knees. Jungle print, they are a riot of hot pink, neon green, turquoise, and even some burgundy on a black background. Shall we say they are a little loud?

What to wear?

I wore them to hip hop Monday. They raised my driver’s eyebrows. She wears black.

I appreciate her choice. Her situation is different. She is younger and has a teen daughter to humiliate. At nearly 68 and childless, I only have myself to mortify. I am also getting a little rebellious in my old age. I will wear what I want to wear, dagnabbit! I am covered; aren’t I?

A penchant for colors

I have always had a penchant for colors. I like it bright.

I have also liked scarves. I have a large tote overflowing with multicolored scarves. In earlier years I discovered I could put together outfits of diverse colors just by adding a scarf that contained those colors and pulled it all together. I generally have a reputation for being coordinated.

Enter age-related macular degeneration

If you don’t know, you should know AMD messes with your color vision. The cells you are losing are called cone cells and they are tasked with seeing color.

Suddenly people who had impeccable fashion sense are making color-matching mistakes.

Finding new ways to coordinate

Now, you can do as my hip-hop friend does and wear black. It avoids the problem. However, going back to my comment about the multi-colored scarves, I take a slightly different tack.

If I am trying to match colors and am a little uncertain, I will throw on a multicolored scarf that I know at least has colors close to what I am trying to match. I hope people will not take the time to look and see if I got it right. “That scarf has a lot of colors! I guess the right one is in there somewhere!” That works for me.

Early fashion choices of the legally blind

When I was first legally blind, I used my love of color in another way. Wandering around Iceland, I sported a bright, tie-dyed hoodie nearly every day. Quite honestly, I stuck out like a sore thumb and that was exactly what I wanted.

No problems getting lost

I was able to wander away from my husband and do my thing without getting too terribly lost.

It probably would have worked better if I could have gotten my husband to wear the bright colors. Unfortunately, he is another one of those folks that wear black. With me in the tie-dye and wandering unleashed, there were a couple of times he had to come find me.

Making my way back was a little difficult. Good thing I stuck out. “Seeking older woman wearing a colorful, tie-dyed hoodie. If found, please return to...” Yep. That works, too.

The rules of fashion

So, yeah, one way of dealing with AMD color-matching challenges is to follow the Johnny Cash school of fashion. The Man In Black, remember? The other way is to throw a variety of crazy colors at them. They won’t sort it out before you leave, but they just may remember which way you went.

“Excuse me. Did you see a crazy, blind lady in tie-dye?” Yep. It works.