Did you get our newsletter on Monday? (If you’re not signed up for it, you can do so here). I talked about a new direction here at Lars–a direction that is not set in stone yet. It seems risky to declare it so soon, but I thought I’d include you in the process because I think it could be a fun conversation to have together and see where it takes us.
It’s a topic that has been occupying my mind. I became so impassioned about it during our editorial meeting the other week that we realized as a team that we need to shift our focus to address it.
Color has been disappearing from the world
The topic stems from a post that a number of readers sent to me a few weeks ago. It talks about a study (I can’t seem to identify the research group they referred to) that indicates that color is disappearing from the world, notably with cars and interior trends.
It didn’t take a formal study to reveal this to me. The colors I had to choose from for my car were white, black, or grey! “Ummm, do you have like a cornflower yellow, please? No?” And where did all the red cars from the 90s go?! Come back!
Reader comments
I made a one slide story about it with a quick note and then moved on with my day. But the comments started rolling in.
Here’s one:
81% of the people who responded said that they felt similarly.
Did you catch that?!
Wearing things that make you happy
81% said that they didn’t feel comfortable wearing things that made them happy! The clothes just sit there in the closet! As a hardly-famous Instagram influencer, I occasionally get stopped by people out and about to say hello (and I love it! Talk about a self-esteem booster for this still-looking-pregnant, 40 year old mom of 2!) and I’ve been privy to the things of their hearts. It’s a message that I keep hearing over and over. It usually goes something like this: “I’m 65 now and I’m finally wearing the colors that I love to wear and I thought you’d appreciate hearing this!”
Here’s what goes through my head when I hear something like this:
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- Absolutely I do want to hear this! Thanks for confiding in me!
- You go girl!
- What took so long?!?!?!
But seriously! WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR????
A new way of living with color
While Lars will not become a destination for style and fashion anytime soon, we DO intend to introduce a new way of being comfortable living with color and the things that are inside your heart. A guide of sorts.
And guess what? I don’t even care if you don’t love color! You don’t have to! If all-neutrals are the colors written on your heart, embrace it! As long as the choice is intentional, deliberate, and not determined by what you think you should be doing. That’s no way to live!
Everyone has a visual identity
And guess what else? EVERYONE has a visual identity whether they know it or not. It may sound superficial to certain people, but I contest that this visual identity is as important as the other parts of your identity. It’s what makes you you. Every object, color, pattern, line, furniture, decorative object can speak to your soul. Have you felt that before? When you stumble on an object and it SPEAKS to your soul? Surrounding yourself with those visuals, from a beautiful dress to a funky candlestick, can fill your soul just as much as beautiful written prose.
Here are some responses from our newsletter that went out this week. If you’re interested in reading more about living in color or lack of color, I wrote this post here about using beige as a default color.
New mission statement
Until now our mission has been to encourage people to make things with their hands. While we’re workshopping a new mission statement, here are some statements I’m thinking about (feel free to send in your own!):
- Get outside your comfort zone and make the life you’ve always wanted
- Embracing color
- A vibrant life is a heart fulfilled
- Tapping into the colors of your heart
- Identifying the colors of your heart and making them happen
- Making color come to life
- Color is a lifestyle
- Deliberately filling time with beautiful things
The Lars Lifestyle
In our meeting, Jenny on our team mentioned that Lars is more of a lifestyle than a series of craft projects. It’s true! We absolutely want to provide all the beautiful projects we can, but there’s more to it than that. We want to provide you with tools for living your BEST visual life. Because, once again, the things we surround ourselves with influence what we think about and the things we think about become the things written on our hearts. It’s a trickle down affair!
ANYWHOO, this is a blog post, not a novel, so I’ll stop there for now, but just know that there’s more of this in store. We are being guided by your comments and input so feel free to respond to this post (it comes directly to me!) and give me your thoughts. We will continue to incorporate it into our messaging.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
Read more
I’ve touched on some of these topics in the past. Here are a couple:
Neutral vs. default colors
Our published journal about living with color
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