Are we in a 'color recession'?

Are neutrals dominating your color palette? Our world is looking kind of gray.

Not the trees, the grass or the sky – but the cars, the buildings, the houses, and the decor and appliances in them. Neutrals dominate – like the famous “Millennial gray.” There are a lot of reasons, both structural and cultural, why color is leaching out of some of our most important and most expensive possessions – but what do we think our colors say about us?

And what role does color play in our lives today? To get into it, Brittany is joined by Amogh Dimri , assistant editor at The Atlantic and the writer of a piece about “the color recession,” and Katy Kelleher , a writer, editor, and author of the book The Ugly History of Beautiful Things . (00:00) What does the color recession look like? (02:26) How American cities lost their color (06:26) Who's really picking 'Millennial gray'? (08:28) What color choices say about class (13:15) Why color might be scary (20:33) Finding the freedom to be colorful For more episodes on tastes, design and material culture, check out: Fashion isn't art.

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