YELLOW STOCKINGS FT. H&M

During my stint as a high school Shakespearian actor, my old director taught us to enhance our comedic impact by putting emphasis on various adjectives throughout the script. A prime example, which I’ve probably talked about on this blog before is As You Like It, which can have four different meanings based on how you speak it: AS You Like It, As YOU Like It, As You LIKE It, or As You Like IT! Truly incredible how the meaning of the statement changes so much with an emphasis on a different word. One of my favorite scenes we worked on was Twelfth Night Act 3, Scene 4 when Malvolio simply goes insane in front of Olivia going on about the love letter he believes she wrote him. When she asks what’s the matter with him, he replies with “Not black in my mind, but yellow in my legs!” — I remember her directing this statement to be “Not BLACK in my mind, but YELLOW in my legs!” The emphasis on these words of course makes Olivia further believe that Malvolio seriously is going nuts, but it also gets across his meaning with more potency: he wears yellow stockings, a symbol of marriage, during his visit with her. So he’s not out of his mind, he’s just ready for marriage.

The yellow stockings are an iconic symbol of emphasis in Shakespeare’s plays, so I decided to play around with emphasis in this recent summer look. I started with this satin brown dress I picked up from H&M a few years ago (similar here) but wanted to spice it up with a boost of color. That’s when I chose this yellow scarf! I actually got this one in particular from a mailer, but you can get something super similar on Amazon (check out my LTK post for this look here). I think the yellow adds an element of emphasis to the outfit as a whole, and gives it an entirely new (and more fun!) meaning.

I’ll leave you with Olivia’s final say in the scene (which, I agree with):

“Why, this is very midsummer madness!”

[Twelfth Night 3.4]

Cheers, xx A. Martine

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