Like many of you, we watched the US Presidential Inauguration with knitting in hand and tears in our eyes. We knew it would be a historical day, but what we didn’t expect was to be absolutely blown away by the aesthetics of it all, particularly by the mostly monochromatic masterpieces worn by some notable women, and by the powerful and hopeful poem Amanda Gorman shared with us, The Hill We Climb.
Much about the past four years, (and this past year in pandemic in particular), has felt heavy and hard and sad and just plain grey. But on January 20th, we were treated to a visual symphony of strong, powerful, intelligent, amazing women who brought the light and gave us something that we sorely needed: hope. Did they all discuss wearing monochrome? Do they have a text string, where each put dibs on the color they most wanted to wear (and, can we get a peek at this text string, PLEASE?!? We promise to behave!)? Did they know that we would be gasping and texting our friends each time one of them walked down those stairs? Did they realize just how much light they were letting into the world, with their bold embrace of color and of themselves? Did they think about that fact that to wear something bold, as a woman, you are saying: look at me! I am worthy of being looked at, I am worthy of being a topic of conversation, of being an inspiration, and mostly, of just being.?
As we created our Brave Enough colorway, we poured through images of that day, with tears in our eyes. We listened to Amanda Gorman’s poem again and again.
“We will rise…
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover.
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid,
the new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
We drank in all of that beauty, and all of those words, adding each color until a rainbow was created. Because what better way to celebrate hope than through a rainbow?
