I’ve never chosen a style moniker, because I don’t think I can nail down ALL my tastes into a couple words. I feel I have strong logical consistency, just haven’t seen how to capture it under a super-short phrase. But this ad caught my attention. “Farbenfroh und elegant” could be me.

I just have to translate it into my own language, right? That’s easier said than done. “Und elegant” means just what you think—“and elegant”. “Farbenfroh” is generally translated “colorful” but that’s only half the story, the “Farbe” half. That word means “color”. The second half the word isn’t just an ending. “Froh” is a Word that means “happy”. But it can also be used in compound words to mean something like “-phillic”, the opposite of “-phobic”. When I clicked on Apple’s translate option, I got “color fruit” which made me laugh, but is clearly a move in the wrong direction. “Playful” isn’t part of the meaning of “farbenfroh” but I think it and even “flirty” fit easily in a word cloud with it.

Adding to the fun, there is another German word for “colorful”. That word is “bunt”. Native speakers can correct me (and I hope you all will pipe up) but to my ear, the connotations there are unsophisticated, playful in a childish way, patchwork, loud.... It isn’t a negative word by any means, and is often used to describe things in the multi-cultural scene (“Kunterbunt” is another formulation). That, combined with “elegant” might be an even more a curate descriptor for me, because there is, I think, a natural contradiction there, like the juxtapositions I see in myself. Otoh, the multi-culti scene isn’t always something I’m comfortable with. Sometimes it is, as in when it’s an openness to diversity. Other times, though, it can get close to the thrill of the exotic or other colonial tastes I want to distance myself from.

Maybe the complexity of having an untranslatable foreign word, especially one from a philosophy heavyweight, in my descriptor is more accurate anyway.

I also have to laugh at the source of the phrase. I’ve become interested in lingerie again, and I know there are some people who think my look is too sexy, because that’s what they equate short skirts with. So it’s fitting that the source is a lingerie company, and an image with a complicated pattern I like. Despite the “sexy” connotations, she’s covered up and street legal, as I prefer to be as well (except my knees).

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.