Afternoon Tea at Target

I visited Target today. There's always been an unspoken conflict between Target shoppers and Wal-Mart shoppers. Everyone has their favorite. I happen to be a Target person. Anyway, I was looking through the clothes and there was this blouse by Mossimo that just called to me. "Jill," it said in an adorably angelic voice, "Look over here. You need me." So looked I did, and this is what I saw:

Of course, it was minus the headless model, plus a plastic hanger. But as soon as I saw it I fell in love, and I had to get it. The best part about the shirt is a tie between the sleeves and collar. But coming in at a close second is the color. Not taupe, not grayish brown, not brownish gray, but Afternoon Tea. And just look at the shirt. It's afternoon tea spun into a sleeveless sweater.

And that got me thinking about color names. I love paint chips. Every time I find myself in a hardware store I collect as many as possible and then use them for art or bookmarks. I match the paint chip to the color of the book's cover. And what's more delightful than paint chip names? I have one in possibly my favorite color ever: Appletini. The name and the color are impossible to hate.

There is a scene in one of my favorite movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which the two main characters, Clementine and Joel, discuss hair color names. Clementine, whose hair color is constantly changing from one wacky color to another, says, "It's got to be a job coming up with those names." And what a job it would be! I'd love to have that job. I love naming things, if you haven't noticed. Naming colors would never get boring. Whoever came up with "Afternoon Tea" as the color of a shirt is a genius, because not only does the color of the shirt look like afternoon tea; the shirt looks like what you'd wear to afternoon tea. I can't get over the brilliance!

The only problem with the blouse is that every woman who passed it looked at it with the same interest as I was. I hope everyone doesn't start wearing it. I like to think I have a special bond with Afternoon Tea, which is what I've decided to name the shirt as a whole. A name like that just cannot be forgotten.