“Old” doesn’t always mean out of style.
I was genuinely terrified of just about anyone over sixty when I was a little kid. I would hide behind my mother’s pant leg and refuse to speak or even make eye contact with the incredibly confused senior in question.
Miya Ruane, Digital photographs
It took me about seven years to overcome this particularly charming trait. I never quite knew why I had this sense of impending doom about wrinkled people, but looking back on it now I think it was related to my fear of ageing.
I hated the idea of losing my excitement for life – big feelings for a 5-year-old, I know, but once I got over this abnormal phobia, I grew an appreciation for every older adult I met who still maintained a youthful quality.
Miya Ruane, Sunday in the garden, Short movie
Whether it was the way they dressed or simply the playfulness in their personality, I was inspired to learn from the way these people managed to preserve their childlike soul. Some choose to do so by putting on fun and eccentric outfits that truly capture their personalities, showcasing a self-confidence that can only come with age. Others choose to share in the interests of the younger generations and evolve with the times, rather than stagnating in their own.
“I was inspired to learn from the way old people managed to preserve their childlike soul” – Miya Ruane
For the rest, there is just something to their presence that proves they are still delighted by life. I wanted to know what these people have that some others do not, but it turns out that they are “orange souls”.
Yes, you read that right: orange souls. Creativity. Change. Expression. Orange is the colour of freedom. Of vibrancy and youthful spirit. It is the colour of new visions and innovation.
Miya Ruane, Digital photographs
I have always thought that everyone has a specific colour representing them as a person. Some people are red: the passionate, the loyal, the emotional. Others are blue: the calm, the responsible, the imaginative.
Then some people are orange: the innovator, the creative, the expressive. Each colour has a deeper psychological meaning and can thus represent certain personality types. Orange encapsulates a certain vibrancy of life no other colour can fully capture.
“Each colour has a deeper psychological meaning and can thus represent certain personality types. Some people are orange: the innovator, the creative, the expressive” – Miya Ruane
I am lucky enough to say that I have met many orange people in my life. My grandmother is orange through her gardening. The entire land surrounding her mountain house is a field of tiger lilies. She carefully curates this expression of life through her plants, allowing herself total creative autonomy in this space.
“My grandmother is orange through her gardening. The entire land surrounding her mountain house is a field of tiger lilies” – Miya Ruane
My mother is orange through her painting and spontaneity. We never spent long in a certain place before moving on to the next adventure, giving my childhood the gift of many homes. Meeting someone who is orange will give you a new perspective on how life has the potential to be lived, no matter what stage of it they are in.
“Old” doesn’t always mean out of style.
Miya Ruane
First-year student in the Fashion Styling & Creative Direction programme, Paris
