AI Summary
5 min readThe Graying of America: Why We've Stopped Using Color
When Atlantic assistant editor Amoak Dimmery drove into San Francisco earlier this year, he saw a city dotted with blue houses next to green houses next to purple houses—a visual variety he realized he never sees in his home city of New York. That observation sent him down a rabbit hole that led to what he calls the "color recession": the steady, decades-long desaturation of American life. Cars, appliances, houses, and interiors have all shifted toward gray, white, black, and beige. And as Dimmery and writer Katie Kelleher explain, this isn't just a matter of taste—it's the result of structural forces, economic insecurity, and a deep cultural risk aversion that has made color feel dangerous.
The Structural Forces Behind the Gray
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:47) **Introducing the "Color Recession" thesis** - Host Brittany Luse sets up the episode with Atlantic assistant editor Amoak Dimmery, who coined the term "color recession" to describe why everything from cars to houses to appliances has gone gray.
- 2 (02:42) **How Dimmery noticed the trend** - He describes driving into San Francisco and seeing houses in purple, blue, and green, which sparked a rabbit hole on why other cities no longer look that way.
- 3 (03:48) **The midcentury was colorful; cars prove it** - Dimmery and Luse recall seeing classic cars from the 1950s–70s with vibrant leather seats and surprising carpet colors that most people today would consider ugly.
- 4 (05:26) **From self-expression to resale investment** - Consumers stopped seeing large purchases like cars and appliances as extensions of personal taste.
- 5 (06:42) **Millennial gray is not a choice** - Luse points out that many renters, including herself, have no say in the gray-wash floors and white walls chosen by landlords and flippers.
- 6 (08:25) **Color as class signaling** - Kelleher and Dimmery discuss how avoiding bright colors has become a way to signal refinement, while loud color can read as tacky.
- 7 (09:55) **Farrow & Ball and the gatekeeping of color** - Kelleher explains how luxury paint brands like Farrow & Ball use specific names and narratives to make bold colors feel exclusive rather than tacky.
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Show Notes
Our world is looking kind of gray. Not the trees, the grass or the sky – but the cars, the buildings, the houses, and the decor and appliances in them. Neutrals dominate – like the famous “Millennial gray.” There are a lot of reasons, both structural and cultural, why color is leaching out of some of our most important and most expensive possessions – but what do we think our colors say about us? And what role does color play in our lives today?
To get into it, Brittany is joined by Amogh Dimri, assistant editor at The Atlantic and the writer of a piece about “the color recession,” and Katy Kelleher, a writer, editor, and author of the book The Ugly History of Beautiful Things.
(00:00) What does the color recession look like?
(02:26) How American cities lost their color
(06:26) Who's really picking 'Millennial gray'?
(08:28) What color choices say about class
(13:15) Why color might be scary
(20:33) Finding the freedom to be colorful
For more episodes on tastes, design and material culture, check out:
Fashion isn't art. It's something more.
The ugly truth of America's expensive homes
The hard work of having "good taste"
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