Influence of Fashion
The average individual is guided as a rule in colour selection by vogue or fashion, though it is the polite custom to concede that the average woman is naturally endowed with taste. This is delicate ground, but the awful and impossible associations evident at times in feminine costume certainly do not justify the courtesy. There are superstitions in colour selection evidently the result of tradition, such, for instance, as red and yellow being suitable for a sallow complexion. The actual effect of these colours being to excite the complementaries, is hardly favourable to the misguided wearer.
The average man is generally more discreet in selection when sartorially concerned. Not that he necessarily possesses more taste, but because he is observant of custom, and moreover, has generally an instinctive dislike to anything pronounced. At times, however, the women-folk take the initiative, and two of the greatest inflictions that men suffer are the selection of their ties and cigars by one of the opposite sex.
In domestic environment the selection is invariably imitative or guided by fashion, and if the prevailing vogue prescribes brown paper as a lining for walls, it is probably adopted. But the choice, however it may be influenced, is made possibly without thought of the furniture and upholstery that is associated.