It’s funny that mint, the plant, isn’t mint, the color, although both are similarly cheerful-seeming with a twisted secret. Mint the herb will take over most any container you plant it in, strangling its unsuspecting neighbor plants. Mint the color seems similarly harmless and fresh, but its irresistible creaminess is ultimately a little nauseating.
Mint is pretty but it’s not sexy. Mint can also be innocent, in theory, although I’d say it’s more like faux-innocent. It’s like if you liquefied the entire dentist experience and turned it into a color, and took it like a pill. A level of cleanliness I don’t want and yet can’t resist.
Too much mint is institutional, treacherous. The upscale paint company Farrow & Ball offers a murky shade of mint called Arsenic that people use in children’s bedrooms, for instance — creepy, and yet I would still use it. Mint is pure evil, which is also, somehow, delicious.
If mint were a person, she’d be a poreless and eternal 19-year-old. She’d have sharp teeth, and she’d be popular, cold-blooded, and omnipotent. Chewing gum, ruining your self-esteem. Mint is funny, and mean. Mint wants to play doctor, but with chloroform. And you say, well okay, just this once.
Designers understand mint’s perverse appeal. For spring 2019, Maryam Nassir Zadeh showed a mint dress with tangerine tights. It was strapless, but there was nothing slinky about it. Marc Jacobs’s fall 2019 collection contained a dress the color of a hospital wall. And Jacquemus rendered one of his breathtakingly sheer spring 2019 dresses in mint, playing up the color’s faux innocence — a goddess gown, but for a trickster goddess.
Can you imagine getting married in a mint wedding dress? Heaven would pour into hell.
Scroll down for 16 mint things to wear right now.
If You’re Afraid of Commitment
If You Need Your Trends to Be Work-Appropriate
A perfect marriage of spring dressing and corporate dressing.
Available in sizes 00–16.
If You Only Want It on Your Nails
Do what all the cool people are doing on Instagram and mix and match with other shades of green.
If It’s Not Quite Spring Yet
Simple, sweet, and easy to wear year-round.
Available in sizes 1X–3X.
If You’re a Trend-Setter
Croc is also having a moment, making these shoes a spring-trend double whammy.
If You Can’t Resist a Pretty Bag
If You Are the Embodiment of Mint
If mint were a person, she’d wear this.
Available in sizes S–3X.
If You’re 0 Percent Evil
A dress you’ll wear long after the trend fades.
Available in sizes 1–4.
If You’re All About Accessories
If You Need More Beachwear
The beach is the perfect place to wear mint green, especially sheer mint green.
Available in sizes 12–30.
If You’re Into Clueless Cosplay
Pairs well with a mint-green sweater (see above).
Available in sizes IT 38–IT 48.
If You’re Into Sportswear
If You’re Sick of All Your Work Pants
A statement suit is all the rage, but these fitted pants stand on their own.
Available in sizes 00–16.
If You’re Scandi-Chic
Little Liffner is one of the Danish brands to know and to love.
If You’re All About the ’90s
The round-style is an homage to Kurt Cobain, but the shade is wholly modern.
If You’re Detail-Oriented
You’ll appreciate the asymmetrical hem and the perfect shade of light green.
Available in sizes XS–XL.
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