Frazer Hadfield: color-less yet fabulous.
While most of us struggle to get dressed based on the fact that we have to see people that day and it’s about zero degrees outside, Frazer Hadfield has another issue to work around: he can’t see colours properly. We spoke to the third-year English student to find out how on earth he still manages look good.
Frazer thought this jumper was brown when he bought it
Hi Frazer! We know that you’re colour-blind, but that can mean many different things. How much colour are you actually able to see?
I’m able to see in colour, but I’m red-green and blue-purple colour-blind. This means that I get the colours on these two spectrums mixed-up. For example, when I bought this green jumper (pictured above), I thought it was brown. Interestingly, the only bright colour I’m able to identify without fail is orange!
When did you find out that you were colour-blind?
I started to suspect that I saw colours differently when I was about 12, and when I was 14 I took the Ishihara test for colour-blindness where you have to identify a number among a pattern of colours.
Like in Little Miss Sunshine…
Yeah! When I was younger I actually did think about becoming a pilot, but I obviously can’t do that now. Luckily though, colour-blindness doesn’t really interfere with other things, like driving a car.
What about getting dressed? How do you avoid wearing clashing colours?
I don’t wear t-shirts or jeans because I’m a bit scared of them. Instead, I have a lot of neutral coloured trousers and jumpers which I know go together, which means that I don’t have to really think about what to wear. When I’m going on a night out, one of my flatmates and I always veto our outfits with each other and trade clothes.
Some more of Frazer’s famous jumpers
That’s really cool! Where do you actually buy your clothes?
My parents moved to Australia after I left for university, so I get a lot of my clothes at independent stores there. When I’m here in the UK I mostly shop at H&M and Zara.
Tell us about your interest in music
I play the piano and the trumpet and I went to music school until I was 14. I stayed in touch with the people who I went to school with, and whenever any of them couldn’t do a gig, they’d ask me to do it instead. Here at St Andrews, I have a job at The Fairmont playing piano, and I’m the Musical Director of the Just So Society. This semester, I’m involved in three shows with Just So and Mermaids: Enron, Title of the Show and Ivanov.
Frazer Hadfield: multi-instrumentalist
Do you have synaesthesia?
Unfortunately not, but who knows what colours I’d see if I did?
Let us know if you develop it, by chance! Finally, do you have a favourite colour?
I wouldn’t say that I have a favourite, but I like blue because I associate it with my favourite football team: Oldham Athletic.
