Sadly in most of Europe this pattern is taking over too. There are just a few cities in between that seem like a colourful bastion against the boring mainstream.

And not in their architecture, it's seems to be more about the youth scene. Pilsen in Czech republic is a mostly grey boring city, but the people wear much more colorful clothes than in similar cities. The main difference I saw is more nature and a healthy pub culture.

in Amsterdam, there seems to have been a slight counter culture movement against this in the last few years, combined with heavy 80s-00s nostalgia. the beige look feels very influencer or tasteless upper/middle class to me.

When I've been to the Netherlands (could be 6 years or so) Rotterdam was a grey nightmare for me. Streets, People (and weather that time of the year). Haarlem oder the other side was colorful even with bad weather (Amsterdam felt full of colour anyway :)

For sure. I live in Thailand, and it's super-dominant amongst East Asian tourists here.

I run a cafe in Vietnam. 90% Western tourists clientele especially over xmas. During the Christmas day rush, every table full (maybe 40 people total), my partner pointed out that every single person, young, old, and even most of the children, were wearing black with just a bit of white and grey.

I'm a western tourist in SEA currently, packed very light and realized I really don't know how to dress for warm weather because I'm so not used to it!

that combined with limited luggage space meant I left my colorful clothes behind and am wearing a lot of white, black, beige. hope I don't get judged too harsh!

I'm not judging at all, just interested, and providing a counterpoint to the idea that it's an Asian fashion trend.

I don't think it was a weather thing. There was a "cold" spell here over Christmas. Probably 20 to 24C, which for us westerners is basically wear whatever you like weather. For Vietnamese it's winter time though, locals are all bundled up!

This incident was probably somewhat coincidental, but I have noticed several times previously in the cafe, with less people, it's all black, white, and grey.

Btw have a great trip! I was a western tourist too around 8 years ago and ended up never leaving. Life is good here, challenging and different.

what I meant was, at home I have a good diverse set of outfits for colder weather: long trousers, long sleeved shirts, sweaters, jackets, boots... all in different colors and styles.

but I have a total of 2 shorts and a bunch of boring t-shirts for 25C+ weather - simply because I rarely have incentive to expand it :)

In Croatia all the youth are wearing black, and what makes even less sense, they wear black during summer too. Boggles the mind.

I used to dress mostly in black (with an exception for blue jeans and camo cargo pants, and the prints on t-shirts) but since I turned 30 to my surprise I find myself wearing more grey stuff.

At least it's good for jokes that I finally introduced some colors.

> […] but since I turned 30 to my surprise I find myself wearing more grey stuff.

Perhaps in a few years you will go from Wink the Grey to Wink the White (just hope you don't need an encounter with a Balrog to accomplish it).