Color challenge 3. And intimate color 🎀

The history of pink is vague one: for a huge portion of history, pink was seen as a light shade of red, and not a color in itself. The different shades of pink can be even more elusive to pinpoint—when did they even become a recognized color with a proper name?

Although dusty rose, a greyed pink, was always a color, it didn’t become a truly fashionable and recognized shade until the Edwardian Era (1901-1910 in the UK)when it was associated with the boudoir—a lady’s sitting room, dedicated to intimate female conversations and popularized by the Marquis de Sade in the 18th century.

Dusty rose was favored in wallpapers because it softened the light of paraffin and gaslight chandeliers, and was generally used in interior design and female gatherings: silk lampshades, cushions, tea dresses and shawls. As such, it became a color closely connected to the domestic, intimacy and the feminine.

In the 20s, it became a color for lingerie and daywear. The connection with lingerie and makeup is easy to understand, since dusty rose resembles the color of blushing (colors similiar to the human flesh were seen as intimate and appropriate for underwear).

After that, there were a few revivals in the 50s (in bridal contexts) and the 80s (interior fabric and bridesmaid satin), but it never shook off the association with intimacy, the body and women.