Pink

This week I changed the A board outside my shop to a simpler, clearer design, the main point of which is that it is very pink. There is no mistaking it and it is now visible from quite far away, so I am pleased with the outcome. I have to be honest, however, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the colour pink. When I was young and had bright red hair, I was always told that I should not wear it – a rule which I went on to ignore in adult life. I recall getting into trouble at the big City law firm where I was a junior solicitor when I turned up to work wearing a pale pink boucle wool suit (from Jigsaw), paired with black opaque tights and DMs. I was instructed to go home and come back wearing a more appropriate suit. I think I should probably have realised then that I was not really cut out for the corporate life. I also strongly resisted using pink in my branding when I first opened the business as I dislike all the ‘girly’ connotations of pink – but as you all can see I caved pretty fast on that one. Pink and yarn shops are inextricably linked in the mind of the consumer, apparently.

Anyway, I did a bit of a deep dive about the colour pink and identified the following interesting facts:

Firstly, the name for the colour in English actually came from the pink flower from the genus dianthus. In turn their name derives from the frilled edge of the flowers as the verb “to pink” dates from the 14th century and means “to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern” – think of pinking shears which cut fabric with a zig zag edge. In other languages pink is named for the rose flower – hence rose in French, roze in Dutch, rosa in German, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Norwegian. Of course, in English too, the word ‘rose’ can equally refer to the colour as the flower. In Chinese, Danish and Finnish the colour pink is described as a lighter shade of red and some Celtic languages, such as Cornish, also use a term meaning ‘whiteish red’. In Japanese, the traditional word for pink momo-iro, takes its name from peach blossom. There is a separate word for the colour of cherry blossom – sakuro-iro, but apparently the word pinku, derived from the English is also being used. Interestingly, the Japanese talk about ‘spring pink’ in the way that we talk about ‘spring green’ because of the importance of cherry blossom at that season.

Secondly, pink has not always been solely associated with femininity the way it currently is. In Japan it is perceived as a masculine and mournful colour and is linked to slain Samurai. In Korea, it is the colour of trustworthiness. Here in the west, it was associated with masculinity until relatively recently, as it was considered a strong colour being a lighter shade of red, whereas blue was thought to be softer and more delicate. The decisive link between pink and femininity has actually be dated to as late as 1959 and is thought to be largely because of Barbie, which is a bit depressing. This is not say that women did not wear pink before – apparently it was one of Madame de Pompadour’s favourite colours.

Over the 20th century, pinks became bolder and brighter, partly because of the invention of chemical dyes. The pioneer of this movement was Elsa Schiaparelli who was aligned with the Surrealist movement. In 1931 she created ‘shocking pink’, by mixing magenta with a small amount of white. I have to say that this is my absolutely favourite shade of pink. It is now also known as ‘Schiaparelli Pink’. As the century progressed, it also became a colour of protest. The Nazis used pink triangles to identify homosexuals, with the result that the pink triangle is now associated with the gay movement. Pink ribbons were used to bring attention to the appalling lack of interest in breast cancer at the end of the 20th century and of course there are the pink pussy hats that were knitted and worn during the Women’s Marches in 2016 to protest the election of Trump which I have written about before. These days, a combination of pink and white is associated with innocence, whereas a combination of pink and black is more sexy and I suppose that opposition sums up why pink is such an interesting colour. It won’t be put in a box!

If I look at which colours are the best sellers in the shop, pink is nowhere to be seen. It is not a colour that people often choose unless they are knitting for babies or girls or if they know and are pleased to declare that they like wearing pink. Those pinks that do sell tend to be in the dusky pink range, or the very pale, almost white pinks from Knitting for Olive. If you like pink (and lots of people don’t), what is your favourite shade?