Think pink (as the adage goes) and where do you end up… somewhere girlish and obliging? Sugary and frivolous? Yet history tells us there’s nothing less shrinking than pink, says Kassia St Clair, cultural historian and author of The Secret Lives Of Colour (John Murray). ‘The view that pink is archetypically feminine is only a century old. Going back to the beginning of the 20th century, if girls were assigned any colour, it was pale blue, which in Western thought was associated with the Virgin Mary and seen as dainty and modest. Pink was considered more masculine, which makes more sense once you know that red was the colour of British military uniforms at the time and seen as a forceful colour, traditionally associated with men. Pink, which is essentially…
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Red UK (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2021