“Think pink! think pink! when you buy summer clothes. Think pink! think pink! If you want you choose this Quelque.”
Sung as a revelation in the 1957 musical film Funny Face, this advice was definitely heeded — just look at fashion and media. The fascination with pink – every shade and every nuance has its own connotation – shaped these cultural engines over generations and has been unfolding in full force ever since We are reaching the “Barbie” high season.
Color has been a crucial detail for movies and television—from that scene in Funny Face, to Elle Woods wearing her iconic head-to-toe bright pink court suit in 2001’s Legally Blonde, to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. ,” Where the shades of pink in the costume play a symbolic role in the final season. And now with this Greta Gerwig directed the film’s release, The lively hot “Barbie Pink” is inescapable.
Throughout history, designers, artists and brands have played with the emotions that color evokes, creating meanings that are constantly evolving. From gender to class, these associations have been constantly challenged, inverted, and subverted—while the definition of pink is ever-changing, one constant remains: its cultural resilience.
The meaning behind the many shades of pink
Pink first came into vogue at the French court in the 18th century as a new source of dye gave fabrics a more vibrant and long-lasting color. explained Valerie Steele, director of the museum at FIT and one of the authors of Pink: The Story of a Punky, Pretty, Powerful Color.
Since then, the cachet of the color pink has gone up and down; As pink dyes became more accessible to the working class, the color lost its association with wealth and prestige.
When it first became popular, it was worn by men and women alike, but by the 1920s US department stores were demanding blue for boys and pink for girls.
“It was really completely random,” Steele said of the context.
Fast forward a few generations to 2016 Pantone has chosen “Rose Quartz”. Color of the Year: The muted antique rose is calming but also represents strength, said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. She told The Associated Press one of the reasons for the choice was increasing “gender blurring”. (The color was quickly embraced by fashion and interior designers, earning it the nickname “Millennial Pink.”)
This symbiotic influence—pink gives structure to a cultural force and is buoyed by it—became evident over the next year women’s march on washington, where protesters gathered bright pink pussy hats.
“Pink has become the most controversial color in fashion in many ways, and fashion is always interested in controversy,” Steele said.
For British artist Stuart Semple, pink is the color of rebellion and space-occupation. In response, Semple created the color “Pinkest Pink” in 2016. Artist Anish Kapoor Purchase and reserve the artistic rights to the Vantablack pigment, believed to be the blackest black in the world.
Semple has brought his color—intended as the fluorescent apotheosis of color—to the world at an affordable price.
“I thought it was wrong of me to keep this amazing paint I made. So I wanted to make it accessible to everyone,” Semple told the AP. “Apart from him (Kapoor), for obvious reasons.”
Semple chose pink because it was the “counterpart” to black and is a color that’s political, vibrant, and “perfect for kind of challenging convention.”
Tanisha Ford, history professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, noted how male artists — particularly male color artists bad bunny; Tyler the Creator And Jaden Smith — have sparked more complex conversations about masculinity by wearing pink clothes.
The color is subversive but also used very “with a tongue in cheek,” Ford said.
“People of color have been denied time off and rest,” Ford said. “So…if you’re wearing that preppy clothes or you’re wearing your yacht-chic clothes, you’re claiming free time.”
Ultimately, there’s a simple reason people still wear pink: it looks good.
“It’s a very flattering color at its core,” says Barry Manuel, a fashion professor at New York University.
The Season of Barbie Pink
Pink has long been associated with the Barbie brand – It even has its own Pantone color. But although Barbie first launched in 1959, Mattel wasn’t known until the 1970s with predominantly pink packaging, said Kim Culmone, Mattel’s senior vice president and global head of Barbie and fashion doll design.
Discussing the shades of pink associated with the brand, Culmone noted that there was something inspirational and upbeat about “Barbie Pink”.
“For us it is above all a symbol of empowerment. “Barbie is the original girl empowerment brand,” Culmone said.
It came as no surprise that the film’s first feature-length trailer was pink, showcasing Barbie Land as a fun cotton candy wonderland that’s a little contrived. After the trailer was released, news reports claimed the production team bought so many cans of pink paint that the world supply was exhausted.
Gerwig told the AP that she wasn’t so sure – but she did confirm that the crew bought each can of pink paint from a specific company. The director explained that it was important to use pink color to capture older cinematic techniques and to make the audience feel like Barbie Land was tangible.
“It’s a toy, and what are toys but things you can touch? And so it was important to get all the pink color to paint everything,” Gerwig said.
Capitalize on colour
However, Semple has problems with the monopoly and the “press aiming to exhaust the supply of paint”.
“Whether it’s true or not, it’s still not very pretty,” he told the AP.
Semple says he’s opposed to what he calls “big color,” where corporations dominate usage. He quoted “Tiffany Blue,” the brand color of the jewelry company.
In response to “Barbie,” Semple returned to his previous game plan and created “the Barbiest pink.” Anyone can buy the paint under the name “Pinkie” – as long as they certify that they are not employed by Mattel.
“Colors should belong to everyone. And corporations should do what they do best, which is corporate affairs, and maybe leave the colors alone,” Semple said.
When asked to comment on Semple’s “Pinkie” colorway, a Mattel spokesperson simply replied in an email, “While Barbie Pink is not a registered trademark, it is recognized as a well-known trademark of the brand.”
“We’re drawn to colors because they immediately convey different emotions,” explained David Loranger, professor of fashion merchandising and marketing at Sacred Heart University.
“I think that from a marketing perspective, having direct contact with the senses is so important because it’s a non-verbal, a semiotic vehicle,” Loranger said. “The best marketing is very deeply rooted in emotions.”
But where do these innate emotional connections come from? It could come from something in nature, a belief system, or something we’ve been told.
“Each color has a meaning that we feel about that color almost innately, whether we came to know it through association or just through conditioning. This helps us intuitively understand the message and the meaning being conveyed,” Pressman said.
When it comes to consumer marketing, the wide variety of meanings of pink means everyone can get involved. From high fashion – Valentino collaborated with Pantone and created a collection from the resulting custom shade, which was shown on a pink runway last March – There is a lot of pink in everyday objects.
Brands now shape our perception of color and it pays to have a signature hue.
“Color can be a powerful marketing tool. But more than I would say, making a claim, finding something new to talk about and tell a story to the consumer is a bigger idea,” said Miguel.
Dressed in pink, “Barbie” captures an artificial dreamland that arouses nostalgia and joy and satisfies the audience’s urge to escape.
“People are happy to find something that captures their imagination and takes them somewhere simple, happy and fun,” said Miguel, “and that’s what pink is.”
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Associated Press journalist Krysta Fauria contributed to this story.
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