Pink luxury jacquard fabrics: history and colour variants

Nowadays we think of pink as the most feminine colour, both on clothing and in fancy or romantic interiors. But the history of the colour pink is far more complex than that.

A short history of pink

Ancient civilizations already knew pink: both Homer and Lucretius mention it, and Medieval artists such as Cimabue used it in their works. However, it’s never been a popular colour, either for clothing or for furnishing fabrics. Naturally, it was used – some manuscript miniatures show women in pink -, but people tended to prefer red.

The popularity of pink had a meteoric rise during the 18th century, thanks to the French court of Louis XV: it became the chicest colour for both men’s and women’s clothes and for top and fashionable interiors. It was the colour of aristocracy, and as such it spread throughout Europe. Rococo artists and Impressionists adored it, so pink didn’t lose its fame over the following years.

François-Hubert Drouais, “Marquis de Sourches and His Family” (1756)

“Animal magnetism” (1780)

Besides, it wasn’t a colour “for women”, or at least not yet: during the 19th century, indeed, boys often wore white and pink clothing, since it was a lighter shade of red, the colour of men’s uniforms. On the other hand, blue was meant for girls.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), “The Pink Boy”

Victoria, royal princess of the United Kingdom (1842)

The swap of genders seems to have taken place much later, in the USA: around the Fifties, celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and the First Lady Mamie Eisenhower started wearing pink more and more often. And so, little by little, it turned into the colour of femininity, in its light shades, and seduction, when bright and intense.

Over the last years, this colour has undergone another change: it isn’t used in the girls’ bedroom or in out-of-the-ordinary houses. Its soft shades make it the perfect colour for refined rooms, especially after 2016, when Pantone chose Rose Quartz as one of its colours of the year.