Welcoming Our New Color - The History of Pink

Welcoming Our New Color - The History of Pink

Our newest limited edition color, inspired from spring blossoms and the overall refreshing spirit of the seasonal change, Rosé All Day is finally available on our website. Like Mint Your Business it is a limited edition color, so be sure to get it before it is gone.

In the spirit of blush tones, the celebration of spring and Valentines Day we have decided to expand on the creation of this color- beyond TIY. Color plays a massive role in fashion, culture and history. Pink has always been a controversial color. It has been masculine and feminine, attributed to strength and weakness. Regardless of what the current culture is calling pink, the important part is that we are talking about it. Lets delve into the history of pink, as well as where this shade of pink has been seen in fashion over the years.

 

We can see pink becoming more fashionable and culturally significant in the 18th century. It became popular with both genders of the bourgeoisie. It was first a symbol of high society, wealth and luxury. It wasn't until very recently that pink became feminized. At first, it was considered a common color for young boys to wear, as it was a muted red, which was at the time heavily associated with war. In the 20th century World War II created a cultural shift to men wearing darker, neutral colors. The girlishness of pink came out of this era, due to a push for women to leave the workforce postwar. This rebrand of pink could be seen in many fashion and home good campaigns that were targeted towards women.

The blush pink we created our TIY in soon became a symbol for baby girls. Boys became blue, girls became pink. This was all in efforts to solidify gender roles that had been lost during the war. Once gender could be determined before birth in the 1980's, stores began profiting off of gendered by color clothes, bibs, and blankets. At the same time in the late 1980's to the 1990's punk music created a space for pink to once again become a bit more androgynous. While in modern times gender roles have shifted and culturally pink is not just a girls color anymore, in marketing it is still pushed towards women. Pink is controversial in that way, it gets people thinking and talking about more than just color. Pink has been provocative, loud, shy, delicate, bold.... It's intensely evocative.

Let's shift to where we have seen pink in fashion history.

Pink has had major fashion moments, with Chanel's pastel pink blazer of the late 90s, to Marilyn Monroe's racy pink gown and gloves in the film, Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. David Bowie also wore pink daringly against the gender norms of the time. We saw it feminized later in early 2000's teen films such as Mean Girls and Legally Blonde. It has been a symbol for sexual liberation and feminism in recent years, as can be seen in large feminist rallies where women wear their infamous provocative pink hats. Fashion, in many ways, controls culture. Many cultural shifts have been made through design and color. It's deeply intriguing how many hats pink has played over the past few decades. We hope to see it create more conversations in the future as we release our pink TIY.

What does pink symbolize for you? We would love to know. Comment on our latest Instagram post, and let us know how pink shows up in your life.

 


 

 


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.