Pink Makes Us Blush

By Pat Dwyer

Pink is here to stay it would seem! In make-up and jewelry we have seen Pink become the most defining of color fads for Spring/Summer 2004. The success of pink has exploded, reaching its third year running as the hot hot hot couture fashion palette, and has not been slowed by the shifts in taste dictated by the Fashionistas. Pink, in all its many gradations, is ultra feminine, chaste and seductive all at the same time. Marrying the allure of sinful red with the purity of white, of maliciousness with innocence, something the human spirit always finds intriguing. In the 1930s Elsa Schiapparelli went for a special dark pink, causing the color to shake off the social stigma that saw it as the symbol of sentimentalism (SNORE!!).

By adding a touch of magenta she created the shocking pink that inspired Dali in his famous Mae West lips sofa design.

All shades of pink from powder or pastel to candy or bubble-gum harken to styles that have made fashion history: the art deco marriage of black and pink in the 20s and 30s,

Lana Turner in her tight pink sweater and Marilyn Monroe in pink polka dot two-piece swimwear were the pin-up girls of the 40s and 50s, Twiggy in the 60s luxuriated in many a blush pastel, and the American surfing babes of the 70s pinked it up in beach wear on the sand. But these shifting approaches have given way to the childlike ambiences that have taken over today’s soft boudoirs in need of an unrestrained, seductive pink. Indeed in shopping about these days pink dominates the boutiques. It's difficult to buy something that isn't pink. The Doris Day look was the inspiration for the entire art direction of the hit film Down with Love, putting Renée Zellweger in coats, skirts and lingerie that matched up with pink armchairs and telephones.

In jewelry, we see pink gold, pink sapphires and even the ultra affordable Cubic Zirconia comes in pink. Fine jewelry makers the world over, are expressing their creativity splashing pink gold in a combination of color on many a piece for limb and neck. The coming season is all about the pretend-to-be-shy fashion, so pink jewelry fits in as easily as a pink silk blouse. Pink gold is both elegant and "soft",

and when molded into rings, bracelets and pendants becomes one of this season’s must-haves. Sapphires treated or created to bring out hot pink hues against white gold express fresh and vibrant nuances, decidedly sophisticated. For the teens the CZ in pink makes for divinely hip and hot accessories that POP on mod young necks, wrists and fingers completing their look for school or teen socializing.

So as in days gone by, for Spring and Summer this Season

THINK PINK!