FASHIONTRIBES 5 MIN. PODCAST: Pink = Porno? An Exhibit at F.I.T. Examines Fashion’s Rainbow of Colors & Their Meanings. FASHIONTRIBES FASHION BLOG & PODCAST

(left to right: Pierre Cardin orange wool crepe mini dress from 1968; Mila Schon dress & coat set, 1968)

While pink is considered a prototypically girlie hue in the West, in Japan, it conjures up imagery that is, well, blue. "The Japanese cute-girl culture as well as pornography," Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at NYC’s Fashion Institute of Technology, recently told WWD. While blue used to be regarded as a feminine color, it is now designated as a boy's hue. "Symbolism can be ambivalent, too, with one color expressing two contradictory ideas, such as Life and Death. Changing technologies, such as the invention of aniline dyes, have also influenced our perception of color."

Their latest show at the Fashion and Textile History Gallery, She's Like a Rainbow: Colors in Fashion – up until May 5, 2007 - examines how colors are used, and what they represent.

Fun color factoids:

- until the 19th century, European brides chose red rather than white
- purple may be associated with royalty, but it’s also the world’s first artificial pigment
- although it’s now the world’s most popular hue, once upon a time, blue was considered "a second-rate color in antiquity"

The exhibit covers 250 years of fashion & features over 150 outfits, textiles & accessories, both from the museum archives & new purchases. Eyecatching home décor fabric and printed table clothes adorn the walls, providing a colorful setting for everything from a red riding hood (18th century); blue jeans from the early days; a mid-18th century yellow fashion frock; a white summer dress straight out of a Monet painting (1867); a shocking pink dress by Elsa Schiaparelli; and a green sequined gown and stole in fox & chiffon from Tom Ford’s final collection for Gucci in 2004. Some of the new purchases for this exhibit include a pink coatdress from the Yohji Yamamoto fall 2005 collection and a taffeta dress dating from the 19th century with violet and black stripes.  "Color is one of the most fundamental components of fashion," explains Steele, "yet it is often misunderstood. This is because color is not simply a natural phenomenon (the sky is blue, or at least it looks blue); it is also a complex cultural construct. Color has a history. Thus, color symbolism varies greatly across cultures, and changes over time."  (via WWD)

• For more info on the exhibit, visit FITNYC.edu.  To hear the Fashiontribes Daily 5 Min. Podcast about this, visit PodcasterNews.com. 

 - Lesley Scott

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