Shades of Honeysuckle Pink

Pantone recently unveiled its colour for 2011, a reddish pink called “Honeysuckle” (code number: 18-2120).

This vibrant and uplifting nuance, accompanied by the slogan “a brave new colour, for a brave new world”, is supposed to lift our spirits, ward off the blues (no pun intended…), make us think about flowers blossoming in Spring and give us confidence to face the stress of our modern times.

It’s actually quite funny but, when I heard about this shade, one of the first things that came to my mind was a scene from an old film featuring Vittorio De Sica and Marlene Dietrich.

The film – shot in 1957 and directed by Samuel A. Taylor – is entitled The Monte Carlo Story and follows two rather unlucky gamblers Maria de Crevecoeur and Count Dino della Fiaba.

Though the movie is a rather banal romantic comedy, it features Dietrich in some great costumes by Jean Louis (most of us associate him with the black satin strapless gown he designed for Rita Hayworth in Gilda that, based on the portrait of Mrs. X by John Singer Sargent, launched a fashion trend).

Yet the scene I had in mind in connection with this post doesn't feature Dietrich, but a few friends of Dino who are trying to convince him to seduce a rich woman, marry her, pay his debts and finally settled down.

One of the candidates they suggest him is a rather flamboyant South American lady, Señora Ivana, who seems to have a sort of colour-coded wardrobe that she co-ordinates with the wardrobe of her maid and chauffeur.

When Dino sees her for the first time in a hotel lobby she’s wearing a honeysuckle pink ensemble that perfectly matches with the uniforms of her maid and driver.

Since Dino is sceptical abut her attire he asks the hotel porter if she always goes around like that and he replies: “Oh no! On Monday she wears yellow, on Tuesday red, on Wednesday green…"

It was interesting to spot a sort of honeysuckle tending towards fuchsia also in the window of the Christian Dior shop in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna.

Though that could be explained also as a reference to the pink/fuchsia/violet flowers that usually decorate the Spanish steps, it’s interesting to see that a striking shade of reddish pink has taken the place of more popular "Christmassy" colours such as red, silver and gold.

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