A lesson in colour combinations from the 20s

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If you like old fashion books, you may have often stumbled, while leafing through books or researching in a library, in illustrations portraying several women with the same tunic-shaped dress in differently coloured version.

Such illustrations appeared in various fashion books and can be found also on the Internet, so you may be familiar with them.

These illustrations are taken from a 1924 book entitled Enciclopedia dell’abbigliamento femminile (Womenswear Encyclopedia), written by Bruno Piergiovanni.

The book is actually divided in two volumes: the first one is more technical and tackles issues such as tailoring techniques, pattern cutting and fabrics; the second is divided in two parts and mainly focuses on colour combinations and fur. The part that deals with colours is my favourite one.

In this section Piergiovanni goes into specific details, focusing on the fundamental principles that a designer should follow to match specific colours and fabrics and while the rules he follows may sound nowadays rather conservative or passé, especially in a world in which any kind of colour combination – even mismatched ones – has been (almost successfully) tried, the author’s suggestions are still interesting and are also accompanied by foldable illustrations that try to show his point.

Piergiovanni examines various colour combinations in the book, trying to prove how two colours that may go well together in a design made in silk or wool, may look rather odd in a cotton dress. This happens because different fabrics reflect lights in different ways.

The author then lists the best matches and the worst mismatches created by combining white, black, dark and light blue, different shades or grey, green, red, brown and teal with other colours.

Each illustration is accompanied by a short paragraph that contains useful suggestions such as how to find the proper shade of red that can create the perfect harmony with the white colour; how pearly grey and black go rather well with light blue, but this colour can turn into a rather boring shade if matched with coral red and bright bold orange and how pale blue and powder pink are recommended only in designs made with rigid fabrics such as taffetas and characterised by pannier-like shapes, but the two colours are best avoided in dresses with linear silhouettes.

Piergiovanni also mentions the fashion collections of his times while going through the different colour combinations: analysing the possibilities offered by the brownish red nuance, he recommends to wear it with black, dark blue and white, highlighting how other colours matched with such nuance wouldn’t look right, even though Alice Bernard’s fashion house launched for the 1922 Winter a cape called “Enfern”, in violet crepe georgette with brownish red sleeves, worn with the “Archange” dress, in red crepe georgette and embroidered with white crystal pearls.

While the dress and the sleeves of the coat perfectly matched, Piergiovanni stated the violet coat and the red dress resulted in a cringingly hellish combination and the effect could have been even worst if the ensemble would have been worn by a blonde woman.

Piergiovanni reminds his readership that when specific colours that sometimes clash one with the other are used to embroider small motifs on a dress, mismatches can at times create interesting combinations.

As I stated at the beginning of this post, Piergiovanni’s book may be considered as out of date nowadays, but I quite like the illustrations and photographs featured in its pages and I think they would look interesting if reprinted on T-shirts or dresses since they would provide a clever alternative to the umpteenth and supposedly trendy slogan or logo.