Lisa Armstrong
Blue-not-grey, the colour for everyone
e probably reached peak grey two years ago. This soft, forgiving hue – a favourite interiors backdrop of Samantha Cameron – is everywhere. It dominates our wardrobes, washes across our walls and has become one of the most popular handbag colours – more youthful than camel, prettier than black. It is the natural default setting for stressed-out north European complexions in winter, the fashionable hair colour.
It would be rash to predict its fall. It is the ambient shade of Britain’s skies, the house hue of Dior and grey cashmere suits everyone. Not even John Major could kill it.
But that ubiquity is a worry, especially if you pride yourself on early adoption. Say you were going to open your first flagship store for your exquisite line of clothes. Let’s imagine that you’re renowned for your exacting, original taste. That you also live with an architect… you’re probably not going to choose
Wa colour that has become one of the top five sellers at Homebase. You’re far more likely to find a shade that everyone finds madly scary – and make it work.
When Erdem launched his Mayfair shop recently, the walls were painted pale blue. This was not the cold, unfriendly pale blue from the Interior Designer’s Book of 101s. Nor was it the magnesiablue you sometimes find in hospitals hoping to maximise blue’s “soothing” qualities. You couldn’t quite call it a dirty blue either (fashion loves a dirty pastel, possibly because it sounds more subversive than almond pastel). Erdem’s blue was a clear, fresh, confident, seductively subtle pale blue, the colour of early sunny English mornings, of Cecil Beaton’s Fifties photographs.
In short, while it is definitely blue-not-grey, it was a blue with some grey in it. And everyone who has seen it has been raving about it. Far from the industrial-chic of grey, it is elegant, warm and looks terrific with accents of gold, white, black, violet – and book-lined shelves.
Erdem’s hue was, inevitably, custom blended and he claims to have forgotten the precise ingredients. Interior designer Vicky Parkinson suggests similar effects from Farrow & Ball’s Light Blue and Parma Gray or Little Greene’s Bone China Blue Mid. Paint Library’s Piccadilly Pigeon might also do the trick.
“What you juxtapose the blue against also makes a huge difference,” says Parkinson. “With cream paint, pale blue softens. With a ‘brilliant’ white, it appears much harder, more vibrant and pure.”
With canny timing, paint specialists Little Greene are introducing a paint chart for blue (as they previously did with grey) featuring a befuddlingly large array from tropical to hazy Nordic.
As we know from #TheDress – the hashtag that engaged millions in debate last February – everyone sees colours slightly differently. Perceptions of blueness don’t necessarily tally with the reality. The sky, which along with our mother’s eyes, is often a human’s earliest, most totemic experience of blue, isn’t blue at all but merely appears blue because of an optical effect, involving sunlight, blue wavelengths and oxygen and nitrogen molecules. There is – shock horror – no blue pigment in blue eyes either. As for the deep-blue sea – Homer believed the sea to be black.
For years blue has been considered both calming and, when used on walls, somewhat icy, while in fashion circles, pale Queen Mum blues acquired a fusty reputation: cold yet uncool. Then the first powdery blues began seeping into fashion shows. Two years ago, Paula Cademartori, a cult Brazilian designer, began making pale blue bags – and selling out. Six months ago, JW Anderson scored it through with a searing acid yellow (an early harbinger of all the yellow to come for spring/summer 2016). Michael Kors used it to prettify camel. Marni mixed it with aubergine (a delicious cocktail). For this winter, Prada dives into blue with duck egg, stretchy-fabric trouser suits, mixed with olive-leather gloves, or black shoes, and shades of putty. Meanwhile, Oscar de la Renta’s blue-notgrey ball gown for next spring was one of the stand-out looks from New York.
Pale blue is back in business. In the wardrobe it is a beautiful, refined, flattering tone that offsets other pastels or black gorgeously, looks striking with khaki and navy, dazzling with reds or orange and will provide a base for yellow (next summer’s headline colour, although most of us will only wear it as an accent).
At home, Vicky Parkinson says “expensive paints make a huge difference. They tend to have a more chalky finish, which makes the colour appear softer.” Parkinson counsels against light blue in a northfacing room – it becomes icy. “If you must, choose a blue that has more of a warm, coloured tone than grey tone.”
Whether it’s in your home or your outfit, add accessories and texture. Sophistication shall be your reward. Then in five years, when we reach peak pale blue, revert to grey.