VOCABLE Du 18 au 31 octobre 2018 • 29
shell-pink gowns and negligees. Pink during
that period was intended for both sexes. COLOUR FOR WOMEN
- But by the mid-19th century, men had
largely ceded pink to their sisters and wives,
any of whom might have worn the coy mid-
1800s dress showcased at FIT, a pink silk
taffeta gown, its multiple tiers bordered in
an effusion of rufles. Pink, as Steele writes,
was perceived in those days as a pretty color
expressive of delicacy and playful high spir-
its. But pink also suggested a second skin. A
lingerie tint with louche undertones, it was
celebrated by Théophile Gautier in his 1850
poem “To a Pink Dress.” - Times change and, with them, pink’s
proile. By the late 19th century, pink was as
common as ragweed. The introduction of
aniline dyes that produced ultrabright, oc-
casionally garish variations diminished the
color’s prestige and rendered it vulgar, a tint
launted in the novels of Emile Zola by shop
girls and prostitutes. - By the 1960s, pink had taken on a dual
personality. It was sophisticated enough for
Jackie Kennedy, who received the French
minister André Malraux at the White House
wearing a bonbon pink evening dress. And
it was sexy enough for Marilyn Monroe, who
gave pink a racy spin encased in a closeitting
diamond studded pink evening dress in the
1953 ilm Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Pink went
punk in the 1980s, a particularly garish shade
known as Ultrapink enlivening the album
covers of the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.
NEW MEANINGS
- A decade later, the color asserted itself on
a global scale as the fashion insignia of
self-proclaimed outliers: Madonna em-
braced pink’s bordello associations, per-
forming in 1990 in a soft pink cone-cupped
bustier by Jean Paul Gaultier. Pink became
ubiquitous in Japanese girl culture. The
cultish color was taken up by American club
crawlers, the emblem of cybergoths and
ravers. More recently, it was appropriated
by hip-hop culture. - With the years and shifting emphasis, pink
turned political, the infamous pink triangle
of the Nazi era repurposed by gay rights
activists as a symbol of protest. Pink was
taken up by a new generation of feminists
as an assertion of proud womanhood, a trend
that reached a crescendo at the 2017 inaugu-
ration when women descended on Washing-
ton en masse, launting quaintly homespun-
looking pussy hats. “In terms of its meaning
new things, pink has acquired the charisma
and complexity of black,” Steele said. l
shell-pink light pink of a shell (shell hard covering of a
mollusc) / gown formal dress / to be intended for to be
designed for, worn by.- coy modest / to showcase to show, present / silk ine
smooth satiny fabric / tier layer, level / rule gathered frill
of lace or other cloth decoration on a piece of clothing /
high spirits vivacity, lively and cheerful behaviour,
exuberance / louche tasteless, immoral, here, lirtatious,
sexual, libertine / “To a Pink Dress” À une robe rose. - ragweed North American plant of the daisy family /
garish brightly-coloured, in bad taste / to launt to
display ostentatiously, show of. - spin here, interpretation, aspect / to encase to enclose
/ closeitting form-itting, igure-hugging, very tight /
studded embellished with, covered in / Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes (VF) Les hommes préfèrent les blondes /
shade nuance, colour, tint / to enliven to brighten up. - to assert oneself to airm, impose oneself / outlier,
here, rebel / bordello whore house, place of ill-repute /
to perform here, to sing and dance on stage for a concert
/ cone-cupped moulded in the shape of cones /
ubiquitous omnipresent / to take, took, taken up here,
to wear, display / club crawler person who visits a variety
of nightclubs in one night / raver young person who goes
to “rave parties” (wild parties organised in warehouses or
other large remote open spaces with loud techno music
and easy access to numerous drugs.- shifting continuously changing / to repurpose to
reuse, convert for another use / ...of proud womanhood ...
pride in being a woman / trend general tendency, fashion
/ inauguration presidential investiture ceremony /
quaintly in a strangely charming way / homespun
homemade / pussy hat pink hat worn in response to
comments by Donald Trump as a feminist demonstration
of solidarity, to represent both meanings of ‘pussy’, the
shape for the ears of a cat, and the colour for a vagina.
"phrasal verbs"
Parfois, dans les "phrasal verbs"
(verbes à particules), un verbe
associé à deux particules diférentes
conserve néanmoins le même sens.Prenons l'exemple de cet article :
Pink has flexed some muscle of late,
taking on overtones of sociopolitical
protest, transgression and unalloyed
eroticism. (§ 1)Pink was taken up by a new
generation of feminists as an
assertion of proud womanhood. (§ 9)Dans les deux phrases, "taken"
prend le sens de "adopter".SUR LE BOUT DE LA LANGUEAméliorez votre prononciation en écoutant tous les articles sur le supplément audio de lectureLady Gaga at the premiere of the ilm A Star Is Born
at the Venice Film Festival, August 2018.(SIPA)
Inside the exhibition
"Pink" at the Fashion
Institute of Technology.
(Jackie Molloy/
The New York Times)