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Culture^ I Exposition I E TAT S - U N I S I C2
PINK ISN’T WHAT
IT USED TO BE
Transformation of the colour pink
“Pink”, an exhibition organised by the The Museum at The Fashion Institute of
Technology, in New York (on until next January), covers the history of this colour, long
disparaged and then rehabilitated, in all its complexity. Brought back into fashion by
the biggest international stars, pink is no longer the colour associated with Barbie
dolls, far from it...
P
ink packs a punch. The once playful
tint of fragile ballerinas, Bubble Yum
and Malibu Barbie has lexed some muscle
of late, taking on overtones of sociopolitical
protest, transgression and unalloyed eroti-
cism. That message emerges with unex-
pected force at the Fashion Institute of Tech-
nology in a museum exhibition that explores
variations of a color that has ping-ponged
across the centuries, varying in tone from
demure to baldly subversive, from classy to
trashy and back. - Pink is a color in transition — pretty, and
pretty unsettling — in a show that opened
in September. Its lingering kitsch factor has
clouded its impact for sure. “That’s one reason
people think it’s not serious,” said Valerie
Steele, the director of the Museum at FIT.
Steele, on the other hand, would emphati-
cally urge you to rethink pink.
THE NEW YORK TIMES RUTH LA FERLA
NIVEAU AVANCÉ DU SUPPLÉMENT SONORE
On the Advanced recording, listen to our exclusive interview with Nick
Tr e a d w e l l, a man who takes the color pink to a whole new dimension!
CD audio ou téléchargement MP3 (sur abonnement)TRANSGRESSIVE IMPACT
- “Really, it’s society that makes color, that
decides what colors are going to mean,” she
said, a point reinforced throughout the exhi-
bition. A multidimensional hue with widely
varying connotations, it is no longer, Steele
insisted, “just girlie dumb pink but androgy-
nous, cool hip protesting pink, an expression
of all kinds of more complicated ideas.” - Pink’s transgressive impact, though, has
been long in the making. In Western culture
the color, in near-magenta and faint, powdery
variations, was embraced by the nobility, its
popularity enhanced in the late 14th century
when new dyes sourced from India and Su-
matra made for richer pinks. In the mid-
1700s, Madame de Pompadour rendered a
more confectionary pink the height of fash-
ion: In the portraits of François Boucher, she
models a succession of sassily beribboned - to pack a punch to have a powerful efect / playful
fun-loving, here, lighthearted / Bubble Yum brand of
American bubble gum (play on words between gum and
yum an expression of something tasty) / to lex one’s
muscle to tighten, show of one’s muscles; here, to make
one’s power felt / of late recently / overtone connotation
/ unalloyed undiluted, pure / unexpected unanticipated,
surprising / exhibition public display, show / demure
modest / baldly openly, overtly / trashy here, vulgar,
cheap / ... and back ... and vice versa. - pretty here, rather, very / unsettling troubling,
disturbing / lingering persistent; here, lasting, residual /
to cloud to blur, here, to afect, dilute, compromise / FIT =
Fashion Institute of Technology / emphatically
strongly, categorically / to urge to recommend, encourage. - throughout all through, right across / hue colour,
shade / widely extremely; here, widely varying
extremely varied, with a very large range of / no longer
not any more / dumb stupid, unintelligent / hip trend y,
fashionable, cool. - in the making in taking place / faint very pale /
powdery light / to embrace to adopt, accept
(enthusiastically) / to enhance here, to increase, intensify
/ dye substance used to colour / to render to make, cause
to be / confectionary sweet, sth made of sugar, here
confectionary pink colour of pink candy / height of
fashion extremely fashionable / to model here, to wear /
sassily stylishly audacious, daring, cheeky and alluring /
beribboned featuring lots of ribbons (ribbon decorative
narrow strip of material) /
Justin Bieber, April 2018. (SIPA)Marilyn Monroe in a
publicity shot for
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
(Wikimedia Commons)Inside the exhibition "Pink" at the Fashion Institute
of Technology. (Jackie Molloy/The New York Times)