Think pink: the ever-changing face of pink
Written by Ilman Ramadhanu | Read in Indonesian
Pretty, romantic, feminine, tranquil, aggressive, garish, childlike, sassy and empowering, what do all these words have in common? It is that each one of these words could be used to describe pink and it would make sense.
There is no other colour in the colour wheel that carries a meaning and connotation that is more nuanced than pink. “Pink is used most often to represent femininity but at the same time, pink is associated with romance, passion, or joy and it could even be seen as childish,” Adlien Fadlia, a fashion design lecturer at Institut Kesenian Jakarta, told TFR.
Pink: a symbol of femininity
The myriad of connotations that pink possesses are differentiated by each of its shades and are influenced by many other things like culture. However, one connotation that seems to defy it all is pink’s connotation as a feminine colour–as simple as the use of pink and its “masculine” cousin blue for gender reveal parties that instantly tell us which gender the baby is going to be.
Adlien explained that pink’s association with femininity is derived from the fact that we see pink as a soft, gentle and sweet colour which are also the qualities we most often equate with female qualities. For that reason, many hyper feminine brands are using pink for their branding. Think Victoria Secret, or Barbie, or Hello Kitty–basically the most iconic “feminine” brands we can think of.
Believe it or not, pink had not always been considered a feminine colour. Professor of gender studies, Dominique Grisard, writes in an essay titled “In the Pink of Things: Gender, Sexuality, and Race” that prior to the twentieth century, pink was considered as a diluted version of red which was seen as a strong and masculine colour. Therefore, back then it was not uncommon for boys to be dressed in pink.
Kaye Blegvad, an illustrator and author of “The Pink Book: An Illustrated Celebration of the Color, from Bubblegum to Battleships”, supports this argument from an art perspective. She explains how the Christ Child is often depicted wearing pink robes in renaissance paintings. Pink in the 17th, 18th and 19th century was also used to signify youth instead of one’s gender. It is apparent in the paintings from those eras in which princes and young aristocrats are depicted wearing opulent pink ensembles.
By the 1950s, Grisard further writes that pink had become a signifier for traditional femininity, with figures like Mamie Eisenhower, a former first lady of the US who was so obsessed with pink that she turned the White House into a pink palace, becoming the face of this cultural shift. The correlation between pink and femininity was further solidified with the pinkification of girl culture in the 1990s, during which every aspect of popular culture including television shows, songs and toys that were directed towards young girls were wrapped in pink.
Pink: a symbol of a rebelliousness
Interestingly, there is another side to pink that is often considered subversive. Rei Kawakubo, a Japanese avant-garde designer behind Comme Des Garcons, has been using pink to convey rebelliousness in her creations. For CDG’s fall 2016 collection, Kawakubo used pink to imagine the punk subculture if it existed in the 18th century.
Instead of using leather, studs, or black, in Kawakubo’s mind, punks back then would have worn a pink vinyl shirt with an exaggerated pink frill shoulder piece that cascades down all the way to the ankles or a coat with a pink floral motif and details that resembled crustacean carapace shells and in a silhouette reminiscent of traditional Japanese armour.
Kawakubo’s use of pink to depict punk subculture was not at all baseless as plenty of punk bands in the 1970s like The Sex Pistols, Ramones and The Clash used fluorescent pink in their imageries.
In popular culture, the subversive aspect of pink is sometimes portrayed through a power reclaiming narrative. In the movie “Legally Blonde”, the initial characteristics of Elle Woods as an attractive and superficial young woman is depicted through her head-to-toe pink costumes that she wears throughout the movie. Her story begins when her boyfriend dumps her for not being serious enough which compels her to enrol in a law school to prove him wrong. Despite the continuous doubt against her, she is able to overcome it all.
Pink’s empowering trait could also be seen in real life. In late 2016, a video of former US president Donald Trump boasting about grabbing women’s genitalia sparked a global outrage. The anger towards it was manifested in a pink knitted hat with cat ears which was known as the pink pussyhat. Thousands of people wore it during the 2017 Women’s March across the US, creating a sea of pink. The pink pussyhat then became an emblem of feminism and women solidarity.
Pink: a symbol of joy
Now there is another shade of pink taking centre stage, one that excites and symbolises an energising dose of optimism. It is none other than the colour hot pink or also known as shocking pink, and it is currently the subject of obsession in the fashion industry.
The Internet gave this trend the name Barbiecore. It is not at all complicated to explain Barbie’s involvement in this–after all, hot pink is Barbara Millicent Roberts’ favourite colour. She even has her own patented shade of hot pink that she called Barbie pink. (Soon to release: Margot Robbie’s starring role in an upcoming Barbie live-action movie).
It started gaining attention earlier this year after Pierpaolo Piccioli presented a total of 48 monochromatic looks for Valentino’s fall 2022 collection in which each individual piece, including the accessories and shoes, came in only pitch black and hot pink.
Across the Internet, searches for “barbiecore” on Google and Pinterest have gone up 90%, while on TikTok, #barbiecore has been viewed over 100 million times. This shade of pink is so hot, WGSN called it this year’s most commercial colour.
The colour was first popularised by the legendary designer Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1930s. She concocted this shade of pink by mixing a magenta shade with a bit of white and when she saw it for the first time, she described the colour as life-giving. This meaning is still prevalent to this day.
This dopamine-boosting quality of hot pink makes this shade very relevant in today’s fashion. The anxiety that comes with living in the post-pandemic era with an ongoing war, political turmoil and climate change looming over our heads have morphed fashion’s role in society into a spectacle of escapism.
Hot pink fits perfectly in that role as it allows us to channel the playfulness and carefree attitude of Barbie in the midst of uncertainty.
A statement in itself, no matter how we twist it
Whether pink is your favourite colour or not, or whether we see it as a symbol of an expression, pink simply grabs attention. One cannot ignore pink. It is too pretty and forceful, and in its very best, it will attract attention. That quality alone will establish pink as a timelessly important colour in industries and pop culture for years to come.