Kassia St Clair

A delightful little romp through the quirks of 75 colors. Additional colors get a color swatch and sentence in the back of the book

In looking at images of famous paintings, I had no idea that many of the colors they had to choose from were not permanent. Some of them would color shift just from being next to certain other colors. Sometimes artist would put a layer of varnish between colors that wanted to interact with each other - how tedious.

It was interesting to read about the discovery, manufacture, quirks, and life span of colors as laws changed, fashion changed, or when less finicky or less expensive alternatives became available.

The beautiful colors on the edge of the pages are often less vivid than the described color. (2017 Penguin hardcover edition)… (mer)

My daughter pressed this book into my hand saying she had a spare copy. Fascinating from the outset. I wanted to rush out and beat flax. Kassia St Clair weaves her tale by stepping the reader through fabric's historical important with some memorable moments

Outfitting an ordinary Viking cargo ship and its crew, including sailcloth, sailors' clothing and bedding is estimated to have required 200 kilograms of wool, and the equivalent of 10 years' labour... By some estimates, the sailcloth of the Norwegian Viking-era fleet would have required wool from up to 2 million sheep. (p.114)

.
The part I've most quoted concerns how the NASA space suit contract was won by Playtex (bras and girdles) and the difficulty NASA engineers had working with the highly skilled seamstresses who had the skill to layer the suits so accurately.

...each suit came with its own stack of onionskin paper a foot high covered with technical drawings and engineering jargon lovingly describing every layer and stitch, which was entirely separate from - and never used by - the women actually making them. (p. 236)

This is an enthralling book that gets more and more interesting.
… (mer)

Как известно, российский флаг срисован Петром I с голландского. Однако изначально тот имел не красную, а оранжевую полосу, в честь правящего дома. Увы, стойкой оранжевой краски на тот момент не было — она темнела до красного или выцветала до желтого. Плюнув, голландцы, остановились на более устойчивом красителе, а оранжевый у нас теперь повод не для гордости, а для опасения. Новая книга не о семи цветах радуги, а об их 75 оттенках, в основном с неизвестными для обычного человека названиями, зачаровывает читателя калейдоскопом неожиданных знаний из самых разных областей. Всю свою историю человечество искало новые красители, успокоившись лишь в XIX веке с изобретением анилиновых красителей, что, однако, не помешало лондонскому магазину продавать коричневый из толченых египетских мумий аж до 1964 года. Интересны и современные исследования цветовосприятия: так, розовый Бейкера-Миллера успокаивает заключенных, а для успешной продажи недвижимости ни в коем случае не стоит красить ее в бежевый. Хотя по последним данным Вселенная именно бежевая, точнее, цвета «космический латте».… (mer)