COLOUR SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS (Post no.1 on colour combinations in dress)

Felice Casorati, the red jacket, 1939, MART Rovereto, Italy

 

In this, and the following posts, I shall let my selection of images speak for itself. Colour can be quite fascinating, especially when worn in contrasting combinations.

I will begin with a personal favourite of mine: red and burgundy. The brightness of the red is reflected yet absorbed by the muted tone of the burgundy. Exciting.

Mark Rothko

Back in the Renaissance it was actually men who favoured this colour combination

Domenico Ghirlandaio, man,  15^th century, Metropolitan museum New York USA

 

Dosso Dossi, Alfonso I d’Este Duke of Ferrara

By the 1800s, initially due to Romanticism and Renaissance revival,  it was very popular with women too

J.E. Millais, actress Kate Dolan impersonating Portia, 1886, Metropolitan  museum, New York

John Singer Sargent, Ena and Betty Wertheimer, 1901, Tate Britain, UK

In the above portrait, the contrasting combination of colours is not in the actual dress – which is a rich light burgundy –  but it’s created by the eye-catching red flowers worn in the sensual dark hair of the sitter.

 

Charles James, evening dress in silk and velvet, 1949, Kent State university collection, USA

Sorelle Fontana atelier Rome, Wool and velvet day suit, 1960 (1960 Italian fashion magazine photo)

Nike sports shoe, 2014