A newspaper article led to January’s color of the month….Pantone has released a new book, “PANTONE: The 20th Century in Color”. The whole article sparked my imagination, but this in particular caught my eye: ‘….when fashion designer and Orientalist Paul Poiret started dressing women in shell pink and soft grey kimonos, that airier palette, anchored with black and metallics, became the hallmark of Art Nouveau decor.” I set out to find some things designed by Mr. Poiret.
The Nouveau period was most popular between 1890 and 1910. You can see Poiret’s palette still in this design print, circa 1926.
The picture of the girl with her shell pink accents is from 1908, within the Art Nouveau period. Both of these designs were interesting, but I wanted a slightly wider palette for our yarn and fiber.
Then I found this Paul Poiret Sorbet dress…..an actual dress, not just a drawing! Here we have a classic play of black against ivory, with accents of shell pink, green, and greyed lavender.
To match the sheen of the original, I turned to Panda for the sock yarn. The bamboo in it did grey out the black a bit, but lent a lovely shine to the ivory and pastel portions.
For fiber…..well the best way to get shine is just to go right for the silk. This is 50/50 Silk and Merino, and was a splurge even for a luxury month, but was absolutely right, so I went for it. The fiber is not completely blended, so it will benefit from spinning from the fold or stripping. These techniques keep the amount of fibers manageable to help the silk and merino to be spun evenly together instead of separating. I’m also imagining this plied with a solid of one of the component colors, or even a silk bronze or metallic thread to keep with the Art Nouveau theme.
I found other inspiration in that article, and I will see if our library has purchased the book. In the meantime, February’s color is going back to one of my favorite themes for inspiration….landscapes. There is still time to subscribe, check out the details on the Tiger Club page in the shop.
Yet another winner!! Great job!