The Color Revolution - 9780262017770

When the fashion industry declares that lime green is the new black, or instructs usto "think pink!," it is not the result of a backroom deal forged by a secretive cabal offashion journalists, designers, manufacturers, and the editor of Vogue. It is thelatest development of a color revolution that has been unfolding for more than a century. In thisbook, the award-winning historian Regina Lee Blaszczyk traces the relationship of color andcommerce, from haute couture to automobile showrooms to interior design, describing the oftenunrecognized role of the color profession in consumer culture. Blaszczyk examines the evolution ofthe color profession from 1850 to 1970, telling the stories of innovators who managed the colorcornucopia that modern artificial dyes and pigments made possible. These "color stylists,""color forecasters," and "color engineers" helped corporations understand theart of illusion and the psychology of color. Blaszczyk describes the strategic burst of color thattook place in the 1920s, when General Motors introduced a bright blue sedan to compete with Ford'sall-black Model T and when housewares became available in a range of brilliant hues. She explainsthe process of color forecasting--not a conspiracy to manipulate hapless consumers but a carefulreading of cultural trends and consumer taste. And she shows how color information flowed from thefashion houses of Paris to textile mills in New Jersey. Today professional colorists are part ofdesign management teams at such global corporations as Hilton, Disney, and Toyota. TheColor Revolution tells the history of how colorists help industry capture the hearts anddollars of consumers.