What the shades of red there isn’t just one is quite obvious, but knowing how to find your way around cardinal And amaranthcarmine and vermilion, knowing how to highlight the difference is not so immediate. Of course, for some the connection with the name comes to the rescue, as in the case of a poppy red and a ruby red, which take their name from something that is easy to identify with the naked eye in nature, but the exercise when it comes to Identifying a color in detail is not always so easy. Because every red, one might paraphrase Tiziano Ferro, may seem relative and subjective, but in reality it is not.
This is obviously where fashion comes into play, an area in which we always talk about color as a determining element in terms of seasonal trends or simply as a means of expression. And there’s no need to bother about the famous exchange of jokes about the cerulean that went down in history The Devil Wears Prada (maybe we’ll save it for the next color focus) to understand that each shade has a precise characteristic and its own historysometimes even curious.
In addition to the immense work done by Pantonean American company that deals with the cataloging of colors and their identification, there is extensive literature for professionals or simply for enthusiasts. In fact, in recent years, volumes such as Cromorama by Riccardo Falcinelli (Published by Einaudi) and theSentimental atlas of colors by Kassia St Clair (Published by Utet) have allowed us not only to recognize the various shades in the right way, but also to discover their characteristics and curiosities that allow us to observe the colors that surround us every day from new perspectives. And also to make a great impression on the others by confidently distinguishing a Ferrari red from a Valentino red, which as you will see is not exactly immediate.
Let’s delve into this chromatic, sanguine and powerful family together: we have chosen eleven shades of red, between hot and cold, bright or deep, which you have to discover and why not, also wear.
Cardinal red
The association between the term cardinal and the figure of an ecclesiastic is quite obvious and is the one also made by us in terms of image. The cardinal in question, however, is what gives rise to the name of this color a small bird widespread in Canada and the USAThe Cardinalis Cardinalisknown for its plumage of a deep shade of red. The cardinals mentioned above, however, wear this color in memory of the blood shed by Jesus Christ to save humanity and their name, which refers to the concept of hinge (intended as a pivot around which the Curia is administered) has no much to do with that of the flaming bird. In both cases it is a vivid, very bright color.
Carmine
Carmine is a deep red color that has natural origins as a dye derived from carminic acid contained in a type of insect called cochineal. To those who know beauty this name will not sound new: this small insect is in fact widely used in the production of cosmetics to intensify the tone of red, as well as in the food industry, always in the role of colorant.
Amaranth
It looks pink but it’s not: amaranth red is a color from the red family that can be placed between scarlet and carmine, but which is often associated with garnet due to its strong purple component. Dark but brightderives from the plant of the same name and, in addition to being the official color of the Folgore Parachute Brigade, it was associated with the Florentine Medici family.
Ferrari red
If thinking about a racing car one is automatically led to imagine it red, the credit goes to one of the most famous Italian cars in the world. Let’s talk about Ferrari and of its unmistakable colour, which is not just any red (although, from what you have seen so far, there are no ordinary reds). To understand its origin we need to go back to the early twentieth century and the car races of the time, for which the International Automobile Federation decided to assign a color for each country. If France ran in blue and Germany in white, a red was chosen to identify Italy, called racing red. Each brand, from Maserati to Alfa, declined it in its own way. Ferrari chose it warmer, that is, with an extra touch of yellow, which makes it energetic and bright.
English red
What we see today on double-decker buses and on the iconic English telephone switches is a red with long origins. Widespread in 1700, it was used for the uniforms of the soldiers of the British army so as to make it more difficult for enemies to count the wounded during a battle. These bright uniforms, a red that shifts slightly towards orange, ceased to exist in 1914 but in some army units, and in some Commonwealth countries, the tradition continues.
Valentino red
Red is the color of emperors and is the color of the emperor of fashion, Valentino Garavani. Galeotta was a lady, dressed in magenta velvet, who a young Garavani spotted among the crowd of the Barcelona Opera. That vision, the Italian designer has declared over the years, fascinated him so much that he created his personal point of red, transforming it into the emblem of his fashion house from the very beginning. It is a bright shade, similar to Ferrari red but slightly lighter.
Vermilion
Known in the past as cinnabar, the mineral from which it was extracted, vermilion red is a vivid red that it is very close to orange. Color widely used in painting, especially in the Flemish context, as it is considered one of the essential colors for reproducing a true skin tone.
Oxblood red
Let’s say it right away, the name oxblood has nothing to do with the ingredients of this coloring. This deep and intense tone of red is a Western response to the original copper oxide-based coloring used for Chinese ceramics starting from the eighteenth century and which wanted, in homage to an idea of sacrifice, to replicate the color of blood animal. Under the name of red Falun it is known as a typical color of Norwegian houses and Northern Europe in general: there it was used to color the stables (apparently for insecticidal purposes) and was a mineral compound of ocher cooked and mixed with linseed oil.
Pompeian red
Who visited the excavations of Pompeii he will have admired it in person, because it owes its name to the massive use in those places in Roman times. Pompeian red is a dark red tone, tending towards brown, derived from a type of red ocher composed of iron oxide. It is a natural color of inorganic origin.
Bordeaux
The burgundy it is one of the darkest and deepest reds and, let us specify immediately, despite being the result of the meeting between brown and purple it comes cataloged as red. It differs from burgundy, characterized by more purple shades, while those of burgundy are closer to the red of a brick.
Burgundy
It therefore becomes mandatory to mention burgundyafter burgundybecause there often tends to be a bit of confusion between the two. These colors have in common only that they derive their name and shade from the wine produced in the Bordeaux region. Burgundy, also called burgundypresents a strong purple component.
Source: Vanity Fair
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