Some time ago I did a post on periwinkle blue. It received more hits that many of the other posts on this blog, apart, perhaps from the Anna Wintour one. (For the record, I like Anna.) Blue is clearly one of our favourite shades.
If you believe the rumours flying around the design world, Monaco Blue is being tipped to be the hot new hue for 2013. Predicted by Pantone to be a 'colour to watch' in the months to come, it is already being seen in fashion and interior collections. I know Pantone has recently nominated Emerald Green as the 'official' colour for 2013, but we've seen a lot of green this year, so my hunch is that one of Pantone's other favourites, blue, steals the colour show. There was already a lot of blue in Paris when I was there for work recently. Cornflower blue at Versailles (although it was always Marie Antoinette's favourite shade). Powder blue at Le Bon Marche. Denim blue in the Marais. China blue in the design stores of Rue de Furstemberg. And a delicate, gently-faded vintage linen blue in the fabric shops of Montmartre.
Here are some beautiful blues to inspire you all as the sun sinks shines over our perfect, porcelain-blue sky today. BTW, that gorgeous trend for blue patterns that resemble chinoiserie porcelain is still going strong in the fashion and design fields, despite having being around for a year or so. We just can't get enough of blue and white chinoiserie, it seems...
{Top image of Lacroix stilettos shot at Didier Ludot in Paris in October this year.}
A beautiful blue door in Paris. {Shot by me in October this year as I raced by to avoid a rainshower!}
The Hearst Pool, California.
We saw this many years ago, but the intensity of the colour has never left my memory.
Daphne Guinness wearing blue Chanel in Tatler.
YSL's spectacular blue garden in Marrakech. {Via Elle Decor}. I'm dying to see this place.
The tropical blue skies over the Florida Keys. {Photographed on our last night in the US in May this year.}
The Blue Hour, Paris. {Photographed October last year.}
One of Collette Dinnigans's latest designs. It's a terrible scan from newsprint, but it's the most beautiful Chinoiserie-inspired ballgown.
Our new summer slipcovers, in royal blue pinstripes. This striped vintage French linen was picked up for an incredibly cheap price in The Cloth House in Soho, London, but I know Designer's Guild has a similar print.
Alannah Hill.
Kate Spade. Would love this bag for Christmas parties.
BTW, we went to a Doggy Christmas Party last week in Como Park. Peter Alexander's dachshund Penny did the judging of the canine costumes. It was hilarious. But the interesting thing was, a lot of dogs were wearing blue...
Kate Spade. Coveting this too.
The Seine under a blue twilight sky, Paris. {Photographed last year}
The blue interior of Jamaica Inn, in Jamaica.
Have you noticed that Jamaica has suddenly come screaming back into travel fashion? I'm longing to visit the Blue Mountains of this beautiful country, and this gorgeous blue hotel too, especially since I've just read Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn. Must see the film version by Alfred Hitchcock too...
Collette Dinnigan.
Manuel Canovas's 'Jardin Blue' wallpaper.
Manuel Canovas L'Isle Bleue linen fragrance, which apparently makes your room smell like "the isle of Capri, sumptuous verdant gardens and languid afternoons". I'll have some of that.
A window of the Lanvin store in Paris. {Photographed in October}
And the blue that started it all... Pantone's Monaco Blue: one of the hot tips for 2013.
I think the fabric I covered the armchair with in my dressing room is probably in Monaco Blue. I do love Emerald too, but I tend to think that when Pantone nominates a colour of the year, it was more on the catwalks etc the year before? Certainly I felt that way with Tangerine Tango. Beautiful images - I love that one of the door in Paris (and the stunning Collette Dinnigan gown). xx
ReplyDeleteYes to blue! I look at those beautiful images and feel like the child in the lolly shop, I want it all. I want to swim in the Hearst pool, wander along the Seine at twilight, swing that Kate Spade bag and knock on that blue door, while wearing the Collette Dinnigan gown.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to frighten you but when it comes to the colour of the year I am hardcore capturing the zeitgeist- remember how I picked orange in advance ??? and how a few months ago I started channeling a ginger jar and obsessing over blue?
ReplyDeleteI swear I am the veritable Faith Popcorn of colour trends.
Seriously. There could be a new career in this for me.
Am stealing your Manuel whatsy ginger jar image for my blog xxx
I'll take that chair right out of the Lanvin window, I've just come back from Hobart, didnt get to MONA as I was working, well some of the time.
ReplyDeleteI bought some Christmas doves carved from Huon pine.
I've always loved this shade of blue, although I have to say I'm loving Pantone's emerald green even more xx
ReplyDeleteAnna (My Design Ethos)
Blue spotted shoes....mmmm...covers two favourites in that Kate Spade dainty: anything blue, for the elegance, and anything spotted, for the whimsy. (Well, not anything, shouldn't like chicken pox spots....)
ReplyDeleteTend to agree with Heidi... it seems these days Pantone are actually behind (or at least in the middle) of the trend, rather than in front of it. Having said that, adore emerald green, adore EVERY form of blue (well of course I would, tis my last name after all) and positively salivate at the confection of emerald green + blue together.
And this morning, yet another glorious day dawns in Melbourne, with a sky so deliriously blue that I feel like dancing...xx
Oh Janelle. Be still, my blue-loving heart! I'm plumping for Monaco Blue, although Emerald Green also makes my heart go pitter-patter ☺. J x
ReplyDelete