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The Power of Pink
Carrying on with our love of all things colourful (see previous post), guess what? This month’s birthstone colour is only one of our absolute all-time favourites: Pink. And not just any pink, it’s the one we like to call Shocking Pink. Our very own right-there-in-your-face pink. The kind of pink that screams punk, prowess and pops with pure girl power!
So why pink?
Well, despite October having not one but TWO birthstones, Opal and Tourmaline (between them probably offering up pretty much every known colour in the Universe!), it is generally accepted that the stunning Pink Tourmaline is the true gemstone for all you lucky Octoberons.
Discovered in Brazil in the late 1500s, Tourmaline comes in various colours, each offering its own specific additional qualities when we’re talking about gem power, and Pink Tourmaline is considered to be one of the best. It can generate its own electricity for starters. If you heat it (pyroelectricity) or rub it (piezoelectricity), one end becomes positive, the other, negative. Magic!
It’s because of this ability to produce actual power that Tourmaline has earned itself a reputation as one of the most energetic crystals around. Carried with you, Pink Tourmaline can get rid of destructive feelings, release guilt, worry, anxiety and a whole host of other emotions hell-bent on holding us back. Unsurprisingly then, it is classed as a gem promoting self-love and advancement in its purest form, and the colour also holds all those same nurturing, life-affirming properties.
Despite having red at its root, a colour associated with strength, love and desire, add a little white (the colour of goodness and perfection), and what do you get? Pink - the colour of happiness, and hope. But within that, the spectrum of pink is huge - to name but a few shades – baby pink, ballet-slipper pink, Barbie pink, blush pink, bordello pink, bubblegum pink, candy pink, Champagne pink, tranquillising pink, Tumblr pink, ultra pink, watermelon pink, young-girl pink… The list goes on, but it’s what these shades stand for that make pink such a fascinating colour. From sweet and innocent, to edgy and erotic, pink really does cover them all.
Pastel pink Italian facades, the final throes of a sunset, or a glorious bunch of sumptuous tulips, pink is a colour that exists in so many hues and forms, and each with its own uniquely identifiable meaning.
The meanings imposed on any colour are determined by society, and pink is the perfect example of this. Each and every shade means something. Baby Pink, and it’s all vulnerability and sweet charm, but make it Shocking, and the heat is on! Sexiness, assertiveness and a truckload of vibrant untapped energy.
Compared to other colours, pink has also been called the most divisive…
“Please, sisters, back away from the pink,” a journalist (Petula Dvorak) urged in the Washington Post when she heard the Women’s March in 2017 would be awash with pink hats… She said the issues facing women were too ‘serious’ for pink. However, what’s happened since is the opposite. Pink has gone through a transformation and is increasingly regarded as uber cool and androgynous.
Through the observation of fashion trends going back to the 1700s, how pink sits with, and been influenced by, society is the subject of a major new exhibition at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Punk: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Colour.
You can see some of the glorious garms and read more about it here https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/exhibitions/pink.php.
One thing that’s absolutely clear is that the fashion world has fallen in and out of love with pink several times over the years. The 1950s introduced the concept of pink-for-girls and blue-for-boys, and that’s when gender labelling really started to take off (it was also this gender stereotyping that is to blame for the fluctuating popularity of the colour!). The 1950s saw pink as the colour of the ‘pretty dresses for the wives to wear’, then pink all but disappeared in the 60s only to reappear in the late 70s and 80s in its fluorescent statement form adorning hardcore female punks!
So, whether you’re an Octoberon or not, the rule now is to embrace the pink in your life. Whatever shade tickles your fancy, we say welcome it in, and make it a Cosmo!
Lisa x
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