SIGNATURE COLOURS AND
THE STYLE ICONS WHO LOVED THEM
Diana Vreeland: Woman in red.
The influential fashion editor, who ruled the industry for
five decades, was a passionate, extroverted risk-taker. She
launched Twiggy’s career, sparked countless trends and rec-
ognised the offbeat beauty in unconventional style icons.
“Red is the great clarifier- bright, cleansing, revealing. It makes
all colors beautiful,” said Vreeland in the recent documenta-
ry Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel. “I can’t imagine
being bored with it - it would be like becoming tired of the
person you love.” Vreeland was known for her omnipresent
red lips and nails and dramatic crimson outfits. But she was
also known for her vibrant red living room, one of the most
recognizable and iconic rooms in design history.
Frank Sinatra: Happy orange. What else?
Sinatra endures as one of the most influential vocalists of all
time, but he’s also remembered as a style icon.
He is remembered for many colourful things: his golden voice,
his blue eyes and his black moods. But the actual hue he con-
sidered his personal favourite colour was bright sunny orange.
“Orange is the happiest colour,” he once said, and he splashed
it everywhere. He favoured orange shirts, scarves and even
bathing trunks.
Mamie Eisenhower: First lady Pink
She was a popular first lady from 1953 to 1961, Pink was Mamie’s
favourite colour and America quickly picked up on her palette.
Picture the 1950s … pink Cadillacs … pink poodle skirts … and
those ubiquitous pink ceramic-tiled bathrooms. MAMIE PINK;
The iconic decorating colour of the 50s, arguably. Ubiquitous
in fashion as well as bathrooms and kitchens. The mid-century
trend to pink seems to have come directly and irrefutably from
Mamie Eisenhower. Pink was also her preferred hue for enter-
taining and decorating. Her own bathroom was pink down to
the cotton balls, and after she and her husband moved into the
White House, she redecorated the private quarters in her favou-
rite colour; reporters at the time christened it the “Pink Palace.”
