Klein Blue, a popular color in the fashion world for 60 years

Blue is the most essential color of the universe. So, what does blue symbolize? What is the magic of the famous Klein blue that makes people fascinated by it? Let's take a look>>>

Compiled by New Media Editor Lai Tianying

(Photo source: Sina.com)

In the past two years, Klein Blue has become popular both abroad and in China. There are so many Klein Blue items on Taobao that you can’t imagine.

▲Fashionable colors have entered thousands of households in this way (Photo source: Nandu Weekly)

Nowadays, it seems that you are embarrassed to go out without a little "blue". So, what does blue represent? What kind of blue is Klein blue? Why is it so popular? Let's talk about it.

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Blue symbolizes spirituality

The upper limit of the color space that the human eye can perceive is about 10 million colors. More color details are indistinguishable to the human eye, but still appear more colorful when processed by the brain.

In color science, we divide colors into two major categories; achromatic colors and chromatic colors.

Achromatic colors include black, white and gray. Black has the highest pigment content among all colors, with a lightness and chroma of 0. Black can cover all colors and also contains all colors. White only exists as a target color or a target background color in hair dyeing. Gray is a color that is a transition between black and white in color science, that is, black plus white equals gray; in achromatic colors, gray is considered a neutral color.

Colors refer to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown and other colors. Colors have three characteristics: brightness, hue and saturation. Red, orange, yellow and other representative colors belong to warm tones, which remind people of some warm objects in life, such as the sun, maple leaves, and autumn wheat waves. Blue and other representative colors belong to cool tones, which remind people of quiet and cool feelings, such as space, ocean and purple roses.

In psychology, red, yellow, green, blue, white and black are regarded as the six basic visual senses of psychological colors. Black symbolizes majesty, white symbolizes purity, red symbolizes passion, green symbolizes safety, yellow symbolizes confidence, and blue symbolizes spirituality. In color psychology tests, almost no one is disgusted with blue.

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Blue, the color of ill-fated

▲La Grotte Chauvet, France (Photo source: original public account - does not exist)

Therefore, the basic colors of early human society were red, white and black.

The ancient Greeks only had white, black and red in their vocabulary. The descriptions of other colors were vague and confusing, and there were almost no words to describe blue and green. European historians in the 19th century believed that the ancient Greeks had defects in their eyes and could not see blue, or that they had not yet evolved fully. It was not until modern restoration technology that we were able to prove that ancient Greek artworks were actually rich and colorful.

In Europe, blue and green were considered second-class colors for a long time, which may be related to their difficulty in obtaining and the unstable nature of dyes. The status of blue in Europe changed only after the "Blue of Saint Denis" appeared on the stained glass windows of churches in the 12th century.

▲The Blue of Saint-Denis (Photo source: Original WeChat Account - does not exist)

By the 13th century, the frequent appearance of the Madonna in blue in religious paintings and the appearance of the French royal emblem of a blue background with yellow irises further enhanced the social status of blue in both religious and political aspects.

In the East, blue was treated much better. However, because blue dye was so difficult to obtain, the use of blue in artworks had to wait until the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, when blue dye made from natural lapis lazuli began to appear in Buddhist statues and murals.

With the change in the status of the color blue and its widespread dissemination in the East and the West, artists' definitions of blue have also become quite personal. If Picasso's blue represents loneliness and melancholy, Mondrian's blue represents geometry and space, and Monet's blue represents tranquility and peaceful years, then Klein's blue represents absoluteness and clarity.

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Klein Blue - Yves Klein's color of romance and loneliness

One day, nineteen-year-old Yves Klein was lying on the beach in Nice and chatting with his childhood friends: poet Claude Pascal and artist Arman Fernandez. On a whim, they played a game of dividing the universe: If each of them had to claim one component of the universe, which one would you choose?

▲Yves Klein (Photo source: The Paper)

Pascal and Arman chose the earth, while Klein spread his arms and said, "I choose the sky." He was obsessed with the blue of the sky because "blue is the most essential color of the universe." With his obsession with blue, Klein released 1,001 blue balloons into the sky of Paris in 1957, dyeing the sky Klein blue, which also marked the beginning of the Klein Blue Era.

▲Klein Blue (Photo source: Tencent.com - author Li Hezi)

Klein Blue first appeared in the public eye when French artist Yves Klein exhibited eight paintings of the same size, all painted with the same deep blue, at his Milan exhibition. Before the exhibition, there was no such pure and intense blue in the world, so the color was named Klein Blue.

Yves Klein got inspiration from the azure sky above the Mediterranean Sea and mixed it with the similar ultramarine color.

▲“Klein Blue” works (Photo source: The Paper)

Ultramarine is a very precious pigment in the West. It is extracted from lapis lazuli, then washed and purified. Its value was once equal to gold. In Europe, this pigment is generally only used in paintings of important figures such as the Virgin Mary.

It can be said that Klein blue, which is an expensive material, has been blessed with "noble blood" since its inception.

Due to the addition of synthetic resin, Klein Blue has a higher saturation than the common ultramarine and is less likely to fade. It is widely acclaimed in Europe and is known as "the bluest blue in the world."

In terms of the color matching system, the RGB (one of the most widely used color systems, R-red, G-green, B-blue, the corresponding three values ​​represent the color values ​​of red, green and blue respectively) ratio of "Klein Blue" is 0:47:167. However, the clear data cannot reduce the shock people feel when facing it - blue itself symbolizes the sky and the ocean, and symbolizes no boundaries. Because "Klein Blue" is too pure, it is difficult to find colors that can be matched with it to enter people's field of vision. Therefore, its impact is particularly strong.

This kind of blue is praised as an ideal blue, an absolute blue, and its clarity and spaciousness often make people get lost in it. Klein once said: "To express this feeling, without explanation or language, can make the mind feel it - I believe this is the feeling that guides me to paint monochrome paintings."

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Klein Blue-Royal Blue with Noble Blood

Klein blue is particularly favored by European royal families because of its noble temperament. It is considered the most noble color among European royal families and is elegantly called "royal blue". There is a touch of Klein blue in the rainbow-colored clothing of Queen Elizabeth of England.

▲Queen Elizabeth of England and Klein Blue (Photo source: Zhihu - Monster Art)

It is said that blue clothing has a wearing rate of 29%, beating all other colors and becoming the Queen's favorite color.

The clothes in the Queen's portrait are also Klein Blue. It can be seen how it has overwhelmed the crowd and won the Queen's favor. Even Princess Kate has a special liking for Klein Blue.

▲Princess Kate and Klein Blue (Photo source: Zhihu - Monster Art)

In addition, the four large blue sponge reliefs designed in the lounge of the Gösenkirchen Opera House in Germany also use Klein Blue. The designer placed a wire-stretched bracket on the plaster, covered it with sponges, and then sprayed Klein Blue with a spray gun.

▲Lounge of the Gesenkirchen Opera House in Germany (Photo source: Jianshu - Author: Zhang Huishu)

The decoration of this lounge is undoubtedly successful, releasing the magical attraction that the designer hopes to achieve. The blue spiritual appeal on the mural should also contribute to the achievement of the magical attraction.

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Klein Blue - the darling of the fashion world

Fashion leaders will not let go of such a unique color. In 2007, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the birth of international Klein Blue, various brands launched a series of Klein Blue items, and a Klein Blue storm swept the fashion world.

In the Dior, Givenchy, Bruno Pieters and Alberta Erretti series, and even brands in the fields of home furnishings and automobiles, Klein Blue is used. It is absolutely the favorite of big brands.

Even in recent years, the popularity has not diminished. The inspiration for the story of "Zima Blue", one of the episodes of the popular 2019 animated series "Love, Death & Robots", is also believed to come from Klein Blue because it discusses the questions of "Who am I, where do I come from, and where am I going".

▲ "Love, Death & Robots" animation series (Photo source: Tencent.com - author Li Hezi)

▲Lady Gaga's 2013 album "ARTPOP" also used Klein blue elements on its cover (Photo source: Tencent.com - author Li Hezi)

Perhaps influenced by the top ten popular colors for spring and summer 2021-2022 announced by Pantone (an authoritative color company that often influences product development and purchasing decisions in multiple industries), one of the blue colors, "Indigo Sparrow", is very similar to Klein Blue, so major fashion brands have launched various Klein Blue items.

▲Off-White (a streetwear brand founded by designer Virgil Abloh in 2013) also has elements of Klein Blue in its 2021 Fall/Winter collection (Photo source: Sina Weibo-Chaolezhi)

Klein blue has been popular for more than 60 years and is still loved by many designers. Whether it is clothing or product packaging, the color of "Klein blue" always makes people's eyes shine.

▲2022 LV Spring/Summer Fashion Show (Photo source: Sina Weibo-Chaolezhi)

However, what really pushed Klein Blue into the mass consumption field in China must have been the assistance of various celebrities (especially idols).

Camus once said, "A person often chooses the fate of an artist because he feels he is different from others, but he soon realizes that the source of his art, his uniqueness, is often rooted in his similarities with everyone else." The popularity of Klein Blue seems to be a footnote to this sentence.

Blue itself symbolizes the sky and the ocean, which are ultimately the most abstract, visible and tangible nature. The pure, strong and mysterious Klein blue can bring you different surprises.

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(Information compiled from: The Paper, Tencent, Zhihu, Sina, Douban, Nandu Weekly, Tadpole Music, NetEase, Morning News, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Museum, China Science Expo, Science Academy, "Weaving Life" public account, etc.)

Produced by: Science Central Kitchen

Produced by: Beijing Science and Technology News | Beijing Science and Technology Media

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