TOO MANY GOLOURS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 140, 10 December 1929, Page 18

TOO MANY GOLOURS

PROBLEMS OF EAINBOW TO-DAY

Occasional letters from "Constant' Eeader" or "Paterfamilias" disclose that there are still those who sigh for a world which was supposed to be full of colour. The fact is that our ancestors knew only a few colours, and those only very crude ones. Subtlety was not aimed at; even a generation ago a woman asking for pink knew exactly the tint that would be shown, says the '' Observer.''

Neither painter nor horticulturist, neither physicist nor draper, could pos-j sibly tell how many colours there are to-day. A French colour chart drawn up in 1909 consisted of a portfolio of 365 sheets, a few of which were devoted to one colour, the remainder to several; arid in the original portfolio, which has been constantly added to since, there were Bixty whites, or, rather, tones of shades of white, and 256 varieties of green. Chevreul'S later chart contained 720 colours, and one drawn up by the Society of Dyers and Colourists in 1921 started with about 1400. But every season brings new tints. Last year a British chemist discovered one which had eluded artists for hundreds of years —the colour of a thrush's egg, now christened mavis. But for some year 3it has been realised that though the invention of new colours has stimulated trade enormously, the advantage is offset to a considerable extent by the confusion created. Colours aro not standardised, and the only way in which they can be identified is by samples. Koformers hope to establish a standard of colour, just as a yard or a foot is a standard of linear measurement. The means of doing this already exist in an instrument called the photometer, ■which measures the amount of reflected colour, but the -so of which has not been developed. The greatest difficulty the prodigality of colours has created is that nobody in the fashion trade knows which is going to be the season's "hit." Kecently the committee, representative of still wider interests, inspired by the Leicester Chamber of Commerce, has taken the view that they should all agree to concentrate on certain colours and "push" them; and now the British Colour Council will provide the medium for doing this. The dress trades will not furnish quite such a variety of colours for women to choose from,' but the present waste will be avoided, and it is considered that.this, in the long run,-will be good- 'for the .public. ■"