Pink Chocolate? What an odd, but
delicious combination.
The origin of chocolate brown used as a predominant
color in printed fabric appeared with regularity in the
nineteenth century. The color was worn by widows who had
passed out of the stage of mourning, when they were
expected to wear only black. The patterns used in these
"mourning browns" were simple calicos, and not
like the more stylized designs featured in this
collection.
Later in the century brown as a color in printed fabric
started moving to the forefront of European fashion. The
idea is perhaps copied from hard to find Indian hand
painted cottons. In the early to mid 1800's these Indian
fabrics using rich colors painted on top of dark grounds
were rarely seen in Europe. However, as a result of
these beautiful imported fabrics, it is then that we
began to see brown combined with the lively colors of
red and pink emerging as a trend in Europe.
Our Pink Chocolate Collection commemorates several of
these stunning European designs c. 1875.
