Women in Blue

Few colors have as paradoxical associations as blue. It evokes positive qualities such as serenity, happiness, and purity, yet feeling "blue" is a euphemism for sadness. Blue is masculine yet pretty, dreary and cheerful. "The blues" is both a state of mind and genre of music that for all its stark sadness evokes profound joy. A person can be a blue-blood, a bluestocking, a bluenose, and true blue without conflict or redundancy. Blue is all around us, the color of sunny days and the most inviting seas, yet is also uncommon in nature. Periwinkle, navy, ultramarine, cobalt, baby, sky, slate, cerulean, indigo, azure, sapphire, royal, robin's egg, cornflower, turquoise and Prussian: What color commands the range of shades that blue does? In keeping with blue's complexity, we've selected a wide range of images of women clad in blue for this collection of postcards. Pin-up girls and Pre-Raphaelite maidens share these pages with women advertising stockings and orange soda. They all wear blue, in all its glory.Laughing Elephant is the author of 'Women in Blue ', published 2005 under ISBN 9781595830401 and ISBN 1595830405.