Note:  This post originally started as one that covered four decades of the 18th century.  The more I researched the more I realised how much content there is, so I’ve broken the post up into decades, and am re-publishing it with more notes, and more images.

My posts on 18th century clothing in shades of purple, and the direction of stripes on 18th century sleeves, have been so popular that I thought you might enjoy a whole series on patterns and colours.  You can learn so much by just looking at a bunch of images of clothes from any given era with one unifying detail.

Think Pink

For my first theme I picked pink.

What shades of pink were popular in the 18th century?  Is there evidence those shades were more or less popular in certain decades, or mostly used on one type of garment?

Even if there are no clear trends, looking at all of the extant pinks and depictions of pinks is helpful for recreating garments and accessories using colours and patterns that look authentic.  And who doesn’t love a bunch of pretty, pretty pinks?

As I began assembling images I realised two things almost immediately.  First, almost every shade of pink possible shows up in extant 18th century garments and portraits.  (yes, even hot pink!).  Second, pink was far, far more common in 18th century clothing than purples was.  Was it cheaper and easier to dye?  Or, conversely, more expensive and thus more of a status symbol?  Or were pink shades simply more fashionable throughout the century?

Because pink was so much more common, I’ve broken the pink post up into decades.  So now you get to enjoy four (and maybe more (definitely more, I had to break it into individual decades, so now it’s 10(!))) weeks of 18th century pink posts!

I also got a bit clever and tried to post a painting or print of the time and then an extant item or two from the same time range in a similar shade of pink.

1700s Pinks

Extant textiles and paintings show a whole range of pink being worn in the first decade of the 18th century, starting with the palest barely-there pink of this riding habit:

(shown on a woman with the most fascinating family connections.  Her older sister was the amazing Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who authored the Turkish Embassy Letters and introduced smallpox inoculation to England, and she married John Erskin, 1st Duke of Mar, a major figure in the Jacobite Rebellion)

Here’s a slightly darker pink in the same family:

And a textile with a central flower in the two shades shown above, as well as flowers in a number of other shades of pink:

A fabric like this could have been used on walls, furniture, or, less commonly garments.

Here’s a beauty in blush pink with carmine ribbons in her hair

And an apron embroidered in blush:

Here’s a peach pink in the shot silk lining of Mary Mansel’s banyan :

And an entire, rather fabulously bonkers, dress in peach:

This fabric is faded, but may have been a similar shade, or a brighter hue.

And a darker version in the peach family:

And here’s a slightly clearer peach pink on a fabric:

Here are some more coral verging on salmon pinks:

And a fabulous bizarre silk in the same:

These shades seemed to have been particularly popular as linings:

One shade of pink that shows up frequently across the 18th century is a soft pinky-lilac that could also arguably fit under the purple banner.  It’s shown here on two elegant young girls and in a length of ‘bizarre’ silk (learn more about them here).

I’ve cheated ever so slightly by picking a late 17th century muff to match these two young men and their snazzy pink neck ribbons, and Nicolas in a significantly less formal outfit.  I just thought showing ribbons to go with ribbons was too good of an opportunity to pass up on.

The classic pink hue of the ribbons shows up in whole cloth too:

And heres a floral brocade in the same family of pink:

There are also lots of examples of a pinks in very similar shades, like this deep rose hue:

This stomacher features embroidery in similar colours:

And heading even deeper into pink-red:

This proto-bizarre silk has a range of hues in the same family:

As an example of how vivid some ca. 1700 pinks were, here are two portraits and a bag in striking pinks:

And we’ll finish with a portrait featuring two different shades of pink, and which may be one of the cutest 18th century royal portraits I’ve ever seen: