Red means so many things..

Did you know that colours really mean so many things?

When we were thinking about colour matches on our new Autumn/Winter collection I came across this amazing website Colour Matters explaining why colour is so important.

This is what they say about colour in general, I found it so fascinating.

Colour plays a vitally important role in the world in which we live. Colour can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your blood pressure or suppress your appetite. When used in the right ways, colour can even save on energy consumption.

As a powerful form of communication, colour is irreplaceable. Red means "stop" and green means "go." Traffic lights send this universal message. Likewise, the colors used for a product, web site, business card, or logo cause powerful reactions. Colour Matters!

The red suede we use for our Scarlet Court Shoes is so rich and vibrant, it got me wondering what red means. I looked it up and they came up with this for Red.

Red is the colour of extremes. It’s the colour of passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the colour of fire and blood – energy and primal life forces – and most of red’s symbolism today arises from its powerful associations in the past.

Red is also a magical and religious colour. It symbolised super-human heroism to the Greeks and is the colour of the Christian crucifixion. Red was almost as rare and as expensive as purple in ancient days – a fact that may explain its magic and power. Paradoxically, today’s intense red dyes come from crushed insects (the lac beetle and the cochineal).

We felt that red is such a powerful colour in many respects we are always going to have it as a core part of our collection. It was indeed a huge distraction from our designing today but a joy because we learnt so much! See our Red Collection.