The Application of Colour

The first impression a garment makes on you when you see it in a store is its colour. Only after being drawn to it by the eye will you examine it more closely to look at the style, texture and so on. Colour is not only important as a reflection of fashion but can also be used to reflect a mood or feel – for example red may be seen as hot, blue as cool, white as clean and fresh.

Colour also has practical uses. Strong, highly visible colours are used to help identify people. Ambulance workers wear green; police wear yellow fluorescent jackets: and railway workers wear orange. Companies and organisations also make use of colour to identify themselves. This ranges from familiar red used by the Post Office to the colours used by football teams in their shirts.

Just like poster paints, various combinations of the colours, red, blue and yellow can be used to create most of the colours used in fabric dyeing and printing.

Combinations of red, blue and yellow give beige, greys and browns, as well as purple, green and orange.