“Mad (brunette) wears yellow, blue and green. Glad (blonde) wears green, purple and pink. Some people think blondes ought not to wear pink but that's because they don’t know how becoming pink is to a really true blonde."
The selection of pink or blue for an individual child at the turn of the century was often based on becomingness, according to nineteenth century rules of taste. Light shades were considered more flattering to the pale complexions of Caucasian babies, and eye color was an important factor in selecting the correct hue. A portrait of twin infants (sex unknown), both in white dresses found at the Strong Museum of Play illustrates the usual rule. The brunette twin wears pink booties; the blue-eyed blonde wears blue ones. The Winterthur Museum and Library has a set of companion paper dolls that also follows this rule: one doll, cut from a magazine, has brown hair, blue eyes and blue trim on her white undergarments. The original owner made a hand-drawn copy with blonde hair, brown eyes and pink trim. The few baby books I found that included locks of hair or descriptions of hair or eye color also support this pattern. Of the three locks of brown hair preserved in the books (two boys and a girl), all were tied with pink ribbons. Four of the six blonde locks (four girls and two boys) had blue ribbons (one of the boys and three of the girls). The other blonde boy and girl both had pink ribbons. Eventually, the old rules of “becomingness” were loosened and discarded.The creator of twin sister paper dolls, Madeleine and Gladys (1920) provided this commentary on their wardrobes:
“Mad (brunette) wears yellow, blue and green. Glad (blonde) wears green, purple and pink. Some people think blondes ought not to wear pink but that's because they don’t know how becoming pink is to a really true blonde."
Meredith
7/9/2010 02:37:46 am
I seem to remember that dolls when I was growing up '70s often followed the convention of blue for brunettes and pink for blondes.
Jo
7/9/2010 05:20:44 am
I've found some scattered hints that the "rules" switched and pink became a blonde color beginning in the 1920s, but not enough to hang my academic hat on. Certainly blue never actually went out as a girl color! Comments are closed.
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