Puce
- HEX
- #CC8899
- RGB
- 204 136 153
- HSL
- 345° 40% 67%
- CMYK
- 0 33 25 20
Puce or Mauve?
Lighter and pinker than mauve.
Language
Puce is French for flea. Couleur puce, flea color, was the fashion at the court of Louis XVI in the late 1700s and is said to have been a favorite of Marie Antoinette.
History
In the summer of 1775, the story goes, Louis XVI saw Marie Antoinette in a brownish silk gown and called it couleur de puce, flea color. The court copied it at once, and merchants sold a whole family of fleas: young flea, old flea, flea's belly, flea's back and flea's thigh.
Kin
- Taupe: Another French animal color: taupe is a mole, puce a flea
- Camel: Another color named after an animal
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Puce'
- Wikipedia (French), 'Puce (couleur)' (Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets)
- St Clair, The Secret Lives of Colour (2016)
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.