Kew Gardens (indoors!), London, February 2016

Hex colour reference:   EF98AA

A colourful note: mauvelous is the name of a 1993 Crayola crayon, a company with rather traditional colour terms until the public naming competition in 1993.  This one was named by Susan Rissover, aged 31, from Cincinnati.

This competition generated in the region of 2 million name suggestions.  The rejection list contained a high number of famous names, of human and animal stars in particular.  For one thing, many of these names would have generated copyright issues, but there were also image and political issues to bear in mind. “Liz Taylor Eyes was too Hollywood,” said Binney & Smith’s Brad Drexler, referring to a suggested name for blue. “Clinton gray, Hillary blue and Chelsea blue were considered too partisan.”

The name is clearly a blend of mauve and‎ marvellous, but it does also have a link with comedy star, Billy Crystal.  His most famous sketch was a parody of Fernando Lamas, a talk-show host whose catchphrase, “You look… mahvelous!”, became media famous for Crystal.  Crystal subsequently released an album of his stand-up material titled “Mahvelous!” as well as a single, “You Look Marvelous”.  Presumably, this connection with stardom was not spotted by Crayola staff.

Linked to Sundays in my City and Pink Saturday

Copyright Debbie Smyth, 27 February 2016