23rd May ’17: Formidable red & black

Happy Tuesday, Colour Filers.
As a teenager, I spent several weeks at London Zoo at a summer school about evolution. I was utterly captivated by it, not least what a science teacher once told me: ‘Everything in nature is there for a reason.’ I think this every time I see brightly-coloured plants or animals, especially black teamed with yellow or red, like the red poison dart frog – small but ultra-deadly. This warning colouration is called aposematism (from the Greek meaning ‘away’ and ‘sign’) and essentially says to predators ‘Eat me at your peril!!’ But this combination also makes me think of ladybirds, chiefly the static from nylon 1960s Ladybird outfits and Ladybird books about how clocks work and the moment Rapunzel let down her hair. Away from nature, red and black (seen here in an amazing @gucci fur coat and a ladybird-like @charlotte_olympia bag) are a sophisticated team but they are also formidable. Who would dare to tell these colours that they don’t work well together? Not me. Anyway, have a great day and I’ll see you on the other side.

Martha, The Colour File x

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