| Puce | |
|---|---|
 Color coordinates | |
| Hex triplet | #CC8899 |
| sRGBB (r, g, b) | (204, 136, 153) |
| HSV (h, s, v) | (345°, 33%, 80%) |
| CIELChuv (L, C, h) | (64, 43, 356°) |
| Source | 99colors.net |
| ISCC–NBS descriptor | Dark pink |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | |
Puce is a brownish purple color. The term comes from the French couleur puce, literally meaning "flea color".[1]
Puce became popular in the late 18th century in France. It appeared in clothing at the court of Louis XVI, and was said to be a favorite color of Marie Antoinette, though there are no portraits of her wearing it.[2][3][4]
Puce was also a popular fashion color in 19th-century Paris. In his novel Nana, Émile Zola describes a woman "dressed in a dark gown of an equivocal color, somewhere between puce and goose shit."[5] In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Mademoiselle Baptistine wears "a gown of puce-colored silk, of the fashion of 1806, which she had purchased at that date in Paris, and which had lasted ever since."[6]
- ^ "puce". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/3451789277. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ St. Clair, Kassia (24 October 2017). The Secret Lives of Color. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-5247-0494-0.
- ^ Kelleher, Katy (24 October 2017). "The Sexy-Gross Story of Puce". The Awl. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ Under The Moonlight (14 July 2020). "Puce Was Once The Height Of 18th Century French Fashion For A Second". Under The Moonlight. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
- ^ Zola, Émile (1880). Nana. Paris: G. Charpentier. p. 45.
Vêtue d'une robe sombre de couleur indécise, entre le puce et le caca d'oie.
- ^ Hugo, Victor (1887). Les Misérables. Translated by Hapgood, Isabel F. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. p. 67.