English Version | Backstage: Pink Issue

What happens backstage at Vogue, doesn't stay backstage at Vogue. Here's your all access to the pink issue.

Pink: if you see it, let us know

Because it's not easy to find it. Some would even say that it is impossible, because, according to the spectrum of light, the pink color cannot be seen. According to Minute Physics, a YouTube channel with scientific explanations given in a minute, this color is located in a vacuum that exists in the light spectrum of colors, similar to what happens with infrared and ultraviolet light, that is, it is part of the team of invisible light waves. But if it's a void, how do we see it? It's said that is some sort of an optical illusion, the result of a “romance” between red light and blue light, like an aura of the mixture of the two (we speak of light and not of colors), a theory that explains why the tone is not part of the seven hues that make up the rainbow. Intriguing? It's about to get even more: if the white light, which is the sum of all colors, would lose its green, you would find a pink light. Minute Physics argues that, therefore, pink should be called "minus green." But in our opinion, it's fine just the way it is: the song Pink, by Aerosmith, would not be so successful if it were called Minus Green, surely. Plus, after an entire issue dedicated to the pink, we are far from corroborating its non-existence. If you need more proof, read our Praise to Pink, on page 226.

Vinyl-Pink

And when an issue is being worked on about the pink color and a vinyl in pink arrives at the office, is that ... coincidence? No, it's happiness. Happiness is the name of the mini-LP that made his way to the newsroom courtesy of Chopard with two versions of the theme Upside Down, performed by British singer Paloma Faith. It's pink madness, over here, but we're not complaining [insert fuchsia heart emoji here].

Pink 101

In Portuguese, it's easy to tell where the name pink comes from (cor-de-rosa, i.e., the color of rose - self explanatory, am I right? -), but where does the name “pink”, in english, come from? As a descriptive color, the term appeared in the English language in the early seventeenth century, calling it a shade of pale pink. A few centuries earlier, in the 14th century, more specifically, the word was used as a verb and "to pink" meant "to decorate with a perforated pattern", an idea that later evolved into scissors that cut in zigzag, and which the English call "pinking shears." Pink is the name of a species of flowers called Dianthus (like carnation or carnation), whose petals appear to have been cut with the "pinking shears." Hence, the term. Far-fetched? If it were simple, it would not be so interesting.

(Over)Think Pink

When is pink too much? For Kitten Kay Sera, never. The American artist and influencer, capable of making the Pink Panther look like an understatement concerning pink, makes this color not a preference, but a lifestyle. When we contacted this devotee of pink for the article The Pinkest Person in the World, on page 66, we wanted to know more about her pink cars, her pink wardrobe, her pink food... we just didn't think that even her “yes” would arrive written down in the hue. Because that's how she writes her emails - in pink. A pink world may be an utopia (by the way, check out the article on page 256), but not in the case of Kitten Kay Sera.

Psicological pink

In the early 1980s, a coach from the University of Iowa decided to paint the visiting team's locker rooms pink as a psychological tactic to make them feel they were losing their physical strength and feeling emasculated. When the stadium was rebuilt in 2005, the changing rooms not only maintained their hue, but the color also painted the urinals, toilets and showers, to the dismay of many, who criticized the initiative for being a violation of federal law that requires companies and schools to treat employees and students equally. The truth is that the hue remained - and for us, everything is fine: we are sure that the pink tiles will give the team strength to emerge victorious.

Did you know that… in China, pink was not always a known shade, so the hue has characters that mean "foreign color"?

Pink Moon

Even the universe aligned to celebrate pink. April's Full Moon, which happened on the 27th of that month, is called the Pink Moon. According to NASA, the baptism came from a Maine Farmer's Almanac that, in the 1930s, started publishing Native American names for the moons according to the months of the year. The name of April's “full moon” is like that because of the Pink Moss flowers, a plant native to the east coast of the United States, which is one of the most popular in spring because it covers fields in this hue. This Pink Moon is the first of two super-moons from 2021. It comes under the sign of pink when this issue is about to be finished. Cosmic stuff, isn't it? 

Translated from the original on the "Pink Issue", from may 2021.Full credits and story on the print version.