Marsala Pairings
Happy 2015 everyone!
Every new year I (we?) wait with bated breath for the Pantone Colour of the Year to be announced. This year I think it’s quite an unusual one: Marsala (Pantone #18-1438). It’s sad to bid adieu to the Radiant Orchid of 2014 so I’m reserving judgment on this one.
“Marsala is a subtly seductive shade, one that draws us in to its embracing warmth.” So says Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Colour Institute. (It’s amazing what they have to come up with, isn’t it?)
Marsala is one of those shades I would have had difficulty naming … ‘rosy mud’ or ‘morbid magenta’ perhaps? It’s a little bit brown sauce steeped in rose petals, not quite a serious burgundy and definitely not light and playful like a rosé. I reckon it will be a challenging colour to mix at the paint shop.
And what should accompany Marsala—apart from chicken, pork and chocolate mousse? Well, the first shade that comes to my mind is a fresh and perky turquoise … or, if you’re feeling a little less chipper, what about a soft yellow like tender the ears of peaches and cream corn?
Pantone has put some colour pairings together for us just in case we’re not sure where to begin, but they look a bit random to me: Marsala and mauve, Marsala and taupe, Marsala and sage, and Marsala and apricot, to name a few.
Personally, I do not subscribe to the colour of the year, the book of the month, the fashion of the week or even the soup of the day. As soon as I’m ‘told’ what’s ‘in’, I tend to run off in the completely opposite direction in search of the colour of my life, my year, my day … whatever it turns out to be!
So, bring a little Marsala into your life if your love it, otherwise find the colour of your year, hour, or minute and immerse yourself in it with abandon and leave the merchandisers and marketers to do what they do best … try to convince us otherwise.
Wishing everyone a happy and colourful new year, whatever shade you’re in!
