A June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.

Did you know pink and blue implying gender is relatively new, and all babies used to just wear white dresses?

6 thoughts on “Pink and Blue

  1. I have two pink shirts … the colour does suit men … when I was a boy I went on holiday to the Isle of Man with the boys Brigade I took my one pink shirt … I wore it all week of the holiday … one of the leaders comented how clean I had kept my shirt … my wife bought the two pink shirts from a charity shop … Alan 🙂

  2. There’s an anecdote about Westminster School rowing club in the UK racing Eton in 1837 for the right to wear pink. About 160 years later I rowed with a guy from Westminster, we creatively called him ‘pinky’.

    From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_School#Sport_.28.22Station.22.29):

    The story goes that, at one annual Eton-Westminster rowing race, both crews arrived wearing pink, which was fashionable at the time. The Eton crew bought some light-blue ribbon (which later became the standard Eton colours) to differentiate themselves, but the Westminster crew won the race and the right to wear pink in perpetuity.

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