Starched Bow Denim

Old English stercan, to stiffen — past-participle of starch. As a color modifier, starched implies a clear-and-stiff-and-formal quality, the crisp color of Edwardian-period formal-evening-shirt-and-collar starched-and-pressed dress-attire. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and ironed in usage.

Old Norse bógr, bow / shoulder. As a color modifier, bow implies a ship's-front-prow quality, the visual register of Royal-Navy-and-merchant-marine-bow hand-built ship's-front-prow-and-figurehead bow-and-cutwater maritime-architecture surfaces under ship's-front-bow-and-prow maritime-headway light. Sits at the modifier-and-nautical end of the grid, parallel to prow and hull in usage.

The diagonal-twill cotton fabric originally woven in Nîmes, France — serge de Nîmes, contracted to denim — and dyed with indigo since at least the eighteenth century. The color refers to a worn but un-faded pair of raw denim jeans: a saturated, slightly muted blue with the matte finish of cotton fiber that has absorbed dye through generations of weft and warp. Cooler than royal, warmer than navy.