Plush Iconostasis
Plush Iconostasis (#280C42) is a deep indigo with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (271°, 69%, 15%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
From the French peluche, long-haired fabric — borrowed into English in the seventeenth century for the deep-pile velvet imitation that became Victorian upholstery. As a color modifier, plush implies the optical depth that comes from a thick pile absorbing light: plush burgundy, plush emerald. Sits in the dark-and-saturated quadrant near velvet and deep.
Russian and Greek Orthodox icon screen — the multi-tier wall of religious icons that separates the naos (nave) from the bema (sanctuary) in an Orthodox church, traditionally rendered in deep-violet-and-gold-leaf. Iconostasis color refers to a 14th-century Novgorod-school iconostasis royal-doors panel: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the matte finish of egg-tempera ultramarine-and-cinnabar on gilt gesso ground.
Closest matches
The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.
Variations
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.
The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.