Lush Sash Tanzanite

Middle English lush, possibly from lascious, lascivious — a word that drifted from sensual ripeness toward visual abundance. Used as a color word since the eighteenth century for the saturated greens of well-watered foliage and the deep saturated jewel tones of velvet upholstery. Used across the deep and bold buckets where the hue is simultaneously dark and vivid.

Arabic shāsh, muslin-strip-or-turban-cloth. As a color modifier, sash implies a wound-strip-and-cummerbund-and-bandolier quality, the visual register of Mughal-cummerbund-and-Spanish-fajín-sash hand-wound-strip-and-cummerbund-and-bandolier Mughal-cummerbund-and-Spanish-fajín-sash-and-Ottoman-sash sash-and-wound-strip-and-cummerbund surfaces under Mughal-cummerbund-and-Spanish-fajín-sash-and-Ottoman-sash Mughal-Delhi-and-Iberian-and-Ottoman-Topkapi wound-cloth-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to kilt and shawl in usage.

A blue-violet variety of zoisite — discovered in 1967 in a single small area of northern Tanzania near Mount Kilimanjaro and marketed by Tiffany & Co. shortly after. The color refers to a faceted tanzanite cut to maximize its strong pleochroism: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue-purple with the gem's signature internal life. Cooler than amethyst, warmer than iolite, with the gem-trade specificity of a stone that occurs in exactly one place on Earth.