Sable Cattleya
Sable Cattleya (#522989) is a true indigo with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (266°, 54%, 35%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. 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
Martes zibellina, the Eurasian sable — a small mustelid of Siberian taiga whose deep brown-black fur was the most prized mammalian pelt of the Russian and Chinese imperial courts. The color refers to a fresh sable pelt: a deep, slightly warm near-black with the satin finish of densely packed guard hairs. Warmer than ink, glossier than coal, with the courtly weight of a fur reserved for tsars and emperors.
South American corsage orchid (Cattleya labiata) — a Brazilian-native epiphytic orchid genus cultivated worldwide for its large frilled-lipped deep-violet flowers, the standard ornamental orchid of mid-20th-century corsage culture. Cattleya color refers to a fully bloomed Cattleya labiata labellum-and-petal: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the velvet finish of fresh frilled labellum. Named for William Cattley, an English orchid patron.
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.