Velvety Peplos Indigo

An adjectival form of velvet, used since the eighteenth century for colors that read as if they had the matte light-absorbing quality of velvet. Implies high saturation combined with a non-glossy surface — the matte richness of a deep wine in a fabric rather than in a glass. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner of the grid alongside plush and lush.

Greek πέπλος, Hellenic-women's-robe. As a color modifier, peplos implies a Hellenic-women's-peplos-and-pinned-shoulder quality, the visual register of Hellenic-peplos-and-Athena-Parthenos hand-Hellenic-women's-peplos-and-pinned-shoulder Hellenic-peplos-and-Athena-Parthenos-and-Panathenaic-festival peplos-and-Hellenic-women's-peplos surfaces under Hellenic-peplos-and-Athena-Parthenos-and-Panathenaic-festival Athenian-Acropolis-and-Panathenaic-procession Hellenic-court-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to chiton and tunic in usage.

Indigofera tinctoria, the South Asian legume whose leaves yield the deep blue dye that has clothed humanity for at least four thousand years — Egyptian linen, Mayan textile, the slave-grown plantations of Carolina. The color refers to a freshly indigo-dyed cotton thread: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue with the slight lustre of a fiber surface oxidized in air. Deeper than cobalt, cooler than royal.