Royal Robe Fuchsia

The blue of European royal court dress and regalia from the late seventeenth century forward — the color of British peers' robes, French royal sashes, the lining of the crown-jewel cases. The color refers to a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of velvet or melton wool dyed to maximum intensity: deeper than cornflower, warmer than ultramarine, with the heraldic weight of a color reserved for monarchs and the official Crown.

Old French robe, long-flowing-garment. As a color modifier, robe implies a long-flowing-and-academic-and-judicial quality, the visual register of Oxford-Cambridge-academic-and-judicial-robe hand-long-flowing-and-academic-and-judicial Oxford-Cambridge-academic-and-judicial-robe-and-monastic-habit robe-and-long-flowing-and-academic surfaces under Oxford-Cambridge-academic-and-judicial-robe-and-monastic-habit Senate-and-Inns-of-Court-and-cathedral-cloister Trinity-Senior-Common-Room-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to gown and cope in usage.

The genus Fuchsia — South American shrubs named in 1703 for the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. The color refers to the calyx and tube of a vibrant Fuchsia magellanica hybrid: a saturated, slightly cool deep pink-magenta with the satiny finish of a tubular hummingbird-pollinated flower. Brighter than rose, warmer than orchid, with the bedding-and-basket weight of a plant genus whose flowers gave English the most attention-demanding pink in the spectrum.