Blue, as a primary colour, embodies a sense of coolness and clarity, conveying calmness, professionalism and rationality. It can range from a refreshing, glistening lake blue to a deep, jewel-toned ocean; from a gentle, midday sky to a dark, starry night.
Being a primary colour, blue stands opposite to orange on the colour wheel, which is the blend of the other two primary colours, red and yellow.
Derived from ancient Indian Vedic texts, the chakras are currently utilised in Vedic disciplines like yoga. Blue is the representative colour of the throat chakra 'Vishuddha,' situated at the throat. The blue chakra symbolises our capacity to express truth and communicate with the world, embodying values of duty, trust, logic and intelligence.
The ancient Egyptians incorporated lapis and turquoise semi-precious stones into their jewellery. They created their own blue dye known as Egyptian blue or calcium copper silicate, which they applied on various materials like canvas, stone, wood and papyrus.
In early modern Europe, royal blue was a costly dye derived from woad, a flowering Mediterranean plant, exclusively used by the affluent and the nobility.
During the sixteenth Century, the introduction of indigo dye from Asia gradually replaced woad and became widely utilised as a clothing dye due to its luxurious appearance and durability.
Many classical paintings portraying the Virgin Mary feature her garments in ultramarine blue (sometimes painted over indigo), such as Sassoferrato's 'The Virgin in Prayer' from the seventeenth Century.
The deep blue hue found in the uniform of marines is now universally recognised as navy blue, used consistently in both naval attire and professional clothing. The colour symbolises seriousness, professionalism and solemnity.
Denim, a cotton twill fabric, was initially dyed with indigo in seventeenth Century Genoa, Italy. Levi Strauss patented the use of metal rivets and utilised the robust, washable indigo-dyed material to produce the first denim jeans in San Francisco, USA, during the 1850s. The enduring popularity of denim has ensured that blue remains a fashionable colour in the modern era.