Eco and Fair Trade, striped in bold bands of British Colour Guardsman Red, Royal Blue & Pearl White.
Royal Blue
This colour name has been used from the sixteenth century in connection with Smalt (Cobalt) and Prussian Blue.The more modern colour under this name, which was first used in the latter part of the 19th C, was probably derived from one of these earlier colours, but has deviated so much from Smalt that it is the general representation of samples submitted by textile and other colour using industries that is depicted here as Royal Blue.
Guardsman Red
Matching the tunics of the Queens' Guardsman.
Red clothing was historically a sign of status and wealth. It was worn not only by cardinals and princes, but also by merchants, artisans and townspeople, particularly on holidays or special occasions. The wealthy wore scarlet clothing dyed with carmine, made from carminic acid extracted from tiny female scale insects, which lived on the leaves of oak trees in Eastern Europe and around the Mediterranean. The insects were gathered, dried, crushed, and boiled with different ingredients in a long and complicated process, which produced a brilliant scarlet.
Pearl White
The colour pearl is a pale tint of off-white. The first recorded use of pearl as a colour name in English was in 1604. Used in interior design when an off-white tint is desired.
