Love Love Chartreuse

photo by Polly Wreford

I am fascinated with the colour Chartreuse. I adore the colour, I even love the word, how it rolls off your tongue as you say it, when I'm looking for visual impact, it's my go-to ribbon choice. As an exact reference, her bag and the wide bow on the fourth box above are chartreuse. I try not to play favorites, but I admit to being partial to this vivid tone. It's a potent, potent colour..... chartreuse is the exact colour located halfway between green and yellow (50% green 50% yellow) and it is the most visible colour to the human eye since it sits directly in the middle of the frequencies of visible light. In other words, if I was to wrap 50 gifts in all different colours and arrange them all together, your eye would immediately drawn first to this vibrant colour. As a colour description, it's first recorded use in the English language was in 1892, before that this brilliant colour was simply referred to as yellow-green. I much prefer Chartreuse.

First and foremost, green Chartreuse is a famous french liqueur developed as the "elixir of long life" and named after the La Grande Chartreuse monastery, the Mother House and headquarters of the Carthusian order of monks. Originally developed for medicinal purposes in1764, it is composed of distilled alcohol flavored with 130 herbal extracts, one of them known to be chlorophyll. The recipe took over a hundred years to be perfected and is a closely guarded secret. At any time in it's long history, only 2 monks (some say 3 monks) know the identity of the 130 plants that give it it's distinctive and natural green colour. Though originally located in Vauvert near Paris (the chartreuse mountain region), back-and-forth property disputes over several hundreds of years (and the French Revolution) led to it's present location in Voiron near the French Alps. There is also a yellow Chartreuse liqueur, a knock-off so to speak, it's a milder and sweeter taste and more yellow tone is likely due to the addition of saffron.

A Chartreuse flapper dress by fashion designer Philip Lim. Not a wearable colour for everyone, but if the colour suits your complexion...go for it, you'll will be the most noticeable in the room. Put a turquoise necklace with it and it's positively electric. I bought a chartreuse scarf last month at Target for 12.99 and I can't stop wearing it.

Though it's complementary colour (opposite on the colour wheel) is violet, it's a colour that gets along happily with all the other colours, it loves pink, red, turquoise, you name it, it works. It certainly isn't worried about any competition. I have only been able to find one true chartreuse ribbon and I go through this slinky double face satin quite quickly. Used with black it makes for a sophisticated gift wrap, here I wrapped black glossy paper with a wide black damask flocked ribbon that lies flat better than it ties. It's not the least expensive ribbon so this is a clever way to use it sparingly to great efect. A fuchsia silk floral pin gives it a fashionable zap of even more colour. Soon I will tell you why that ribbon has a Chartreuse imprint.

Top photo by Polly Wreford-Sarah Kaye/2nd Photo via Chartreuse Fr/3rd Photo via Neiman Marcus/Bottom Photo by Sande Chase-OoohlalaCadeau