Aisles of Silk
Design How-to's

Aisles of Silk

4 min read

If you had to assign a color to yourself, what would it be?

Specific number, please.

Nat Cole is blue. #096 or #050.

This blue skews green because the colors on the albums fade to green. But, still, that 1950's blue is more teal than periwinkle ...

#048 was the runner-up, but it looks white in the stage lights. Last time, I chose a blue as light as #048 for the shirt. It was beautiful, but I can do much better.

Part of the problem above is that the shirt is cotton. The suit is silk and wool. His skin is skin. Cotton bounces too much light! Silk all the way this time.

Some lighting designers and most directors will give the note to “tech down” or “tone down” the white - every single day of tech. They simply don’t like a color that is brighter, and flatter than the actor’s skin right next to their face.

I tend to agree.

So, the shop or I dip that shirt into a dye bath every night until it works. That is hard on a shirt … and hard on a shop. So, this time I am designing a look that is darker to begin with. And silk!

Katherine O’Neill