Monday, Nov. 19, 2007

French Color Wheel

By Kate Betts

During a season in which color reigns supreme, Jean-Gabriel Causse has taken pigment research to scientific extremes. Causse's Paris-based T-shirt company, Bluebretzel, offers three unisex shapes in "mythic" shades. So if you are obsessed with the raspberry color of Berthillon ice cream (above) or the brown of the Mona Lisa's eyes, he has replicated those colors exactly on fair-trade cotton T shirts with 5% cashmere fibers. Causse, a former advertising executive, has replicated other iconic colors, such as the original rust shade of the Eiffel Tower, the black of Beluga caviar at Caviar Kaspia, the green of a Citroen 2CV and the bright white of the sand on Hyams Beach at Jervis Bay, Australia.