Seeing Orange

Did you know …

That orange isn’t a real color? It’s true!

I mean, it’s a color, obviously, but it’s not a genuine, original color like most of the other colors on the visible spectrum. Orange was actually invented in the 1930s by Macy’s department store, as part of an effort to sell more scarves during summer months. Nobody wanted to buy summer scarves (they weren’t as dumb back then, in some ways), but the color caught on!

It’s a little like how the Hallmark Corporation invented the modern version of Valentine’s Day. Macy’s purchased an unused chunk of the spectrum and cobbled together a new color out of pieces of existing colors (red and yellow), and Hallmark purchased a barely-used day on the calendar (it had previously been Re-bury Your Relatives Remains Day) and cobbled together a new holiday out of existing elements (St. Valentine was, of course, a real person, but if he was famous for anything before Hallmark got a hold of him, it would probably be for eating orphans. He did that a couple of times.)