"Viking Style" Brouge lacing?

[OC Richard]

You got me to looking up mole photos and I see that there are various species with differing fur colours, some North American species having a lighter coat than your British moles.

Darker or lighter, the colour does tend to be more or less halfway between brown and grey.

In ordinary US usage "taupe" generally refers to this midway colour, a colour which here in the US can't properly be called either "brown" or "grey".

An interesting thing is the way that different languages and dialects often draw the line between colour-names in different places along the spectrum.

I have seen, many times, UK clothing sellers using the word "brown" to describe tweed which generally in the US would be considered halfway between brown and grey. Americans would call the same tweed "taupe" (if familiar with that word) or "gray" or perhaps "brownish gray" or "gray-brown". More artistic types might call the same tweed a "warm gray".

[Father Bill]

An interesting thing is the way that different languages and dialects often draw the line between colour-names in different places along the spectrum.

And for heaven's sake, don't get us started on "khaki" (he said grinning mischievously and rolling his eyes heavenward).

[OC Richard]

So for reference here is what we here would generally call

Left: "brown"
Centre: "taupe" "brown-gray" "warm gray" (or even "gray" by some)
Right: "gray" (it looks more bluish than it is due to context)



About "cool gray" and "warm gray" here's a nice chart

[OC Richard]

And for heaven's sake, don't get us started on "khaki" (he said grinning mischievously and rolling his eyes heavenward).

Or "yellow"

[Silmakhor]

Or "yellow"

At the end of the day just give me a hexidecimal code and be done with it

[Tobus]

Bison described as a colour I actually understand as brown, but why not just call it brown?

When a supplier sells kilt hose in multiple shades of brown, they need some way for customers to differentiate them. The most logical way would be to use names that people can associate with what they see in nature, or common items they see in their everyday lives which help them envision that colour. This is commonly done with all colours. For example, nobody complains about the use of the colour "mustard". Why not just call it yellow? Well, because it's an apt descriptor that implies a deeper tone of yellow than other lighter yellow shades. Or the colour "salmon" being used to describe a deeper orange-pink hue. "Charcoal" is a very accurate descriptor of a dark grey that simply can't be captured by calling it dark grey.

[Jock Scot]

Tobus.

That sounds all terribly sensible to those that these details matter.

For me? When I am in a tweed shop, for example, if I like a pattern, or colour, or combinations of colours, then I might take an interest, the same goes for hose. If not, I just dismiss them/it. This idea of colour descriptions, just seems more detailed than I find necessary. Others, I quite accept, take all this colour business rather more seriously than I can bother with. What I do know, is that some colours go better with some colours and some don't, if they do they do, if they don't they don't, I move on, without thought.

Each to their own.

[Silmakhor]

When a supplier sells kilt hose in multiple shades of brown, they need some way for customers to differentiate them. The most logical way would be to use names that people can associate with what they see in nature, or common items they see in their everyday lives which help them envision that colour. This is commonly done with all colours. For example, nobody complains about the use of the colour "mustard". Why not just call it yellow? Well, because it's an apt descriptor that implies a deeper tone of yellow than other lighter yellow shades. Or the colour "salmon" being used to describe a deeper orange-pink hue. "Charcoal" is a very accurate descriptor of a dark grey that simply can't be captured by calling it dark grey.

I realize this strategy should work for 97% of the population, but for those of us who are color-deficient, it may as well be in Russian. In my experience, I've learned to avoid making assumptions based on 'poetic' descriptors because I've gotten burned in the past. It's a lot like the language used to sell wines: helpful for the enthusiast, but ... not so much for me. I'd far prefer more prosaic terms like "medium brown," "gray-green," "blue green," etc. I was not entirely kidding with the idea of using hexidecimal codes, because I encounter them a lot in computer illustration and they make sense to me.

This is in no sense a criticism of common marketing techniques - just observations from different perspective.

[Tobus]

I realize this strategy should work for 97% of the population, but for those of us who are color-deficient, it may as well be in Russian. In my experience, I've learned to avoid making assumptions based on 'poetic' descriptors because I've gotten burned in the past. It's a lot like the language used to sell wines: helpful for the enthusiast, but ... not so much for me. I'd far prefer more prosaic terms like "medium brown," "gray-green," "blue green," etc. I was not entirely kidding with the idea of using hexidecimal codes, because I encounter them a lot in computer illustration and they make sense to me.

This is in no sense a criticism of common marketing techniques - just observations from different perspective.

I hear ya. I honestly don't care what they call them. I am more interested in how they look than what they're named. They could just use the RGB numbers for all I care, as long as I get the colour I want when I hit the "place order" button, to make sure the name matches the picture I'm looking at.

But I do understand the whole marketing angle. It's all about appealing to the customer's imagination, I guess. Folks just aren't as likely to desire "brownish-grey #2" hose as they are "bison" hose.

[Ivor]

Tobus.

That sounds all terribly sensible to those that these details matter.

For me? When I am in a tweed shop, for example, if I like a pattern, or colour, or combinations of colours, then I might take an interest, the same goes for hose. If not, I just dismiss them/it.

Each to their own.

Perhaps it is a symptom of the times when so many now shop online, particularly following the covid pandemic, but for us of an older generation it is more important to actually see and feel the quality of goods on offer. OK you can return items if you don’t like them but you are then left without a sourced item. Simply going by a colour chart is not always a reliable indicator, particularly of quality.