To pink or not to pink: Man's relationship with a troublesome colour

Last week I wore my pink scarf. I was in a pub, meeting friends. It was not a particularly cold evening but I had decided to premiere my accessory and no amount of warmth in the night air was going to steer me off course. 

My scarf opened up a number of questions about sartorial choices; in particular, questions about the relationship between man and pink.

For many men, wearing a pink garment or accessory can be an audacious choice. For others it is a regular accoutrement. One man told me he wears pink boxer shorts. This is not adventurous, unless the man in question sleeps with many, many people.

In financial and banking circles a pink shirt is an essential thrice weekly affair. It is debonair, confident and associated with wealth and aspiration. For a farmer, perhaps it is a less obvious choice. Pink wellies are still the domain of the festival-going female.

I sit between these two stereotypes. I am not an investment banker in Moorgate. Neither do I know how to milk a cow. I am not wealthy and harbour few aspirations. Therefore why would I decide to wear pink?

My sister gave me the scarf for Christmas. She sees me as a metrosexual. But I’m not. I don’t moisturise.

Ella de Guzman, proprietor of Siopa Ella, a high-end swap boutique in Dublin, says, “I love seeing a man wearing a pale pink shirt but he needs to wear it with confidence. Bubblegum pink polo shirts are also great - especially if you're also sporting a tan”.

This advice deepens my unease. I have neither confidence nor a tan.

Nick Sullivan, fashion editor of Esquire magazine, has said the way we perceive pink now is contrary to opinion in the first half of the twentieth century. “It was traditional for boys to be dressed in pink (a derivative of red, thought to be the most decisive, masculine colour),” he writes. Meanwhile, blue was the consistent choice for girls because in Christian tradition it symbolized virginity.

The Virgin Mary is the most potent example of this. Apparently she hated pink. Few people know this but Mary was obsessed with the way she looked. She never left the stable without full makeup.

Beyond this, there was an aesthetic reason too. In 1918, the Ladies Home Journal wrote, “There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger colour is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl".

As the conversation about my pink scarf unfolded in the pub, I came to a realisation. The group was not actually worried about my choice of pink. Rather, they were troubled by the marriage of my pink scarf with the colour of my hair. I say hair. In reality, it is really more of a suggestion of hair at this stage. A whisper, say. Some people would describe it as “ginger” (that hateful word). However, I have been assured by an expert de coleur that it is in fact “sunset explosion”.

Does this mean pink and I must part ways?

Of course there are many, many different shades of this colour. Pink is a crude term which envelops an abundance, an entire spring meadow, of hues. The different shades say different things.

Fuchsia, for example, is a shade of pink which one rarely sees on a man. It is a noisy colour which punishes the retina. To wear this colour is to throw acid in peoples’ eyes. Exceedingly unpleasant.

Salmon is one of the most popular shades of pink for men. It is the shade which sits on the proverbial fence. Is it pink or is it something else? Men take refuge in this ambiguity. It is also the entry-level shade for pink virgins. It allows them to dip their toe in the sea without going all the way.

Ruby is to be avoided by men who blush easily. You will look like a lollipop.

One man I spoke with said that he owned one pink pair of trousers, two pink t-shirts and three pink shirts. That’s alot of pink. Many of the people who talked to me agreed that men should only wear one pink item at a time. A pink tie is good. A pink tie and a pink shirt may overwhelm. A pink tie, a pink shirt and pink trousers will make you look like a milkshake. Children will want to drink you.

However, de Guzman says that occasionally a pink cocktail can work. “I don’t think there should be rules in fashion but if a man is wearing a pink shirt, a pink tie would also look amazing accessorized with it”.

Where do I go from here? My research has led me to believe that pink, just like a sunflower, requires a specific set of conditions in which to bloom. Alas, I am not convinced that I am fertile ground for such a cultivation.

ENDS