I am often asked what my favourite colour is and I answer, without hesitation and with great gusto, my favourite colour is duck egg blue. Which I have never questioned before until it was pointed out to me recently that most of the touch points in my life are pink.

The logo for Daily Wrap is pink. Many of my gift wraps feature pink in some form. I wear a fair bit of pink. The first kitchen I renovated was pale pink and dove grey. Even my wedding dress was pink – it had a full on Lady Di ruffle collar and was pink pink pink. While that last fact is a bit embarrassing now, trust me it was the height of fashion at the time.

So after much self reflection I suspect my preferred colour is actually pink not duck egg blue. But I am not a one pink pony. In fact there are so many shades of pink I could keep going for quite a while before doubling up. From champagne and blushes through to baby pinks, fairy pinks, cherry blossom pinks, to hot pinks, fluoro pinks to the magentas, the fuchsias and the corals. And that’s just the tip of the pink iceberg.

And don’t think for a second that pink is only for girls. Pink Wasn’t Always Girly : A Short History of a Complex Colour by Anna Broadway published in The Atlantic provides a detailed overview of the origins and symbolism of the colour pink. It’s a ripper of an article. If you find the time and the inclination you should read it – you’ll never see pink in the same light again. Among other pink facts, the article quotes an interview with the costume designer Catherine Martin from Baz Luhrmann’s recent film The Great Gatsby who notes that , the colour had working-class connotations and that only in the relatively recent past did pink acquire its feminine connotations.

The Atlantic also quotes Valerie Steele, a director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute Technology and author of several books on fashion, who said “In the 18th century, it was perfectly masculine for a man to wear a pink silk suit with floral embroidery,”  Steele says pink was initially “considered slightly masculine as a diminutive of red,” which was thought to be a “warlike”.

There you have it…pink as a diminutive of warlike red. Well diminutive or not I could not go past using pink for a present for my diminutive mother. I should really have kept this wrap up my sleeve for Mothers’ Day which arrives very soon – but when the mood takes you, it takes you and I really wanted to give her a box of skin care goodies most notably the fabulous Crabtree and Evelyn Hand Cream in Pear and Pink Magnolia.  I just love the colour of the tube. Most of all I just really wanted to use the raw silk ribbon with vertical rather than the more common horizontal stripes. Mightn’t be Fifty Shades of Pink in that ribbon but the ones that are there aren’t half bad.