saffron dreams

This post is a little off the beaten track, but I thought it was interesting enough to share. Lately, I've been dreaming of traveling some more and India has been on my mind for quite some time. And something I associate with the country is vibrant colors, a rich array of vibrant colors -- deep reds crimsons, golden yellows, ceruleans, indigos, irridescent greens. I've been thinking of The Fall, a movie directed by Tarsem Singh and Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Limited (which has been playing on Sundance quite a bit lately). 

The Fall

         

But the color, I most drawn to in this moment is a deep golden yellow called saffron. Saffron itself is a spice derived from the flower saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), which bears three stigmas. The stigmas are then used in cooking as a seasoning and coloring agent. Saffron, long the world's most expensive spice by weight, is native to Southwest Asia. It has a bitter taste and an iodoform, a hay-like fragrance. And contains a corotenoid dye called crocin that allows saffron to impart a rich golden-yellow hue to dishes and textiles...which brings me to my next point.

I often find at most celebrity events such as the Oscars and the Metropolitan Costume Institute Gala, that my favorite dresses or derived from the saffron color. The color itself is beautiful and evokes rich imagery, but also compliments light, golden locks of hair and a fair complexion and supports a beautiful red lip. So, I decided to do some research and found that this is exactly the ususal combination:

 
Michelle Williams




 
Diane Kruger