The Secret Lives of Color | Kassia St. Clair
A history of the world in 75 shades…
You don’t have to be a painter – or an artist of any kind, frankly – to fall down the rabbit hole of The Secret Lives of Color. You just have to be the kind of person who looks at a dusty red door and wonders why it makes you feel something. Or someone who gets weirdly curious about why hospital scrubs are always a shade of green that feels more surgical than natural. This is a book for people who ask “but why that color in particular?” – and actually want an answer.
Written by Kassia St. Clair, The Secret Lives of Color is a kaleidoscopic history lesson told through 75 distinct shades. Not broad colors – not “red” or “blue” – but very specific hues, each with a backstory, a little drama, and more impact than you’d expect from something as passive-seeming as pigment.
There’s a kind of alchemy here. Not in the colors themselves, but in the way St. Clair ties them to moments in culture, war, science, and art. Some stories are weirdly powerful. Like how the brown used in military uniforms changed the tactics of modern warfare. Or how a certain shade of white – chalky, almost ghostly – was once thought to fend off the plague. There’s even a segment on the black used in prehistoric cave paintings, and how we’ve never really bettered that original mix of fire and dust.
The book is structured like a swatch book you’d find in a paint store, only instead of marketing copy, each entry contains a short, smart burst of storytelling. Some lean toward art history. Others feel political. A few are downright odd. But that’s the appeal – you can flip it open anywhere and get something unexpected. It brings forward the idea of humanity and its relationship to color in a way that is at once both informative and quite entertaining.
It’s also a beautifully designed object in its own right. Each color section is marked by dyed edges, so you can see the spectrum running through the pages before you even open it. The effect is tactile and satisfying, and somehow adds weight to the idea that these shades aren’t just visual. They’ve shaped how we dress, how we fight, how we grieve, and how we celebrate.
What makes the book stick with you isn’t just the trivia – though it’s full of that too – it’s the way it changes your lens. After a few chapters, you start to notice pigments you’d otherwise ignore. You start to ask: Was that purple always that imperial? Why does that yellow feel religious? You start to realize that color isn’t just decorative – it’s deeply coded, and we’ve been reading it without realizing it. It’ll also answer the age-old question “What is Puce?”
Whether you’re a designer, a writer, a gearhead, or just someone who likes good books and good objects, The Secret Lives of Color is a worthy addition to your shelf. It’s a reminder that even the quietest parts of our world – the things we see but don’t name – carry stories that are very much worth telling.
Buy it now on Amazon
