My brother mentioned to me yesterday, that he had recently seen some Bollywood films. It was a new genre for him, and he talked about how much he enjoyed the dancing and the colors and the music. As I already knew the genre well from my film school days having been exposed to a number of great Indian film directors, it took me awhile in our conversation before I realized that he was seeing these films without subtitles, and still finding them interesting. If that isn’t a testament to the potency of visual language alone, I don’t know what is. In the case of India in particular, it is also a testament to the power of pure color.

    There is something about the purity of color and the unexpectedness of the color combinations that makes India sing, in particular, through its textiles. All colors from India are pure, it seems, and unadulterated with either white or black or brown as an undertone. As a consequence, each color has an emotional resonance that hits you right between the eyes. Indian pink, orange, and red, are not just warm colors, they are hot, hot, hot. Indian blue and green provide the perfect antidote of cool. I never thought I could love a plastic yellow hanger, but in the instance of this rack of Indian garments, they made me awfully happy.