Crimson & Lemon & Navy

Crimson is the ceremonial sash — the deep vivid cool-red of the crimson sash worn by senior Royal Navy officers in full dress uniform. In the Royal Navy tradition, the crimson sash (worn diagonally across the chest from the right shoulder to the left hip, or tied at the waist) is a mark of high-level command and is worn in the most formally elaborate ceremonial occasions. The specific tradition of the crimson sash in British military dress: the 'scarlet sash' of British army officers and the 'crimson sash' of naval officers (the navy sash is typically described as 'crimson' — a deep, slightly cooler red than the army's vivid scarlet) both derive from the 17th-century tradition of distinguishing officer from rank-and-file by colored silk accessories. The most celebrated crimson in British naval tradition: the crimson of the sash worn by Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) in his portraits — particularly Lemuel Francis Abbott's portrait (1797, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), where the crimson of Nelson's sash creates the most vivid warm accent against the dark blue of his naval uniform. Lemon is the gold lace — the vivid warm gold (which appears lemon-to-gold depending on the light) of the naval dress uniform's gold lace — the decorative woven braid applied to officers' cuffs (indicating rank by the number of bands), shoulder boards, and cap peaks. The gold lace of Royal Navy officers is one of the most strictly regulated decorative elements in British uniform — the precise width of each gold stripe, the specific pattern of the braid (the straight stripes of most officers; the distinctive curl-in-the-top stripe of flag officers — admirals — which is the most immediately recognizable element of the Royal Navy uniform), and the material (traditionally real gold wire, now gold-colored synthetic thread) are all specified in formal Admiralty regulations. Lemon's pale luminosity approximates the specific appearance of gold lace against the very dark navy ground in non-direct lighting — the gold lace appears pale lemon-yellow rather than vivid warm gold when observed in the ambient light of an interior ceremonial space. Navy is the uniform — the very dark navy blue of the Royal Navy officer's dress uniform. 'Navy blue' as a color name derives directly from the Royal Navy — the British Naval uniform's dark blue was standardized in 1748 (the year that a formal Royal Proclamation standardized the uniform of the British naval officer for the first time), creating the darkest, most authoritative dark blue that is still the universal color of naval dress worldwide.