In ROUGE

Vanities /The Gallery

Red was the first hue humans used for dyeing and has entranced us ever since. "I can't imagine becoming bored with red," Diana Vreeland once said. "It makes all other colors beautiful." (She wasn't kidding: Her living room, done in floor-to-ceiling scarlet, gave Matisse's L'Atelier Rouge a run for its money.) Mark Rothko swathed canvases in ruby and rust. Donald Judd favored cadmium. And now Miuccia Prada's lipstick red Tumulte bag is swinging to the fore, with leather that's soft and malleable enough to squeeze close to the body yet structured at its accordioned sides. The gold chain strap (perhaps the only tone we've loved longer) is functional yet decorative. In total, never, ever dull.

Daisy Shaw-Ellis

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