The Context: Sylko D352 Rifle Green

Rifle Green is an old colour. The earliest reference that I can find to this shade dates to 1824. It is associated with the Rifle brigade of the British army, formed during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. They wore green tunics instead of the usual red for camouflage, as rather than directly face the enemy it was their role to hide and pick them off individually. 

Our Sylko shade D352 however dates from 1935 - the same year as King George V's jubilee celebrations (marked by the shade D349). It is one of those shades selected by the British Colour Council - see my previous blog post  https://englishsewingjournal.blogspot.com/2024/01/cotton-colours-of-1930s.html 

Newspapers reported on the new shades in the second half of that year, with Rifle Green often being put together with another shade called Vagabond Green. I don't think that this latter shade made it to Sylko (though it may be the case that I just haven't seen it yet!). The colour shades either side of Rifle Green are Stone White and Capri, and there are several blues in the vicinity. 1935 seems to have been a time of muted and sober colours, and probably quite a bit of red, white and blue bunting.


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