The icon of an iconic color gives a lesson in Casually Deliberate. 1
In grade school, a teacher once asked me to name my favorite color, a query to which I responded with the only logical answer for any prepubescent boy surrounded by scary girls in a small classroom: “Celeste.”
“No, you have to pick a real color.”
While the rest of the world believes the most iconic color in Cycling is made-up, our little world is fascinated by it’s legend. Bianchi once proposed to do away with the color and replace it with another more usual hue and the public overwhelmingly rejected the notion, permanently cementing that particular shade of hangover-green as the official color of the brand.
No one knows the origin of the color, but there are two prevailing theories on the matter. The first is that Eduardo Bianchi matched the color to the Queen of Italy’s eyes, whom he was teaching to ride a bicycle. I don’t buy this theory, personally. I mean, this was before color photography or the internet and no one has a good enough memory to match a color to anything without having a photo to work from. It’s too far-fetched.
The other theory is that Eduardo needed paint and was feeling a bit pinchy with the pennies when he came across an enormous quantity of gray and blue paint at a price – possibly from the Italian Navy which was trying to unload an inventory of paint after it realized that fighting a war on the seas is the worst kind of war you can fight because you have to ration the vino rosso. Eduardo mixed the two colors and out came this iconic shade.
My beloved Bianchi TSX is red, a fact which has me constantly wondering whether I should have it repainted in celeste. A red Bianchi? I love that bike, but who let that sneak out of the factory? My other beloved Bianchi, my XLEv2, is black and yellow with celeste lettering. When I ordered it, the owner of the bike shop – Grand Performance in Saint Paul, Minnesota – pressed me on the fact that only the black frames were available as all the celeste ones had been sold. He wound up giving me a discount out of pity.
I love the fact that no one I interact with outside the Cycling world has any idea that this color exists, or that legends have formed around its existence. These are the sorts of things that separate us from the masses. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
1 Fausto is not, in fact, riding a Bianchi in this photo. The photo is simply too rad not to use, and its black and white.
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Over the years, my wife would talk about "stucco" and "aubergine" as being colours. I would protest saying that there are only 6 colours; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violate. I then dicovered cycling, and that there are actually 7 colours. Add celeste. "stucco" and "aubergine" are still not colours.
I love how you've used a picture of Coppi NOT riding a Bianchi. Classic.
@Oli
I knew you would catch on to that, but the picture is too rad not to use. And I ne'er said he was actually riding a Bianchi...just that he was an icon of the iconic color, which is almost the same as being right.
Celeste, celestial, there is only one color a Bianchi should be, sorry Frank but at least you were precocious!
How cool to have imprinted a color on your product. Ferraris - red. Kleenex - white. Bianchi celeste stands out and is never confused with imposters and once one has been initiated it becomes the most beautiful of colors!
@Puffy
Stucco is a material and can be died to be any color you like. And Aubergine is a gourd and is disgusting. Both not colors.
I am totally infatuated with Celeste bikes, even skipping out of a business meeting in Milan to go to the Bianchi shop and get a real close look at the Specialissima. I love the fact that there is a debate how the color now is not a trie celeste (which I agree but it still looks awesome). I ended up picking up an old Rekord 914 steel frame and modernizing it for me daughter to support my habit. It turned out so well that I am thinking of how to get one for myself (see my article about testing the s-1 part of rule 12, I fear there may be another heavy ugly sofa coming....). Great article Frank hits the spot
I don't think it is a gourd - it's actually a fruit.
@1860
It's true, though -- or at least in a way. The hue of celeste has changed over the years. In some years it's more blue, in some closer to a true green, in some more vivid and in some more pastel. Perhaps it depends when you first fell in love with a Bianchi, although I'll still claim that the 1980's celeste (it of the semi-infamous 1983 ad campaign) is the truest!
A proper TSX frame:
The color itself:
That ad:
@frank,
If you do end up looking for a repaint on either frame, Allan Wanta does gorgeous work (although I'd argue that the Bianchi he shows is a little too blue...).
Great article once more @Frank, one day, maybe just one day I will have a Celeste in the stable.
My wife's Bianchi isn't actually celeste either; it's mostly white with subtle bars of celeste on the TT, forks, etc. She doesn't care, but everyone else seems to be trying to add more celeste to her riding.
I bought her a celeste Bianchi cap and our friendly local mechanic gave her some celeste Bianchi bidons.
There's something special about that brand and that colour, that's for sure. Not sure I could ride one.