The year’s chicest shade is good enough to eat
Yet wearing it is not for the yellow-bellied
In 1775 the colour of the summer was puce, a brownish pink, thanks to Marie Antoinette. Mauve, a vibrant purple, rocketed to prominence in the mid-19th century after being worn by Queen Victoria. Recently “millennial pink” and “pistachio green” have been in vogue. Now it is the turn of “butter yellow”. The hashtag has been viewed almost 500m times on TikTok; its usage has jumped by 1,000% in the past year.
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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “You butter believe it”
Culture
June 21st 2025- How to think about the manosphere
- The year’s chicest shade is good enough to eat
- Was Zbigniew Brzezinski America’s most important foreign-policy guru?
- The Laurel Canyon sound has reverberated down the decades
- The right to privacy has been hard-earned. It is imperilled again
- Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the age of the genius
From the June 21st 2025 edition
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What Superman tells you about American foreign policy
Should a man who can do anything choose to do nothing?
Handling feelings with rubber gloves: the odd life of Muriel Spark
An abandoned son, scorned lovers and dazzling, manipulative prose
Why the left gains nothing from pop stars’ support
Artists are entitled to share their views. Doing so is not always noble or wise
What to watch this weekend
Stories of tennis players, chefs and rock stars
Stop crying your heart out—for Oasis have returned to the stage
They are much more popular today than their Britpop peers
Inside the uneasy, incongruous coalition of the Big Three
A new book traces the wartime relationship between Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin