Paint It Pink

Diana Vreeland famously said that pink was the navy blue of India. This spring, pink is a universal trend. Consider the Oscar de la Renta dress with flower petal-like pleats that Sarah Jessica Parker wore to McDonald’s earlier this season on “Sex and the City”; Zac Posen’s Venus-on-the-half-shell dresses with handkerchief hems; Chanel’s pink-checked tweeds; and the marvelously decadent, electric pink swan’s-down bolero that came down the runway at Gucci.

Of course, Vreeland could just as well have been talking about Los Angeles, which has always been a pink town. When New York-based Posen showed his spring collection to buyers in Los Angeles in November, the designer said, “Everyone went for the pink. L.A . is all about pink.” Posen said he had more requests here for pink than in most other markets.

In Los Angeles and other resort markets, “Women are wearing pink [from] head to toe,” said Maria Lucas, public relations director for St. John. Pink always has been a strong color for the Irvine-based company, which has six labels offering everything from eveningwear to sportswear.

Los Angeles-based designer Trina Turk, who painted the interior of her new boutique on Third Street a blush pink, adds, “In Southern California, the light is usually really bright and strong, and it reflects the colors you’re wearing. The reflection of pink onto the skin is flattering. In a resort area, people are much more likely to wear a bright color--it’s fun, and it’s part of that resort mind-set. In an urban environment you may not want to stand out that much, but in L.A. we have pretty much a resort climate, so we wear more pink.”

But it’s not the riotous magenta of India, nor the flamingo and Lilly Pulitzer pink of Palm Beach. Here, pink is in the stucco walls, in the polluted skies and on the chemical-peeled faces. Pink is in the very fabric of L.A.

In “Legally Blonde,” pink is used to telegraph Elle Woods’ Pacific Coast pedigree. She is one of those Beverly Hills girls whom Hollywood loves to make movies about--a sorority sister in a blush rhinestone bikini, seemingly as shallow as her parents’ hot tub. Determined to win back her boyfriend, she follows him to Harvard Law School, where East Coast snobs don’t know what to make of her pinkness (scented pink resume paper, a cotton-candy pink dog carrier and fuchsia shades). By the end of the film, she saves the day and persuades the world not to underestimate the power of pink.

L.A. has been thinking pink since at least the 1940s, when architect Paul Williams gave the Beverly Hills Hotel its pink-and-green motif as part of a renovation. Known as the Pink Palace, the Mission Revival structure has welcomed actors and celebrities--from W.C. Fields to Donatella Versace-- to its bungalows and pink bougainvillea-filled gardens.

The hotel now is owned by the sultan of Brunei, one of the richest men in the world, a fellow who can afford to shop on Rodeo Drive, where at Harry Winston the jewels du jour are pink diamonds ranging from $3,500 to $3.5 million. They have been must-haves since Ben Affleck slipped a 6.1-carat pink diamond engagement ring on Jennifer Lopez’s finger. They’ve recently split, but she reportedly hasn’t parted with the pink ring.

From the real deal to L.A.’s equivalent of costume jewelry, billboard queen Angelyne became Los Angeles’ unofficial mascot by draping her pneumatic form (and her Corvette) in various shades of pink. In this, the capital of beauty treatments, there is a not-so-pleasant pink--the telltale cast that comes after a chemical peel or a too enthusiastic waxing. Pedicures, though, are a different story. Here, women usher in spring with pink toes. At Jessica Nail Clinic in West Hollywood’s Sunset Plaza, the salon’s own Peaceful Pink is a popular pale shade of polish. Chanel’s Boa is a feistier fuchsia.

But the best shade comes from Mother Nature. Every evening, between 4 and 5 o’clock in the winter and later in the summer, the blues of twilight mix with the last red flecks of sunlight during the Pink Hour. Casting a soft focus on everything, the light gives even parking attendants a movie star glow. And for a time, it seems as if one is truly looking at life through rose-colored glasses.