Puce

The color ‘puce’ is a very dark brown with a reddish tint. This is not just the color of a flea (called a puce in French), but of a squashed one, engorged with blood. Such were the ideas of the playful Parisian fashion designers who came up with names for shades. And puce, as a practical, durable, and unobtrusive color, quickly became a hallmark of the clothing of modest and humble people. For a long time, it was called the color of governesses and poor officials. Although in Théophile Gautier's Captain Fracasse, for example, one of the characters, a marquise, wishes to wear a puce taffeta dress precisely because she appears slimmer in it, since puce is a very dark color.

Today, in the hexadecimal code used by designers, it is denoted by the value #47230A.