Pinhead definition:  METAMERS are different colors that sometimes look the same.

This is an old and interesting page that I'm updating now (August 2026) with our latest  Jacquard Fabric color palette:

We created this page because we had noticed that our Drab Green was sometimes impossible to distinguish from our old Duff color (in the third color palette on this page).  The same metamerism holds true between Drab Green and Classic Brown, which originally motivated us to create this page.

And now, we should do some field-testing on color perception with respect to our Denim, which did not become part of our lineup until 2023.  Here is the Denim color palette:

I would be willing to bet that Walnut in the Denim and Drab Green in the Jacquard would often be very difficult to distinguish.

Way back in 2018, Debby dug up some research that formally vindicates what some of us have been saying about our Jacquard Fabric Solid Colors Drab and Duff all along ...

Metamers are colors that match sometimes, depending upon the lighting. Drab and Duff are definitely metamers, and we developed these colors with exactly that effect in mind, although at the time we didn't know there was any science behind what we were doing ...

When we developed Drab and Duff, we wanted colors that would be completely acceptable and appealing in social settings, AND we wanted colors that would blend into Nature, providing camouflage without camo patterns.

We developed Drab first, and at that time we were not thinking about Duff. But as we tested different shades, we (actually, me, mostly) really gravitated toward the shades that were most difficult to pin down. When I found myself thinking WHAT COLOR IS THAT? ... that's when I felt we were getting the effect I wanted. Specifically, Drab is hard to see in many Natural settings, but it also seems to be different colors depending upon how the light falls on it. Add in the 3-dimensional effect of the way a garment covers a human body, and light will always be reflected in different ways. So with Drab, we had a color that faded into Nature, was difficult to focus on, and, because it looks different from different angles, had a camo effect even though it is a single solid color.

We developed Duff by working with paint chips ... small squares of paper we got from a paint store. We took about 20 paint chips with varying shades of brown, and spread them all out on the floor of the forest. The shade that best matched the dead leaves and twigs and dirt became standard for Duff.  (Scientists call the leaves and twigs on the forest floor 'duff'.)  And with Duff, we of course also wanted the same qualities as Drab ... acceptable socially, hard to see in Nature, and looking like different colors depending upon the lighting.

With Drab and Duff, I was very happy with their chameleon effects, and then we really knew we had the colors we wanted when we noticed that, in certain lighting, Drab looks like Duff, and vice versa. So, that's METAMERISM, a new word for me (as of summer, 2018), and I'm really happy that Drab and Duff are METAMERS.

Above is the photo that really made me wonder about this ... the Poncho (hanging from the right side of the rafter) is Drab Green.   We know what this customer purchased.   But, it looks brown ... it IS BROWN ... in this photo, even though the other items in the photo appear normally.  

Page Created 16 July 2018
Updated most recently 11 August 2026 --- SunDog