Ombre

Ombre (pronounced om-brey)

(1) A gradual blending of one color to another, usually a blended shifting of tints and shades from light to dark within the range of one hue but it can also be applied when using contrasting hues.

(2) A card game of Spanish origin, dating from the late seventeenth century; played usually by three, it uses a deck of forty cards, the 8, 9 & 10 discarded and gained the name from the phrase “Soy el hombre” (I am the man), uttered at critical points during play.  As a fashionable game, it was superseded by quadrille.

(4) A large Mediterranean fish (Umbrina cirrosa), popular in cooking (archaic and better known as the shi drum, gurbell, sea crow, bearded umbrine or corb).

1840–1845: From the French ombré (shadowed, shaded), past participle of ombrer, from the Italian ombrare (to cover in shadow (in painting)), ultimately from the Latin umbra (shadow).  The name of the card game (as a reference to the player who attempts to win the pot) was from the French hombre, from the Spanish hombre (man), from the Latin homo, from the earlier hemō, from the Proto-Italic hemō, from the primitive Indo-European ǵm̥mṓ (earthling), from déǵōm (earth), from which Latin gained Latin humus (ground, floor, earth, soil).  It was cognate with the Old Lithuanian žmuõ (man), the Gothic guma and the Old English guma (man).  The link between the words for both earth and man wasn't unique to Latin and existed also in Semitic languages, illustrated by the Hebrew אָדָם‎ (adám) (man) & אֲדָמָה‎ (adamá) (soil).  Ombre is a noun & adjective (and conceivably a verb); the noun plural is ombres.

Ombre chiffon strapless bridesmaid dress from Dollygown (left) and Mansory’s Ferrari F8XX Spider Tempesta Turchese (right).

Mansory is a German operation based Tirschenreuth, Bavaria, the core business of which is the modification of high-priced (mostly European) cars.  Their signature approach is the celebration of conspicuous consumption and they eschew subtlety in favor of an eye-catching appearance, a focus being “one off” (the “one of one philosophy” as they describe it) creations where a particular combination of colors and modifications are not duplicated on another vehicle.  Their products are about the closest thing possible to actually displaying a price-tag somewhere on the bodywork and their output is said to have achieved high sales Russia, China, the Middle East and India.  Their work with specific components, notably carbon-fibre, is renowned in the industry as state-of-the-art and of the highest standard.  One recent one-off creation was the F8XX Spider Tempesta Turchese (Turquoise Storm), a variation of their modified Ferrari F8 Spider on which the ombre color scheme transitions gradually from a specially blended white to a vivid turquoise, accented by Mansory’s traditional set of forged carbon-fibre pieces in black.  The company also modifies the 3.9 liter (238 cubic inch) twin-turbocharged V8, its output increased by some 22% to 868 bhp (648 kW) which propels the Tempesta Turchese to a top speed of 220 mph (355 km/h).

Lindsay Lohan in vintage Herve Leger bandage dress, Maxim Hot 100 Party, Gansevoort Hotel, New York City, May 2007 (left) and 1976 PDL Mustang II (right).  Ombre is sometimes used to describe color schemes where a variety of distinct shades are applied with a clear line of division between each but these are better referred to as “layered” or (in some cases) “graduated”.

The PDL Mustang II was a space-frame race car built in New Zealand in 1976 to conform to the rather liberal rules which applied at the time.  So extensive were the modifications from the donor vehicle that any relationship with the actual Ford Mustang II (1973-1979) wasn’t even skin deep and it used one of the rare, aluminum-block Ford 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) Cleveland V8s.  It replaced the original PDL Mustang which was based on a genuine 1970 Mustang Boss 429 which had been stolen and recovered without its valuable engine and transmission.  Purchased for what was in retrospect the bargain price of US$500, it was actually a good basis for a circuit racer because Kar Kraft (the specialist operation to which the build of the Boss 429 programme (1969-1970) was out-sourced) was compelled to widen the front track to accommodate the big 429, something which, when fitted with an iron-block 351, greatly improved the handling.  Both cars enjoyed much success but so radical were the modifications to the Mustang II that eventually it was compelled to wander the planet to find events where the organizers were prepared to let it run.  When it was unleashed, it was fast, loud and spectacular and made a good case for there being more Formula Libre races.  That case can still be made.