Upon learning of TATTER’s Blue Library, or passing through its doors to a space saturated with 360° of cerulean and indigo, we are often asked: “Why Blue?”

The question might refer to the choice of blue rather than red or yellow. Or perhaps the question is spurred by the surprise in finding a library a space generally architected in ‘neutrals,’—fully rendered in a color. Nevertheless, a dialogue has begun and it is one we look forward to.

Neutral spaces are oft unseen. Textiles are similar. So ubiquitous, so everpresent, we don’t perceive them. We take their presence for granted. We cloak our library in blue to simply remind us that textiles are far from neutral. In actuality, they are essential to survival, a portal to psyche, an expression of cultural identity, partners in ritual, memory, and prayer.

Blue occupies a singular place in the human psyche, existing simultaneously as the color of infinite distance and intimate depth. Psychologically, it calls to our most contemplative states—the hue that both soothes anxiety and evokes melancholy, earning its place in our language of emotion from “feeling blue” to the transcendent “blue hour” of twilight. In music, blue births itself through the bent notes and flattened thirds of the blues, where sorrow transforms into beauty.

Yet perhaps most remarkably, blue’s cultural power stems from its complex history of rarity and abundance—while precious ultramarine from lapis lazuli adorned only the most sacred manuscripts and royal garments, indigo told a different story entirely, weaving itself through global trade routes from ancient India to colonial plantations, becoming both the foundation of immense wealth and the source of profound suffering as enslaved hands cultivated the plants that would dye the world’s working clothes.

From Japanese kimonos to American denim, blue remains a color that humanity both cherishes as divine and wears as the uniform of labor. This duality weaves blue into our collective unconscious as simultaneously sacred and mundane, precious and common, creating a paradox that continues to make it the world’s most beloved color: utterly familiar yet eternally mysterious, as close as our next breath and as distant as the deepest ocean.