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Various appetizing shades of brown such as chocolate, chestnut and caramel — the Maillard color palette — have swept the global fashion scene since autumn 2023. Inspired by the series of chemical reactions discovered by French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard (1878-1936) that impart a rich brown hue to food while cooking — the process of searing a steak, for example — these earthy tones evoke a sense of nature, comfort and elegance.

This year, Pantone, a world front-runner in color design, has named Mocha Mousse as its Color of the Year, adding to the brownish color scheme another hint of warm, mellow vibe.

Fashion is a circle — what fades away comes back around. On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in western China, dubbed "the roof of the world" for its high altitude, Tibetan women have applied an ocher-colored sunscreen makeup for more than a millennium. It even became a trend among noble women in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) capital of Chang'an, present-day Xi'an in Shaanxi province.

Amid the Maillard-style craze, this traditional practice has once again been brought into the limelight, as a recent documentary, China in Hues, captures this time-honored magic that turns milk into a brownish cream blush, demonstrating joy and creativity, as well as an eternal pursuit of beauty.

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