The Princess and The Blue Pea

When the winter blues hit and you find yourself buried under layers of duvet, trying to comfort yourself as you fight to survive the season, there’s no better story to reminisce about than your fairy tale lookalike: The Princess and the Pea.

For us, the citizens of the millennia, our troubles are probably a bit bigger than a pea: cost of living, no sign of a holiday, dopamine addiction, dreadful existential crises... take your pick. But actually, so are our fragile princesses’.

The tale, as we are often told, depicts the queen seeking a truly “royal” princess who shouldn’t be able to sleep on a tower of royalty-owned beds stacked with a single pea. Hence, the childhood message we received was “be fragile, it’s royal.” Yet a few scholars interpret this fragility and the nosy mother-in-law a bit differently. While traditional tellings and re-tellings of the story portray two female characters as both weak and scheming, they have taken the pea too literally. The original story, in fact, tells of a discerning queen who wishes to pass on her well-cared-for kingdom to a princess who will be attentive to her people’s problems, however minor they may be.

How the message that rulers of a society should feel discomfort and unease regarding every issue in their community turned into a message of weakness and fragility —within the same story, told in the exact same words— requires its own rabbit hole of exploration.

So, I have gathered my winter blues and hibernation nest to bring you the “Princess and the Blue Pea collection”. Earning its name, the collection is curated of silk and lace nightgowns and negligees in shades of heart-warming blue, for a luxurious seasonal depression experience.