DMC 718 — Plum

Plum is one of those colors with remarkable cultural range — it can read as simultaneously decadent and natural, regal and earthy, Victorian and modern. DMC 718's specific plum sits in the blue-purple-red zone, with its hex value #8E2060 showing a strong red component moderated by significant blue, giving it a rich, jewel-toned quality that reads as deep, saturated, and slightly cool. It's not a sweet or gentle color — it's dark and purposeful, closer to the wine-dark interior of a ripe plum than to the sugary purple of confectionery.

Cultural and Historical Associations

Purple has been associated with royalty since antiquity, and plum specifically carries that association in a more accessible, domestic form. Not the unapproachable purple of imperial court robes — that's more the territory of DMC 550 Very Dark Violet — but the purple of Victorian mourning dress, of old-fashioned cottage garden planting, of the deep-toned embroidery on ecclesiastical garments for Advent and Lent. Cross stitch designs for religious occasions and seasonal samplers in the traditional style often turn to DMC 718 for this resonance.

The Art Nouveau movement, with its love of jewel tones and botanical forms, used plum extensively — and contemporary cross stitch patterns inspired by that aesthetic reach for 718 to capture its characteristic palette. Mucha-style portraits, decorative alphabet designs with organic flourishes, and peacock-feather patterns all benefit from 718's combination of depth and warmth.

Design Applications

In floral embroidery, 718 serves as the deep shadow or body color for purple-red flowers: clematis, certain dahlias, black-purple tulips, and the dark-centered varieties of pansies. Paired with DMC 915 Dark Plum for deeper shadow and DMC 3607 Light Plum for mid-tones, it builds a complete plum shading sequence with real depth. For the lightest highlights in this family, DMC 3608 Very Light Plum and DMC 3609 Ultra Light Plum carry the pale range.

Fruit embroidery — plums, grapes, figs, and mulberries — uses DMC 718 in the darker areas where the fruit's skin shows its deepest color. Grapes in particular benefit from this family, with 718 working the shadow zones of dark purple grape varieties alongside DMC 550, 552, and 553 for a complete range. The color also appears in damson jam and blackcurrant-colored textile work, and in any design evoking the atmosphere of a Victorian kitchen larder.

Pairing Notes

DMC 718 paired with gold creates a particularly rich combination that appears throughout historical embroidery traditions — plum and gold, in various forms, has been used for decorated borders and luxury textiles across cultures and centuries. Pairing 718 with DMC 680 Dark Old Gold or DMC 729 Medium Old Gold replicates this classic pairing in cotton. Against green — particularly the muted sage or olive greens like DMC 3012 or 3013 — 718 creates the complementary contrast of plum foliage against a green garden background, common in Jacobean-style crewelwork translated to cross stitch.

Colorfastness in the deep plum range deserves a mention. Highly saturated blue-reds can occasionally transfer color when wet-blocked, particularly in warm water. DMC's standard advice applies: test a strand on your fabric before washing the finished piece, or use cool water for the first wash. The thread's color depth means any bleed, even minor, would be visible against lighter adjacent areas. In practice, most stitchers who work with 718 regularly report no issues with colorfastness, but the caution is reasonable for prized pieces.