# What shade is typically referred to as Charcoal Grey?



## Rope (Nov 24, 2007)

What shade is typically referred to as Charcoal Grey? A or B? Pictures are pretty close to reality though not exact...thank you.


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## Holdfast (Oct 30, 2005)

The first one. Charcoal grey (or Oxford Grey) is just the name given to a really, really dark grey. The second is still a dark grey. Probably about halfway between Oxford Grey and Cambridge Grey. Maybe we should call it London Grey?


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## Bird's One View (Dec 31, 2007)

*Is this a trick question?*

.... A


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## bengal-stripe (May 10, 2003)

'Charcoal Grey' is a very dark grey (almost black) - Darker than 'A'.


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## Bird's One View (Dec 31, 2007)

Are charcoal and Oxford two names for the same dark gray, or is one darker than the other? I lean toward considering them identical since:

1 Actual charcoal is effectively black, so it seems silly to have another, darker, gray between charcoal and black; yet:

2 I've seen Oxford described as "the darkest gray short of black" or similar.

On the other hand:

7 Navy blue often looks darker than shades sold as "charcoal", so there is probably room on the grayscale for another shade between charcoal and black.

This is a serious problem.


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## ksinc (May 30, 2005)

Blue, Navy, Black

Black, Charcoal, Dark Grey (Oxford), Grey (Cambridge), Light Grey

... at least according to IAG (TomJames, H Freeman, English American).


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## Oppressed Impressions (Mar 30, 2008)

How strange indeed. However, I guess there shouldn't be a problem if one is in a well-lighted store personally selecting material, pink linen could be called "Eggs" for all I care. Ordering suits or material online is another issue obviously, as the apparent lack of some general standard with regards to colour description make it as tricky as buying paint off the description on the tin.


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## Bird's One View (Dec 31, 2007)

*Thanks ksinc*

This is very useful.... IAG's "Oxford" looks a little bluer than their other grays. I wonder if this is idiosyncratic.


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## ksinc (May 30, 2005)

Bird's One View said:


> This is very useful.... IAG's "Oxford" looks a little bluer than their other grays. I wonder if this is ideosyncratic.


Well, I dunno. They only call them 'Charcoal', 'Dark Grey', and 'Grey', but if I ask the TJ Lady here for Oxford Grey or Cambridge Grey that's the number I get. We had a discussion before about this and it appears that some companies are liberal with the names Oxford and Cambridge. JAB seems to reverse them at times. It's confusing. It could just be a variation in different sales people.

I do know the swatches and the numbers match up. YMMV.

See if this will work


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## Concordia (Sep 30, 2004)

It's not very easy to tell from the pictures, but according to Minnis:

https://www.hfw-huddersfield.co.uk/hardyminnis/asp/showroom2.asp?seco=M?cate=F?

Oxford grey is just a hair lighter than black. Charcoal (also "dark grey") is meaningfully lighter than that. I know when I asked a tailor for a lot of "charcoal" flannel samples, I got some that were lighter than I wanted.


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