Plum
Retired2001-2015 · Color No. 323
Introducing Plum, made by The Fiesta Tableware Company from 2001 to 2015. It's a deep and luscious shade of purple, reminiscent of ripe plums at the peak of their sweetness. Plum adds a touch of richness and sophistication to any tablescape. Mix and match Plum with colors like White and Sunflower for a vibrant and eclectic table setting, or pair it with Slate and Sage for a more subdued yet elegant combination.
Production
Plum was retired in 2015, so it is a hunt for secondhand pieces now. Fiesta Factory Direct is where the colors still being made are, if you are filling a set.
Shop Fiesta Factory Direct (opens in a new tab)Notes on Plum
Plum ran fourteen years, 2001 to 2015, which is a long run for a purple in this line - the family only has five colors total. It's very dark, with a lot of blue in it, and it functions more like a near-black than a purple on most tables. It arrived alongside Sunflower and pushed Pearl Gray and Juniper off the shelf. Mulberry, introduced in 2018, is close enough (ΔE 5) that the two are genuinely difficult to tell apart side by side, which is worth knowing if you're buying either second-hand.
Using Plum on a table
Plum has enough color to be noticed without taking over, which makes it a good second or third piece - a salad plate or a serving bowl rather than the whole setting. At L* 17 it is a genuinely dark plate, so pale food stands out on it and dark food disappears. It separates strongly from a white cloth (14.4:1) and less so from dark wood.
Below, 5 combinations built only from colors Fiesta has actually produced. Each says which rule it follows, and which pieces you can still buy today.
The pairing in its own description
Named in the descriptionThese colors are named alongside Plum in this guide's description of it.
Buy these to go with it
Plum was retired in 2015, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Chartreuse sits roughly opposite Plum in hue, which is the highest-contrast pairing the palette offers. The neutrals keep it from shouting.
- White
- Chartreuse, 1997-1999
- Sage
-
Your color Plum
All purple
Every color here is from the purple family, arranged light to dark. A single-family table reads calm and deliberate rather than busy.
Three-way split
Apricot and Green (Light) sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Plum in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
- Apricot
- Green (Light)
-
Your color Plum
- Black
Where Plum sits in the line
Plum took over from Lilac as Fiesta's purple, and is noticeably darker than it - a complete change of direction rather than a reformulation (ΔE 25.1). It has been in production 14 years against a median of 7 for its era - one of the colors the company kept. In 2001 it arrived alongside Sunflower and took the place of Pearl Gray and Juniper on the shelf. What else happened in 2001 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Plum. Under about ΔE 5 two colors are hard to tell apart side by side - useful when you are identifying an unmarked piece.
On the table alongside Plum
29 colors were in production at the same time. The 10 nearest in the timeline: