Achillean Flag (Original, 2016)
Achillean / MLM Umbrella Pride Flag ·
Light blue bands above and below a green-tinted near-white centre, carrying a detailed green carnation. The Tumblr account pridenpositivity published it on 23 June 2016 in a single post that introduced the Sapphic Flag and this one together, giving the meanings as “Blue - joy” and carnations “Worn by victorian men on their lapels, popularized by Oscar Wilde”. [1] The post does not say who drew the flower. A simplification published that September is the version that circulates. [2]
Key facts
- Designer
- pridenpositivity
- Created
- First published
- In circulation
- 2016 to the present
- Aspect Ratio
- 296:166 (approximately 16:9), from the creator’s published file
- Ratio Notes
- No proportion is published. The creator’s own file is 296 by 166 pixels, a width to height of 1.783, close to but not exactly 16:9. [1] The 1000 by 561 WebP this entry used to render was an upscaled derivative of it, not a separate artifact.
- Stripes
- 3
- Represented Identity
- Achillean people: men, partial men and male-aligned people attracted to men, partial men and male-aligned people
Also known as
- Achillean Flag
- Achillean Pride Flag
Archive categories Sexual & Romantic Orientation Pride Flags
Overview
Not stated. The post gives the meanings of the colours and the flower and nothing about intent. [1]
The account pridenpositivity published the flag on Tumblr on 23 June 2016, in a post that introduced two flags at once: a Sapphic Flag and this one. Each got a short gloss rather than a design statement. For the Achillean Flag the whole of it reads: “Blue - joy” and “Carnations - Worn by victorian men on their lapels, popularized by Oscar Wilde. Green indicating gay affiliations.” The post is tagged sapphic, achillean, lgbt, sga and Queer. [1]
Identity & Context
- Represented Identity
- Achillean people: men, partial men and male-aligned people attracted to men, partial men and male-aligned people
- Subcommunity
- An umbrella rather than a gay-men-only label
The Pride-Color-Schemes archive page states the scope directly: achillean describes “men, partial men, or male-aligned people who are attracted to other men, partial men, or male-aligned people”, and “is not necessarily synonymous with gay because people who are bi, pan, ace, etc can also use it”. [3]
Creators
The Creator
pridenpositivity
Flag composition, attributed
A Tumblr account, now carrying the handle pridenpositivity-blog, which published the Achillean and Sapphic flags together on 23 June 2016 with a short gloss on each colour and emblem. No person is documented behind the account, and the post names no illustrator for the carnation. [1]
Blue - joy
Carnations - Worn by victorian men on their lapels, popularized by Oscar Wilde. Green indicating gay affiliations.
Attribution notes
The composition is attributed to the Tumblr account pridenpositivity, which published it, and which later sources credit: the Pride-Color-Schemes archive page records “The original designed by @pridenpositivity-blog”, and the 2016 simplification is described by its makers as “based on pridenpositivity’s design”. [4] [3] Who drew the carnation illustration is not stated in the post or in any located source, and is carried here as unidentified. The Pride-Color-Schemes page separately credits the account achilleanking with an upscale of the artwork, which is a reproduction role rather than a design one. [3]
Origin
- Digital Origin
- Tumblr, account pridenpositivity
- Origin Type
- first_publication
- Physical Origin Status
- Not documented.
Published on Tumblr. No physical origin is documented. [1]
Dates & Chronology
- Year Created
- First published
- In circulation
- 2016 to the present
- Creation Bounds
- Tumblr timestamps the post 23 June 2016 at 04:19:58 GMT. Nothing records when either flag in it was drawn. [1] The simplification of the carnation followed on 29 September and was published again at higher resolution on 5 October; both belong to the simplified design, not to this one. [2] [4]
The Pride-Color-Schemes blog carried the design on its Achillean page, reproducing both this flag and the later simplification, and crediting the original to pridenpositivity. [3] Within three months the carnation had been redrawn: Mod Hermy published a simplified version on 29 September 2016 so that the flag would be easier to sew and paint, and that version, republished on DeviantArt on 5 October, is the one that circulates. [2] [4] This entry documents the original composition; the simplification has its own record.
The carnation gloss reaches back to a documented practice. Oscar Wilde had friends wear green carnations to the 20 February 1892 London premiere of Lady Windermere’s Fan; asked what the flower meant, he answered, “Nothing whatever, but that is just what nobody will guess.” Robert Hichens’s anonymous 1894 novel The Green Carnation satirised Wilde’s circle and was withdrawn after his 1895 trial. [5]
Two later sources extend the claim backwards, saying that “in ancient Rome, as in 19th-century England, green indicated gay affiliations”: the Pride-Color-Schemes archive page and the 2016 simplification’s own description. [4] [3] The creator’s post says only that green indicated gay affiliations, without the Roman claim, and no independent historical source for it has been located. It is recorded here as those sources’ wording rather than as fact.
Lineage
- Indirect influences
- Rainbow Pride Flag
- Direct children
- Achillean Flag (Simplified Carnation, 2016)
One direct child: the simplified carnation version of September 2016, which keeps this flag’s bands, palette and meanings and redraws the flower for reproduction. [2] [4]
The Sapphic Flag is a counterpart rather than an ancestor, and the connection is documented rather than inferred: both flags appeared in this same post, from the same account, on the same day, each an umbrella identity carrying a flower. [1] Neither is drawn from the other.
The gay men’s seven-stripe and five-stripe flags, the CatColors blue-rose alternate, and the diamoric flag are neighbours in the same corner of the register, not descendants. Achillean is an umbrella that includes bi, pan and other men and male-aligned people; the striped gay men’s flags are narrower, and nothing connects their designs to this one. [3]
Lineage tree
Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 2 records across 2 generations.
- This record
- Achillean Flag (Original, 2016)
Colors & Symbolism
The creator gave two lines of meaning and no more: blue for joy, and the carnation for the flower Victorian men wore on their lapels, popularised by Oscar Wilde, with green indicating gay affiliations. [1] The centre band is not glossed.
| Colour | Hex | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light blue | #99C6EA | “Blue - joy”, in the creator’s own words. [1] Some later reference sites give masculinity instead; that reading is theirs, not the creator’s. | Measured from the creator’s published file, where it fills 66.3 per cent of the image and 31,164 pixels pass a four-neighbour flat-fill test. [1] |
| Green-tinted near-white | #F9FDEA | Not glossed. The creator gives no meaning for the centre band, and none has been located elsewhere. [1] | Measured from the creator’s published file, 30.9 per cent of the image. [1] |
| Carnation green, light | #CBD94D | The lit petals. | Measured. The flower is graded rather than flat, so this is the lightest of its greens rather than a single value. [1] |
| Carnation green, dark | #3C5F18 | The leaves and shadow. | Measured, and the flower’s most common green. [1] |
- Green carnation
- “Worn by victorian men on their lapels, popularized by Oscar Wilde. Green indicating gay affiliations.” [1]
The wording above is the creator’s, from the post itself. [1] The simplified version carries the same composition and the same meanings; its makers changed the drawing, not the reading. [2]
No specification was published, so every value here is a measurement of the creator’s own file. [1]
Two values circulate widely for the bands, #9AC6EB and #FAFDEA, and both are one step high in red and blue against every file the creators published. The measured values are #99C6EA and #F9FDEA, and they are the same in the 2016 original, in the September 2016 simplification and in the 5000 by 3000 file published in October. [1] [2] [4] The circulating pair matches instead the lossy derivatives that reproduce the design: a JPEG rendition of the October artwork measures #9AC6EB and #FBFEEB, and a small WebP copy this database formerly held had drifted further still. The flower is graded and no single green describes it.
Design
- Aspect Ratio
- 296:166 (approximately 16:9), from the creator’s published file
- Ratio Notes
- No proportion is published. The creator’s own file is 296 by 166 pixels, a width to height of 1.783, close to but not exactly 16:9. [1] The 1000 by 561 WebP this entry used to render was an upscaled derivative of it, not a separate artifact.
- Orientation
- horizontal
- Stripe Count
- 3
- Layout
- horizontal_stripes_with_emblem
- Stripes (Top → Bottom)
- Light blue, Green-tinted near-white, Light blue
- Center Symbol
- Detailed green carnation
Three horizontal bands, light blue above and below a green-tinted near-white centre, measured at 33.1, 33.7 and 33.1 per cent of the height. The carnation is drawn rather than vectorised, in graded greens with leaves, and occupies about 18 per cent of the width and 32 per cent of the height, sitting a little left of centre at 46.6 per cent across. [1]
The creator published no specification. The bands and the flower are measured from the file the post serves, 296 by 166 pixels. [1]
A light blue field with a green-tinted near-white band across the middle, carrying a detailed green carnation drawn with leaves. The flower is the subject; the bands are its ground. [1]
Usage & Adoption
- Online Usage
- The creator’s Tumblr post. [1], The Pride-Color-Schemes archive page, which reproduces it beside the simplification. [3]
- Current Status
- Superseded in circulation by the 2016 simplification
What circulates is the simplified carnation rather than this drawing. No independent physical use, event display or organisational adoption of the original composition has been documented.
Image Archive
Primary creator artifact
Successor design
Discourse & Debates
- Whether achillean or vincian is the preferred umbrella term for men and male-aligned people attracted to men. Both circulate; no located source settles it.
Common misidentifications
- Confused with the simplified carnation version, which is a different artifact with its own entry. This one’s flower is drawn and graded; the successor’s is flat. [2]
- Read as a gay-men-only flag. The term is an umbrella that covers bi, pan and other men and male-aligned people attracted to men. [3]
Achillean is not synonymous with gay. The Pride-Color-Schemes page puts it plainly: people who are “bi, pan, ace, etc can also use it”. [3] Who coined the word is not established; that page records the coiner as unknown. [3]
Footnotes & Citations
Sources and footnotes 5 sources
- 1. Social media Sapphic Flag / Achillean Flag. pridenpositivity. Tumblr (2016-06-23). Accessed 2026-08-14 · Archived version
The creator’s own post, presenting the Sapphic and Achillean flags together and giving each one’s meanings. Timestamped 23 June 2016 at 04:19:58 GMT. The account now carries the handle pridenpositivity-blog, and the post is served under that handle.
- 2. Social media Simplified Achillean flag!. Mod Hermy, ask-pride-color-schemes. Tumblr (2016-09-29). Accessed 2026-08-14
The first publication of the simplified carnation, signed by Mod Hermy and crediting help from Face and an anonymous contributor.
- 3. Achillean. Pride-Color-Schemes. Pride-Color-Schemes (Tumblr) (2017-06-24). Accessed 2026-08-14
A later archive page carrying both versions, the definition of the term, the colour meanings, a credit to pridenpositivity for the original and to achilleanking for an upscale, and “Term coined by: Unknown”.
- 4. Social media Achillean. Pride-Flags. DeviantArt (2016-10-05). Accessed 2026-08-14
The simplification republished at 5000 by 3000 under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, with a description crediting pridenpositivity’s design.
- 5. How Oscar Wilde Created a Queer, Mysterious Symbol in Green Carnations. Literary Hub. Accessed 2026-03-12
Cited only for the Wilde tradition the creator’s gloss refers to.
Image Sources
- Rendering
- The creator’s published file, 23 June 2016
- The creator’s published file, placed unaltered at its native size. [1] · Credit: pridenpositivity; flower illustrator unidentified · Tumblr · 296 × 166
- The original as pridenpositivity published it on 23 June 2016: 296 by 166 pixels, bands measuring #99C6EA and #F9FDEA, and a carnation drawn in graded greens. Placed unaltered. No reuse licence located. [1] · Credit: pridenpositivity; flower illustrator unidentified · Tumblr · 296 × 166
- The successor for comparison: the simplified carnation Mod Hermy published on 29 September 2016 with help from Mod Face and an anonymous contributor, shown as a 1000 by 600 derivative of the 5000 by 3000 file. Same bands, same meanings, a redrawn flower. It has its own entry. [2] [4] · Credit: Mod Hermy, with Mod Face and an anonymous contributor, published by Pride-Flags · Successor design