Shadow and bone and signature colors
This is not an study, just a series of random observations born because i like the concept of signature colors.
Okay, on the Grishaverse canon there is such a thing as color coding but it has more to do with military rank and grisha order than the characters themselves which is why i dare to say that even if we relate all of them with one, the only characters that i consider have a signature color in book canon are The darkling, Kaz (both black) and Zoya (blue) and you could make a case for green for Pekka Rollins, show canon has the same with Kaz and the darkling being black, and Inej’s being teal (present in her two most prominent outfits and while it’s technically an uniform as well,the production team could have gone with another color ) but not with Zoya (see the headcanons part) nor Pekka Rollins who never wears green on the show , or at least nothing memorable
Now the next brainstorming will be overanalysis , don’t take it too seriously, this ones are headcanons and will change if there is a new season or a word from the production than goes against the argument
Alina doesn’t really have a signature color on the books in my opinion, she mostly wears uniforms , you can make a case for gold but this is mostly in universe logic, the keftas follow the color of the grisha class. If someone has an argument for this i would love to hear. But to me signature color means what the author/writers choose to represent the character and if Alina wasn’t the only sun summoner for most of the book, then the color would represent the powes,not her. Doesn’t mean there is only one color for character, they can and will repeat, many characters can have the same signature color but individually it’s “their color”
ex: book!Zoya’s signature color is blue even if the other etherealki wear it too, in fact tidemakers wear more blue than squallers, there’s lines of “no woman has looked better in blue” her eye color, her hair being so black it looks blue on certain light and the iconic blue ribbon, blue may be the color of other grisha but it’s also a color that represents Zoya
Now speaking of blue and back to Alina, i think the show is secretly pushing for Alina’s color to be blue. Secretly because the gold may fool you but remember this is about her and not the powers (remember this is mostly headcanons and out of fun, this is the opposite of what the scientific method should be because i am applying theory to observation instead of the other way around)
The blue kefta is book canon and i like to think the costume design rolled with it. All of this outfits have blue (or bluish tones, the dress is leaning more into teal) and gold. This also are important moments of her life, the first time she discovered her sun summoner powers (the scarf even flies away to symbolize the change) the first thing we see her wearing without a cape after setting herself free from the darkling’s control and taking the life changing (and book changing) desition of taking him down on her own terms, the thing she wears after killing the darkling and destroying the fold and the dress she wears when she and we find out (unless season 3 confirms she already knew) she got shadow summoner powers.
To me it could be like this: the gold is the sun summoner everyone sees for her powers, the blue is Alina Starkov herself.
Gonna make a part two for other characters but i would love to see opinions, disagreements, other headcanons,etc
Edit: something that i forgot to add that’s extremely important
Sure, the uniforms are made for more people than Alina but clearly on production the first thought was “This is what Alina will be wearing” and from her, they did the clothing for everyone else