1. A retrieval method comprising: a) for each of at least one reference image, providing a reference image representation which has been generated by embedding color name descriptors for patches of the reference image into a feature space, each color name descriptor including an element for each of the color names in the set of color names; b) for each of at least one color name in a set of color names, providing a color name representation which has been generated by embedding a synthesized color name descriptor in the same feature space as the reference images, each synthesized color name descriptor including an element for each of the color names in the set of color names, each embedded synthesized color name descriptor having a same number of dimensions as each of the reference image representations; c) receiving a query comprising at least one of: a color name selected from the set of color names, and a query image; d) for a query which includes a color name, retrieving the respective color name representation; e) for a query which includes a query image, providing a query image representation which has been generated by embedding color name descriptors for the query image in the multidimensional feature space; f) computing a similarity between: at least one of the at least one reference image representations, and at least one of the color name representation and the query image representation; and g) outputting information based on the computed similarity, wherein at least one of a), b), c), d), e), f), and g) is performed with a processor.