diff --git a/jupyter_console/app.py b/jupyter_console/app.py
index e437fb4..9596d4d 100644
--- a/jupyter_console/app.py
+++ b/jupyter_console/app.py
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ aliases = dict(aliases)
 frontend_aliases = dict(app_aliases)
 # load updated frontend flags into full dict
 aliases.update(frontend_aliases)
+aliases['colors'] = 'InteractiveShell.colors'
 
 # get flags&aliases into sets, and remove a couple that
 # shouldn't be scrubbed from backend flags: