Only a very small number of people could afford purple robes, and depending on where you were, an even smaller number could be allowed to wear it.įor hundreds of years, there were “sumptuary laws,” restrictions on what sort of people could wear some kinds of finery. No surprise, then, that for most of history, it was a color for elites and royals: Roman generals at their triumph, Byzantine Emperors, medieval queens and kings. Another says a pound of purple-dyed wool was worth a pound of gold. One ancient source says it took ten thousand mollusks just to get enough dye for the hem of a garment. The Phoenicians found out that the ink from a particular kind of shellfish could be used to color cloth a vivid purple shade, which became known as Tyrian purple. Tough in this sense: until the last couple of centuries, almost nobody could afford the dyes. Not tough in the sense of how it looks on you, although color experts will tell you it is difficult to find the right undertone.
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