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The dye obtained did not easily adhere to fabrics, making purple fabrics expensive. Purple became a fashionable color in the state of Qi (齊, 1046 BC–221 BC) because its ruler, Duke Huan of Qi, developed a preference for it. As a result, the price of purple fabric was over five times that of plain fabric.
Because it was extremely tedious to make, Tyrian purple was expensive: the 4th century BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor. The expense meant that purple-dyed textiles became status symbols , whose use was restricted by sumptuary laws .
Throughout the Regal, Republican, and Imperial eras, the fastest, most expensive and sought-after dye was imported Tyrian purple, obtained from the murex. Its hues varied according to processing, the most desirable being a dark "dried-blood" red. Purple had long-standing associations with regality, and with the divine.
Byzantine silk is silk woven in the Byzantine Empire (Byzantium) from about the fourth century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. The Byzantine capital of Constantinople was the first significant silk-weaving center in Europe. Silk was one of the most important commodities in the Byzantine economy, used by the state both as a means of ...
[page needed] Yellow dyed clothing has been found to be associated with a woman's life cycle. [page needed] The elite typically wore purple as a sign of wealth and money as it was the most expensive dye due to the difficulty in acquiring it. [page needed] The ancient Greeks also embroidered designs into their clothes as a form of decoration.
The middle class could usually afford to dye their wool colours like blue and green. The wealthy could afford to add elaborate designs to their clothing as well as dying it red and black, expensive colours for the time. Purple was also considered a colour of royalty and was reserved for kings or religious figures such as the pope.
Color is a visual characteristic that is described by terms like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple etc. Typically, it is the color of an object that attracts the most attention. [6] Color is one of the primary properties that is noticed when a consumer makes a decision to buy a dress. The colors are distinctive and distinguishable; we ...
Even basic clothes appear to have been surprisingly expensive for the poor. Some manual workers, probably slaves, are shown continuing to wear, at least in summer, the basic Roman slip costume which was effectively two rectangles sewn together at the shoulders and below the arm.
At the time, all dyes used for colouring cloth were natural substances, many of which were expensive and labour-intensive to extract—and many lacked stability, or fastness. The colour purple, which had been a mark of aristocracy and prestige since ancient times, was especially expensive and difficult to produce.
In the 18th century, purple was a color worn by royalty, aristocrats and other wealthy people. Good-quality purple fabric was too expensive for ordinary people. The first cobalt violet, the intensely red-violet cobalt arsenate, was highly toxic. Although it persisted in some paint lines into the 20th century, it was displaced by less toxic ...