why no purple color/clothes?

[Nythra]

why? was it really rare?

[LoserGirl666]

I haven't noticed this myself but it's interesting. Anyways it was not really rare, no. But there are a lot of myths about blue and purple and these may have lead to design choices. Bright red and true purple were more expensive though. Also colourfast (non staining or bleeding, washable dye) purple was rare. The only such dye being Tyrian purple dye from Tyre, it was made of snail slime and was popular from the classical period onwards but very expensive and immediately recognisable as Tyrian purple. During this game's period cardinals would be wearing it instead of red. Blue was popular and cheap among both classes and available in as many shades as one could wish for. Yellows, greys, browns, greens, oranges, black and various reds were common also. Colours also had weird names that we don't really use anymore like garance, turkils, cramoisy and brassel. Cloth was also boiled in urine and alum with the dyes to "fix" them to the cloth which smelled as nasty as a tannery or worse. But also you must think that peasants did not wear brighter versions of colours that much as it was considered prideful and pride is a sin and people really didn't like sin then. Well they liked to look pious anyway. But I don't know if that's why you aren't seeing purple cloths.

[ChavaiotH]

Originally posted by LoserGirl666:

I haven't noticed this myself but it's interesting. Anyways it was not really rare, no. But there are a lot of myths about blue and purple and these may have lead to design choices. Bright red and true purple were more expensive though. Also colourfast (non staining or bleeding, washable dye) purple was rare. The only such dye being Tyrian purple dye from Tyre, it was made of snail slime and was popular from the classical period onwards but very expensive and immediately recognisable as Tyrian purple. During this game's period cardinals would be wearing it instead of red. Blue was popular and cheap among both classes and available in as many shades as one could wish for. Yellows, greys, browns, greens, oranges, black and various reds were common also. Colours also had weird names that we don't really use anymore like garance, turkils, cramoisy and brassel. Cloth was also boiled in urine and alum with the dyes to "fix" them to the cloth which smelled as nasty as a tannery or worse. But also you must think that peasants did not wear brighter versions of colours that much as it was considered prideful and pride is a sin and people really didn't like sin then. Well they liked to look pious anyway. But I don't know if that's why you aren't seeing purple cloths.

Wow, nice info.

[Eldrin]

Originally posted by Velpecula:

why? was it really rare?

Purple use to be a VERY expensive color. The only way to get it was from asia, which was really hard and time consuming to produce . Even for nobles and royalty getting that color was EXPENSIVE, which is it was considered a noble color.

For the same reason u wont see any country flag in history have purple in it, it would have been WAY to expensive even for a country to but that much purple to get that flag all over their country.
Only now in recent history purple has been made easy to produce.

[TemplarGFX]

Originally posted by LoserGirl666:

But also you must think that peasants did not wear brighter versions of colours that much as it was considered prideful and pride is a sin and people really didn't like sin then.

LOL! No they did not

Very enlightening post! Thanks for sharing :)

[mrjohnson79]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYB-pmNs4VQ

Basically, purple dye was expensive as heck.

[Eldrin]

Originally posted by mrjohnson79:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYB-pmNs4VQ

Basically, purple dye was expensive as heck.

yea that

[Yuo better commit sudoku]

people were actually wearing quite colorful clothes back then, even peasants (aside from purple)

[LoserGirl666]

Purple dyes that were commonly available to lower classes: violet, murrey, cyclas and then any other double dipped cloth such as a cloth bathed in a cheap red dye and then again in a blue like woad. Shades varied. True purple, Tyrian purple was expensive and rare. It ranged from a bright bluish purple to the most common form which is close to what is considered a bright fuschia pink now. Mulberries were common and readily available throughout Europe and used to dye fabrics purple.

[Julius]

Life in a nutshell - it's fashionable/envied/desirable not because it looks good, but because it's expensive and/or wasteful.

[LoserGirl666]

Making medieval dyes, glues, inks and brews like heather ale (and many other interesting products) from authentic recipes is quite fun. More people should do it. All it takes is research and a little effort. Although some things are hard or impossible to obtain and not necessarily because they are out of use. Food companies use up most of the available supply of insects for insect based dyes which are still very common. Starbucks just recently stopped using crushed beetles (cochineal) in their strawberry drinks, for example. Other things are hard to have handy like fish mouth parts which are used in some adhesives. But I still recommend it. Try brewing an ale and see.

[kookroach]

Originally posted by Velpecula:

why? was it really rare?

The bavarian gambeson is purpur ..but expansive

[Nythra]

During the Roman Empire didn't the Iberians or Hispanis had a purple banner? and that wasn't a Tyrian purple . i remember in the TV series Rome during the first episode they show a purple banner.

[LoserGirl666]

There was lots of purple dye and even back in the classical period (when they made some of the best stuff humanity ever made btw) they knew that red plus blue equals purple. Only colourfast, high quality straight purples were rare. Why does this myth perpetuate? 2500 years ago a mathemetician figured out the earth was round using a f#cking angled stick and a piece of string and was able to fairly accurately measure the curvature of the earth and the circumference of the friggin planet but these are the same people we all seem to think are so retarded and ass backwards that they can't figure out things like secondary colours?