Wearing Purple

(A "keeper" posting from the North Road, posted Aug 2006.)

Concerning the concept of "only royalty may wear purple":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_purple ... the Tyrian hue ... is considered of the best quality when it has exactly the colour of clotted blood, and is of a blackish hue to the sight, but of a shining appearance when held up to the light; hence it is that we find Homer speaking of "purple blood." and another link with the colour http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/royal_purple

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/08/royal_purple.html Why was purple considered the royal color? The answer lies in economics not in aesthetics. Purple is rare in nature. A Toga's worth of Tyrian purple die, about 1.5 grams, required the beating, drying and extracting of mucus from the hypobranchial gland of some twelve thousand Murex mollusks. - to wear purple, therefore, was to show off your great wealth.

and of course the An Tir sumptuary laws

There is NOTHING in the laws about anyone being able to wear any colour, or not any colour other than white belts, baldrics and scarves. Any other colour is "customary" and not sumptuary.

The "purple is reserved for royalty" is a mundane thing and honestly, went out of fashion generations ago. And it wasn't purple, but a deep red purple hue. The wiki page has an approximate reference for it, but even then it isn't quite right.

If we are all "nobility" as it is assumed, then wearing purple shows off our "wealth."

Yolanda de Guelph