The colour-fast (non-fading) dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans, who used it to colour ceremonial robes.

11 Best Clothing Dye Reviews in 2023 [Latest Picks] - TextileTuts 11 Best Clothing Dye Reviews in 2023 [Latest Picks] - TextileTuts

The sea snail harvested at this western Moroccan dye production facility was Hexaplex trunculus, also known by the older name Murex trunculus. In the CMYK color model used in modern printing, purple is made by combining magenta pigment with either cyan pigment, black pigment, or both. In optics, violet is a spectral color; it refers to the color of any different single wavelength of light on the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum, between approximately 380 and 450 nanometers, [55] whereas purple is the color of various combinations of red, blue, and violet light, [47] [52] some of which humans perceive as similar to violet. Scientists have even found evidence about the first natural reds and oranges in tombs back to 2600BC.From the Middle Ages onward, purple dyes for the clothing of common people were often made from the blackberry or other red fruit of the genus rubus, or from the mulberry. In Victorian times, close relatives wore black for the first year following a death ("deep mourning"), and then replaced it with purple or dark green trimmed with black. The chemical composition of the dye from the murex is close to that of the dye from indigo, and indigo was sometimes used to make a counterfeit Tyrian purple, a crime which was severely punished.

Dye For: A history of natural and synthetic dyes To Dye For: A history of natural and synthetic dyes

With all the delicate elegance of Grace Kelly, you’ll find Peony Pink has a gentle charm worthy of any blushing beauty. According to his account, while walking along the shore with the nymph Tyrus, the god's dog bit into a murex shell, causing his mouth to turn purple. The lower band of the flag of the second Spanish republic (1931–39) was colored a tone of purple, to represent the common people as opposed to the red of the Spanish monarchy, unlike other nations of Europe where purple represented royalty and red represented the common people.

The term used for purple in the 4th-century Latin Vulgate version of the Bible passage is purpura or Tyrian purple. In the year 2000, a gram of Tyrian purple made from ten thousand mollusks according to the original formula cost two thousand euros. Tyrian purple ( Ancient Greek: πορφύρα porphúra; Latin: purpura), also known as, royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish- purple natural dye.