Jul 5
Historical Fashion: Purple (In Antiquity)
“The color purple and its association with the Roman Emperors is due to vast expense of producing clothing made of such a color. The purple color was produced from an extremely expensive dye called Tyrian purple which originated in Tyre in Lebanon. The Phoenicians owned the monopoly on this purple dye which was made by crushing thousands of sea shells - Mediterranean Murex. It took 10,000 murex to dye just one toga! This purple dye was worth more than its weight in gold came to symbolise both the wealth and power of the Roman emperors.” [x]
