Okay, who’s ready to read a long ass post about color in history, specifically regarding THE SHIRT, and its scandalous nature?? Inspired by this gorgeous GIFset from @lighthouse-on-the-sea. Thank you for giving me the idea to spend my entire afternoon writing this!
I’m going to be writing this under the idea that we really do not know what time period BBC Merlin is meant to be set. Arthurian legend is commonly thought to have existed in the 5th-6th century, but our beloved show has things that could have it set anywhere from the 6th century to the 14th century. Like, knights didn’t really appear until the 8th century, jousting in the 10th century, and we won’t even talk about the amount of non-religious books on that show. Because there’s just no way. But I’m getting off track here. Alright, so the reasons Merlin’s shirt would have caused a scandal are many.
Let’s start with the first one. Purple, as most people probably know, was considered a royal color. What they might not know is why. Tyrian purple, also called Imperial purple, was literally only available to the richest of the rich. Why? Because it came from teeny, tiny mollusks. Specifically, the mucus of said mollusks. I know, ew, right?? These were found in the Mediterranean and had been used for thousands of years by the Phoenicians and Romans, before falling out of use round about the 14th century. So why was it so expensive?? Well, that’s mainly because it took upwards of about 10,000 of these little mollusks to get just 1 gram of dye. Think about the amount of dyestuffs and labor in that number. I worked as a textile artist, specifically a dyer, for many years, and I can tell you even for a simple shirt it would have taken probably AT LEAST three to four times that amount for color this vibrant. It was also extremely colorfast. This meant it wouldn’t fade very much over time. A quality still prized in dye.
Let’s move onto the next thing because you may think, well, there are other ways to create purple. Of course, you’re correct. You could do a double-dip by first dyeing with madder (red) and then with woad (blue), which were both extremely common dyestuffs in that time period. I actually still use both in my dye studio today. However, his combo would create a more muted, mauve-y purple, instead of a bright, clear purple like Merlin’s shirt. Even so, it’s a possibility. And while it would have indeed been much cheaper, it still would have been something Merlin couldn’t have afforded on his own. Dyeing cloth back then was quite labor intensive AND resource heavy. I can say this with certainty because natural, or traditional, dyeing is STILL those things. There’s a very good reason commercial dyes were invented. In fact, I’m currently working on a long-term fanARTifact, which was dyed in the traditional manner with madder, and I will talk all about that lengthy process when I finally finish it. But for now just know that the lower classes did not get the “first dip” (the brightest and most sought after colors), and would instead get the second or third dip that would have been the more muted shades we think of today for peasant and working classes from the Middle Ages. Hmm, come to think of it, Merlin sure wears A LOT of vibrant colors, doesn’t he…
Point number three is the Sumptuary laws. This is something I learned about while working with @tehfanglyfish on our collab fic, and she kindly allowed me to harass tell her all about this stuff when deciding on the order of the dresses. What the hell are Sumptuary laws, you may ask? Basically, they were meant to “regulate and reinforce social hierarchies and morals through restrictions on clothing, food, and luxury expenditures, often depending on a person’s social rank.” A way to not only separate the classes but to make it obvious what your standing was. They go all the way back to the Roman era and have existed in different iterations all over the world throughout history. Purple would have definitely been a HELL NO for Merlin’s station.
So! Here’s Merlin. He’s a servant, a high-ranking servant, yes, but still a servant. And he’s wearing this shirt which would, at worst, be worth more than what every servant in that castle would make in their entire lifetime COMBINED, or, at best, still come from someone with far more money than him. It must have been a gift from Arthur, and hand-me-down or not, it’s a shirt that makes a loud statement that he is in seriously high favor, and possibly a signal that he is Arthur’s favorite. Think of the ramifications. Better yet, think of Uther’s face when this skinny little idiot comes strolling into the hall one night with this shirt on. Like. He would have spat out his wine immediately and probably had a bit of a conniption in front of the entire court. It would not have been a subtle thing. The entire castle would have been all atwitter. Did Merlin know all this?? Ehhh, he is a bit of a doofus from an extremely small village. He’d likely never seen a color like this. Did Arthur tell him what it meant (because Arthur would have known)?? Did the other servants look at him with awe, or with disdain? Did he wear it proudly, knowing exactly what he was doing because he’s a hot shit?? Who’s to say. But no matter how you slice it? SCANDALOUS! If you made it this far, congratulations. You now know way more than you ever wanted to know about historical fashion.
