Colours in Fashion: viii. Purple

Purple is considered a secondary colour, created by blending the primary colours red and blue. It is positioned opposite yellow on the colour wheel, the third primary colour.
A fuchsia-purple or plum-purple hue contains more red than blue, while a violet-purple or indigo-purple shade contains more blue than red.
Throughout history, purple has been linked with royalty, wealth, mystery, sorcery, spirituality and faith.
Derived from ancient Indian Vedic scriptures, chakras are currently utilised in Vedic customs like yoga. The indigo hue symbolises the 'Ajna' third eye chakra located between the eyebrows, visually representing our intuition and associated with tranquility, insight, forbearance and spirituality.
Violet symbolises the 'Sahasrara' crown chakra situated at the crown of the head, visually representing our spiritual essence and connection to the external world. It is linked to universal awareness and our relationship to a higher authority.

Tyrian purple dye, originally created by the Phoenicians in the sixteenth Century BC, was highly valued in ancient times. Roman magistrates wore purple and it later became the Imperial colour for rulers of the Byzantine and Holy Roman Empire, as well as for Catholic bishops.
In Japan, purple symbolises aristocracy and the Emperor. The deep purple shade known as 'Murasaki' was traditionally reserved for the elite. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1952 wearing a lavish purple cloak and the colour was also incorporated into the commemorative details of her Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
In the nineteenth Century, various soft purples gained popularity: magenta, due to the introduction of new synthetic aniline dyes derived from indigo; mauve from the chemical quinine, notably worn by Queen Victoria; heliotrope worn by women in mourning and violet, favoured by Impressionist painters who used it alongside pastels to create a refreshing atmosphere in their artworks.
Purple, green and white were adopted as the official colours of the Suffragette movement in 1908, with purple representing loyalty and dignity.
The Psychedelic movement of the late 1960s, characterised by progressive rock music and hallucinatory drugs, embraced purple in art and fashion, especially in multi-colour swirls, possibly to evoke a sense of mystery or magic, or as a nod to the Victorian and Edwardian styles that were influencing the current fashions.