6 colours and dyes
TRANSCRIPT
HISTORY OF FASHION AND CLOTHING
COLOURS AND DYES AND THE DETRIUS OF GAS WORKS –FROM THE MADONNA TO
POISON GAS
Fakenham (Norfolk) A peculiar place to start
GASLIGHT: A WONDER OF VICTORIAN BRITAIN
WILLIAM HENRY PERKIN 1856
SOME THINGS ARE JUST A BLACK AND WHITE WORLD Filmgoers of the
pre-colour era saw nothing peculiar in watching their favourites in Black and White.
Early TV was the same.
War was Black and White Did the impact on
early 20th century viewers rival the impact that colour has today on us?
Colour has Changed our perspectives Would Vietnam in
Black and White have the impact on us that monochrome film had on a previous generation?
PERKIN AND MAUVEAniline Blue: Magenta: Solferino Yellow
Victorian Life Became a Blaze of Gaudy Colour with the display of the Crinoline Cage
That Crinoline
COLOUR IS NOT JUST DECORATION: IT COMMUNICATES ‘THINGS’ AND MESSAGES
The Scarlet Woman: Scandalous behavior not to be allowed in civilized society. Don’t worry about the person as the colour says it all
Dressed like a Meringue, And we think past fashion is silly?
DOES THIS WEDDING OUTFIT SAY ANTHING?
A Bride in a black dress communicates a very different message to us at this time.
WHITE IS LATE VICTORIAN INNOCENCE AND PURITY
MID VICTORIAN PURITY After Perkin’s discovery.
Women who married were assumed to be virtuous so had no need of a display of white.
Victorian mourning stationery had black and silver edges to represent the purity of the unmarried. (Did marriage mean you were now not pure?)
HUGE COLOUR CODES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD (EYGYPT) RED chaos and disorder – colour of the
desert. red ochre, was obtained from the desert. Destructive fire and fury, used to represent something dangerous .The colour of the god Seth, the traditional god of chaos, and was associated with death – the desert where people were exiled or sent to work in mines.
BLUE the heavens, the dominion of the gods, as well as water, used for the hair of gods ( lapis lazuli, or the darkest of Egyptian blues) and for the face of the god Amun
Green fresh growth, vegetation, new life, and resurrection, the colour of the 'Eye of Horus healing and protective powers, and so the colour also represented well-being. To do 'green things' was to do behave in a positive, life affirming manner.
Black the colour of the life-giving silt left by the Nile the colour of Osiris the resurrected god of the dead,
White, purity, sacredness, cleanliness..
Colour of Courtly Love
Green when smitten but cannot declare
White declared but had no answer
Bright red an affirmative answer
BACK TO MORE RECENT TIMES Status in White (Veblen)
Crisp White as Authority(Colonial Starched White) Before the Germ
Theory (Koch) medical men wore black clothes. It was Germs that turned doctors into shining God like figures.
Nurses uniforms originated from maids
But we do trust Doctors Because of the Look?
Black is Dramatic and Professional Dressed Court in
Burgundy Red and the Black as a sign of the wealth of his Kingdom
Before Aniline Dye Black was very expensive and not colour fast.
Would you want to be represented by a Lawyer or Accountant wearing a yellow suit?
After Aniline Dyes the Cult of Mourning
The Depth of Fashion Hell
Black Ascot Races of 1910.
Death of Edward VII and half of European Monarchy.
Vivienne Lee & Follower Blanche & The Red Kimono Red is passion
and heat, strength and vitality.
Sexual passion: Scarlet woman, Scarlet letter, Red Blooded, Red Lipstick.
A Really Bad Sign
That Hair Colour
Allegory of Virtue and Vice (Hercules)
Paolo Veronese (1580)
Judas and that Hair Judas widely shown
as having red hair and this struck by the devil. Particularly in German. (Isgarot) rot = red
Pigments fade to red. Organic red from
insects so very expensive. Cochineal 70,000 insects made 454 kg of Dye
Poor red from Madder
Red was Power in Portrait Henry in full
Majesty
Gold is wealth Grey is truth and
Constance Red is Power
RED is force and power and change. (‘Miniature’ from Minium-Italian for Red Lead- used to paint book of hours)
Pink is Feminine
Or is it?
Or was it?
Victorian romantic Valentines in Pink, nasty cards in Red.
Blue for a Girl: Pink for a Boy
Meanings Do Change
Around 1780
Duchess of Athol and her Children
But this Pink is New and Feminine
COLOURS WERE SO IMPORTANT
The Samaritan Woman at the Well
(John 4: 1-42) Bernat Martorell
(1445-1452)
Note Yellow Dress
That Guy Again
Judas in his yellow cloak
Yellow Cowardice. Leprosy, Outcasts,
Whores. On Victorian prints
denoted jealousy
Blamed for Everything (Particularly when Striped) Tights on men
especially striped with yellow blamed for the Black Death
‘Barred’ Friars (Carmelites)
Jesters and Traveling Fair people were outside society.
Dangers of Yellow, Red and Green Medieval thought
was not that colours were part of white light. Colours were apart and had value.
Yellow the colour of covetousness, hunger, death and cowardice.
Yellow worn by ‘outsiders’
A BAD SIGN To wear yellow was also
a statement against others. Also close to gold in tint.
Yellow eyes the sign of cruelty
4th Lateran Council (1215) made it compulsory for Jews to be marked with a yellow badge.
Also adulterous women and executioners
STRIPES JUST COMPOUND THE SITUATION Green and Yellow
denote folly, people with no power or reason.
Yellow and red stripes meld to orange which is only one step from red.
A King Painted as Only a King Could be! Charles V Spain 1532 TITIAN
Gold and Silver used for Princes and Very Powerful Patrons.
Religious Images Required the Most Expensive Dyes and Tints
The Wilton Diptych, depicting Richard II being presented by three saints to the Virgin and Child
1377-99 Personal alter piece for the King
The Madonna
A Study in Gold and Lapis Blue (Ultra Marine)
In Dutch paintings she is Red as the most expensive tint they made (Van Eyk 1436)
Blue is the Colour Most of us are
Winters Colour of
Harmony, honesty, faith and true love.
As black tents to blue it becomes more honest and hard working.
Imperial Purple and Tallit Dye from Shellfish.
Banned to the mass of the population.
TORAH: And they shall put upon the fringe of the corner a thread of Tachaylet (Purple Dyed Wool)
Irony is that this was Perkin’s first colour which changed the whole significance of the colour.
Arnolfini Wedding (Van Eyk) 1434 And she is not
pregnant – it is the fashion of the day
A Mass of coded social signals.
Green and earth and fertility colour. Self respect and well being
Also the colour of Mohmmed.
Jack in the Green Pagan Fertility
(Green Giant?)
Renewal and fertility
But also changing nature of seasons and fickleness of chance
A Good Story When it rained
Robin would have had green legs.
Will Scarlet would have to be very rich to wear that colour
Poor people wore white or washed out browns and blues from woad.
But Brown got Waylaid Fertility colour
made from Alum and Elderberry wine dregs
Brown shirts not SS (Black)
They were the Nazi Party
COLONIES (Logwood)
COLONIES (Indigo)
JET BLACK
Aspirin: Saccharin: Photo Film: Dyes: Fertilizer
AND TWO VITAL PRODUCTS FOR WWI WAR EFFORT
Perkin’s Work at a ZenithPerkin’s Work in Dismay All Part of the
Same Dyestuff Chemistry
Fritz Haber: humanitarian to architect of death
I.G.Farben
Another Set of Colours with Meanings
HISTORY OF FASHION AND CLOTHING
COLOURS AND DYES AND THE DETRIUS OF GAS WORKS –FROM THE MADONNA TO
POISON GAS