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.

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.

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

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: Sacharin: Photo Film: Dyes

Perkin’s Work at a ZenithPerkin’s Work in Dismay All Part of the

Same Dyestuff Chemistry

Paul Ehrlich

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