

Instead of a useful medicine, he discovered the first aniline dye, in lovely shade of mauve. This all changed one spring day in London in 1856, when teenager William Henry Perkin, a student at the Royal College of Chemistry, was trying to find synthetic quinine to treat malaria. These lacked the vibrancy of the rare and expensive purples dyes, and faded easily.

13'5" x 5'5" (409 x 165 cm)īefore the invention of synthetic purple dye, the closest thing the masses could get to purple were dyes made with blackberry juice. Throughout history, the combination of scarceness and beauty have made purple textiles highly sought after.īerber #15094. However, as wonderful as purple is, it is very difficult to capture in a stable natural dye, a fact that has added to its rarified reputation. Some of the most beloved, albeit ephemeral flowers lilac, iris, violet, and lavender are known for their own particular shades of purple.

It is one of the rarest colors in the natural world, which may be one of the reasons that it has often been associated with the exceptional, noble and sacred. Purple has always been a color of both provocation and inspiration. helps us to embrace this altered landscape of possibilities, opening us up to a new vision as we rewrite our lives.” According to Pantone, the color expresses “carefree confidence and a daring curiosity that animates our creative spirit, inquisitive and intriguing. Pantone has selected Very Peri, for its 2022 color of the year.
