But why? Was it the vivid hue, the stately but sedate shade? Or was it simply a matter of rarity that made purple exclusive only to sovereigns?
Back before modern paints and dyes were discovered, the only way to get that signature purple color was to open up a rare sea
snail named the Bolinus Brandaris and extract the purple essence- it can take over 250,000 of these mollusks to get one ounce of usable dye, making clothes dyed with ‘Tyrian Purple’ cost more than most people earn in a single year. This trend continued throughout the years, with other restrictions such as Queen Elizabeth the first forbidding anybody other than royalty from wearing purple.
It was only in 1858 when a synthetic purple dye was created by accident, when a chemist was attempting to find an anti-malaria drug, only to realize that the compound dyed clothes in a purple hue. This allowed the market for purple to spread like a drop of violet dye on a white cloth. But the connotations of purple being a rich color reserved for the rich remained.
Nowadays, you can simply buy purple paint places such as Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams and local hardware stores, for that touch of nobility in your house.