Purple silk incomplete bodice with eight covered buttons embroidered with leaves. Made in the late 1800s.

Length 590mm, width 550mm.

Purple was the most expensive colour to achieve for centuries before 1856. It was made using snails, where thousands of creatures were needed for just one gram of dye. Queen Elizabeth I even made it illegal to wear except for close royal family members.

Muted purples derived from lichens were available, but all natural purple dyes faded very quickly, so they were expensive to buy and to wear. The first aniline dye was Perkins’ ‘mauveine,’ which he discovered in 1856. It was the first synthetic dye to be patented for mass production.

This bodice is an example of the purple craze that swept Britain, Europe and North America at the time. At first, aniline dyes would only work on wools and silks, which kept purple to wealthier citizens. After it was made to saturate cotton, it was then made available to the masses.

These bright colours were labelled ‘gaudy’ and were ridiculed by newspapers and caricaturists – Punch called it the ‘mauve measles’ in 1859. But why did it matter?

By wearing purple, middle-classes were suddenly able to display a traditional symbol of greater wealth. The sudden change from muted and demure to vibrant and eye-catching clothing gave ‘ornamental’ women a loud visual voice. Working-class women could afford purple ribbons and embellishments which they added to their clothing and hats. It was taken by some as a threat to status, leading to questions about what these changes meant for other divisions of society.

It was incredibly popular, seen everywhere. Fashion, the ‘realm of women’, was in fact powerful – and it was disrupting the laws of society.