In the 19th c., in addition to wories about keeping pale colours
clean, there were also colour tabus, especially among the less
well-off - Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford is quite
illuminating on these. (Green brought bad luck, only a hussy would
wear red, black was associated with mourning - though it was a
convenient colour because the likelihood would be that you would be
in mourning quite a lot of the time, pink was only worn by young
girls on the whole). Blue, purple and grey were acceptable, however.
I'm sure Mark Holtgrefe is right about the availability of dyes
having something to do with choice of colour, but it's equally
possible that the dye merchants thought about what the public wanted
to wear. Julia Barrow
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 14:15:00 EDT
Subject: Re: White Weddings
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
In a message dated 99-06-07 13:17:30 EDT, you write:
<< I believe, although this is very fuzzy, that the modern western tradition
of
wearing white is a Victorian development. But there I'm happy to be
contradicted since I'm unsure. >>
Some years ago I was told that the color all Victorian brides felt compelled
to wear was mauve. Interestingly, I was also told that this was the
preferred color at funerals. I think the teller of these facts, if they are
indeed facts, was pointing out some hidden association of these transitional
events. More than likely it was that mauve was one of the new fashionable
colors produced by coal tar.
mark
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