Colors to Dye For
Saffron yellow
Images: Buddhist monks, Gabriela Hearst, David Koma, Rejina Pyo, Oscar De La Rentae, Christian Siriano
Saffron, and the dye distilled from its stigmas, has been widely used across various civilizations. The spice, which has at times been worth more than its weight in gold, has been used as a seasoning, fragrance, dye, and medicine for over 50,000 years. The first traces of its pigments exist in prehistoric cave paintings found in present-day Iraq. Although the plant is native to Southwest Asia, it was first cultivated in Greece about 3,000 years ago, and palace frescoes in Bronze Age Minoan Crete contain imagery of the saffron harvest.
The golden-colored, water soluble dye made from the saffron stigma was of special import in India, where it has been used in ancient times. The dye was so popular that, after the death of Siddharta Gautama (the Buddha), Buddhist monks made it the official color of priests’ robe, and the color is one of three on the Indian flag. Saffron remains the most expensive spice in the world due to its labor-intensive cultivation. A single saffron crocus only produces three thin stigmas once per year, which must be removed by hand and carefully toasted to dry.
Arsenic green
Images: empress eugenie in a green dress, arsenic dyed dress from the victorian era, Vivienne Westwood, Monique Lhuiller
In 1775, Carl Wilhelm Scheele mixed a vibrant green dye out of a mixture of sodium carbonate, copper sulfide, and, the special ingredient, arsenic. Despite knowing the potentially dangerous nature of the color, it was put on the market soon after. This arsenic-based dye was cheap to produce and mimicked the greens of nature more closely than any other dye. As the romanticization of rural life was “in” at the time in London, fake flowers and clothing made with this color took off. The color was additionally popularized by Empress Eugenie, the “it girl” of the era, who had a penchant for bright greens. While the wearers of arsenic green clothing only suffered rashes and occasional sore throats, the working-class women who painted with the color suffered from headaches, nosebleeds, and sores on their hands. A couple of women even died of arsenic poisoning, and as the UK government declined to regulate the industry, women made it a social cause and campaigned to ban the use of the color. Various women’s groups published scientific information on the dangers of arsenic-dyed greens, and eventually were successful in phasing out the use of arsenic, which was replaced by cobalt-based greens. By the late 1800’s, it was considered in bad taste to wear bright greens due to its connection to the deadly toxin.
Crimson
Images: Louis Vuitton 2020, Rodarte 2018, Chanel 2019, Rodarte 2019, Givenchy 2020, Marni 2019
Crimson, the author’s absolute favorite color, was originally made with dried kermes, a type of small insect that feeds on evergreen oaks. However, the dye eventually was produced with cochineal, a red dye powder made from the pulverized bodies of cactus-eating insects native to tropical and subtropical America. It takes 70,000 insects to produce one pound of cochineal, and the process involves brushing the insects off of the cacti and killing them with boiling water or exposing them to sunlight, steam, or an oven. Because of its laborious nature, in Elizabethan England, crimson red was associated with royalty and nobility. Legally, only certain citizens were allowed to wear the color. It has been a highly prized dye throughout history, used in the fabrics of the Hussars, Turks, British Redcoats, and the Canadian Mounted Police. Crimson is the national color of Nepal and appears on its flag. While today crimson is created using synthetic dyes, cochineal is still used in cosmetics and beverages.
Ultramarine
Images: Balenciaga 2020, Marni 2020, Y/Project 2020, Commes des Garcons 2020
The color ultramarine was originally created with lapis, a semiprecious stone mined in Afghanistan. The bright, distinctive nature of lapis is unique as it is a color not commonly found in nature. The color and stone became highly prized by Egyptians, who spread the color throughout the world, and it is seen in Persian, Mesoamerican, and Roman civilizations. Ultramarine has been used in artwork from Egyptian tomb paintings to the Renaissance works of Rafael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. Originally, only royalty could afford blue clothing, but blue eventually spread to the common man in the year 431 AD. During this year, the Catholic Church color-coded saints, assigning the Virgin Mary a navy blue. This move painted blue in a positive light, and the color was adopted by military and police forces as a representation of trustworthiness. Lapis blue was eventually replaced by indigo, a dye synthesized from the indigo plant, or with China blue, a synthetic barium copper silicate pigment used in ancient and imperial China.
