I am thinking ahead to making a new outfit of a middle class sort, and the color purple is playing in my creative mind. Why? Because it is that color that everyone avoids in every shade and fiber, even if the historical basis is "None shall wear in his apparel cloth of gold or silver tissued, *silk of color purple* under the degree of an earl, except Knights of the Garter in their purple mantles only" (emphasis mine).~ From Elizabeth I's Decrees (1597 statue of apparel) (Note that Henry VIII's statute that I've found somewhere in my books also includes blue silk.)

I am thinking a purple wool for a kirtle or gown, tending more to the red than the blue, but purple none-the-less. In my area most groups subscribe to the NO PURPLE rule of CIRGA, and while I do have a lovely purple silk damask, I do not plan on wearing purple silk, just purple wool.

Why I bring this up here is... this is one area where we have not corrected the misperceptions at any event I know of. The theatrical perspective is NO on Purple, except for the Monarch. But rarely do I see the Monarch wearing purple, and it is usually purple velvet sometimes silk, and it is obviously the Monarch from all the bling on said monarch.

Is this something that you folks think can be finally dispensed with? We have the Tudor Tailor book, and there is a great image of ladies doing their wash (pg 47), and one is wearing a purple gown, another with a purple skirt (or perhaps it is a shade of violet). They even discuss the color of purple being made with woad and madder for the humbler folks, or a finer version dyed "in grain" using either kermes or cochineal (pg 41). Or is this more a theatrical decision that shall remain among those who enforce theatrical fabric choices?

I await your thoughts and discussion on this.