Color is the cost of dye
Fabric itself is colorless, so everything depends on the dye. To get a rich, lasting shade, you need raw materials, time, and a skilled dyer. The difference between a cheap color and an expensive one could be hundreds of times, turning a shade into a message about its wearer.
As long as dye came from nature, a bright color was impossible to fake. It worked like a price tag visible from far away.
Yellow has a separate story. In some cities, people whom authorities wanted to set apart from everyone else were required to wear it, and the color gained a bad reputation not because of the dye, but because of its assigned purpose. This was no longer about price, but about marking people.
When color was dictated by law
In medieval and early modern cities, sumptuary laws were in force: they determined which fabrics and colors different people could wear. Officially, they were justified as a concern for morals; in practice, they protected the boundary between social classes from newly wealthy townspeople.
These laws worked poorly. Merchants found ways around them, while authorities regularly reissued the bans, a sure sign that people were breaking them. Even so, the attempt itself shows how seriously color was taken as a sign.
Why it all ended
In the middle of the nineteenth century, a chemistry student accidentally produced the first bright synthetic dye while trying to synthesize a medicine. Within a few decades, cheap, long-lasting colors in every shade had appeared, and the link between color and wealth was broken.
From then on, status had to be shown in other ways: through cut, fabric, brand, and appropriateness. Color remained only in uniforms and ceremonies, where its meaning is assigned by rules rather than price.
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Sources
- William Perkin produced the first synthetic aniline dye in 1856. Sumptuary laws restricting the wearing of colors and fabrics were in force in European cities from the 13th century