Journal of the International Colour Association (2013): 11, 1-17 Vettese Forster & Christie

The significance of the introduction of synthetic dyes in the

mid 19th century on the democratisation of western fashion

Sam Vettese Forster1 and Robert M Christie2,3

1School of the Creative Industries, Merchiston Campus, Edinburgh Napier University, EH10 5DT,
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
2School of Textiles and Design, Scottish Borders Campus, Heriot Watt University, Galashiels, TD1

3HF, Scotland, UK
3Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Emails: s.forster@napier.ac.uk, r.m.christie@hw.ac.uk

From the middle of the 19th century, fashionable garments for women, which had previously been
restricted largely to the wealthy social classes, began to become much more widely accessible in
society. Many factors contributed towards this change, including the invention of the domestic sewing
machine, the growing popularity of the ‘fashion magazine’, the introduction of department stores and
the development of ready-made fashions, as heralded in particular by Charles Worth. However, an
element that had an especially profound influence on this democratisation process was the discovery
of synthetic textile dyes and their rapid industrial development, initiated famously by William Perkin’s
Mauveine, which resulted in the availability of a wide range of new bright colours for use in garment
coloration. This paper contextualises the influence of the commercial introduction of these dyes in the
mid 19th century on the adoption of fashionable dress by a much wider section of the general
population.

Received 26 October 2012; revised 27 March 2013; accepted 7 May 2013

Published online: 30 June 2013

Introduction

Until the mid 19th century, the ability of Western women to follow changing decorative styles in
clothing had been restricted, more or less, to the wealthy [1- 4]. It was around this period in history
that those aspects of women’s dress regarded as fashionable, such as the fabric types, silhouettes,
trims and the wide colour range, started to become available to much broader and more varied
sections of society [1-5]. These democratic changes were observed most significantly at a time
coinciding with the discovery in 1856 of Mauveine, the first industrially-produced synthetic textile
dye, and the consequent popularity of fashionable dress dyed in the mauve colour that this dye
provided. Within a relatively short period of time, a range of so-called aniline dyes had been
discovered and introduced, providing access to a much wider range of bright colours for textiles.
Newly-created fashions in women’s wear, using the colours of these dyes, in various forms and of
varying qualities, became more and more accessible to the wider population, and this led to the
beginning of overlapping social class attitudes in the context of women's fashion.

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This paper, the result of a unique collaboration between two individuals with complementary
interests in fashion and in colour chemistry, assesses the impact of the emergence and increasing
availability of synthetically-dyed textiles on the democratisation of European fashion, examined in the
context of other concurrent, influential developments. The paper is based on a survey of primary
documents and historical articles, together with an evaluation of dye, textile and costume archives, in
particular those in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, which provided the source of the
illustrations used throughout the paper of selected costume items from the relevant historical period.

The dress conventions of western women in the early 19th century

A variety of circumstances surrounding the manner of Western women’s dress before the mid 19th
century provided a situation within the various sections of society which undoubtedly contributed
towards the changes that were about to take place following the landmark discovery of the first
industrial synthetic dye. The dominant factor that separated the social classes at the time in terms of
their choice of dress was the cost, and hence affordability [6,7]. Dress shapes, even those considered
as ‘simple’, were actually quite elaborate, making use of large quantities of fabric and trims, and were
hand-sewn [8]. The dyeing of textile fabrics with natural dyes, which was the only means available for
textile coloration, was an expensive part of the production process, especially when the aim was to
provide strong, bright colours [9]. However, although cost was central, it was by no means the only
factor. As an example, in France before the mid 19th century, there were particularly complicated
dress codes, for example within marriage, between social classes and also as a response to rules set by
the régime in power at the time [10]. During the Ancien Régime before the French Revolution, society
was divided into three estates. For a period, the Third Estate, consisting of commoners, as opposed to
the clergy in the First Estate and the nobility in the Second Estate, tended to wear dark, simple shapes.
For men and women, these were symbolic of belonging to a refined society and were arguably a
protest against aristocratic excess. Immediately after the Revolution, women's dress within this social
class was ‘allowed’ to become more lavish. In conjunction with these issues, there were codes which
had be addressed in fabric distribution, tailoring and construction of ready-made garments, and even
in the sale of second-hand garments in various levels of condition, through régime-approved markets.
During the Ancien Régime, the production and selling of clothing was confined to specific outlets,
determined by guilds with complex sets of regulations. Textiles and their accompanying adornments
had to be purchased and made up into garments in separate establishments, according to these
regulations. These principles and traditions survived the Revolution. In addition, the second-hand
clothing industry in France carried with it a convoluted set of rules. The guild of fripperers, who
supplied most of the inhabitants of Paris with second-hand clothes, had been in existence since the
beginning of the 13th century. Originally its statutes gave it the exclusive right to repair and re-sell old
clothing. In 1430, the guild obtained a decree permitting it to work with new material. For the first
time in 1664, it was allowed to make new garments, although not to carry out measurements on
individuals [11,12].
In Britain and North America, there were also codes of conduct with regard to women’s dress. For
example, it was considered ‘proper’ for married middle and upper class women to wear clothing in
rich colours, with heavy adornment, as a reflection of their husbands’ status [9]. Unmarried young
women from similar backgrounds were expected to wear ‘simple’ dress designs, in pale colours [6,13].
For the women from these classes, several costume changes were required at particular times of the
day and for particular activities [14,15]. ‘Aristocratic idleness’ was seen as an appropriate way of life.

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Fashionable clothing for women during this period was restrictive and ornamental, often constructed
from delicate fabrics and in bright colours [16]. The rather impractical aspects of the clothing
construction included, at various periods, tightly laced corsets, wide crinolines and long trains, which
had a tendency to impede even normal activities such as climbing stairs or walking the streets [6,17]. A
radically different situation existed within the lower social classes. Servants commonly inherited
garments that were damaged, faded or had lost favour with their employers. They either retained and
wore the garments, sometimes after carrying out alterations, or sold them [18]. There was indeed a
thriving second-hand clothing trade in Britain [19]. Working class, unmarried women commonly
spent a large proportion of their income on such garments, in attempts to emulate the perceived style
of the British aristocracy, rather than the more modest French middle class way of dressing [20].
At the beginning of the 1850s, a burgeoning middle class and a less impoverished working class
emerged from the industrial revolution. Victorian Britain experienced the beginnings of aspirational,
conspicuous consumerism, reflected in the clothing choices made by women. The Great Exhibition of
1851 was, at least in part, aimed at this new customer audience, in addition to its exposition of
Britain’s industrial ‘superiority’. The exhibition was advertised widely and there was an initiative to
include days when the entry cost was set at a shilling, which was affordable to working class groups.
More than six million visitors were attracted to attend the exhibition [21,22]. The British exhibits were
given particular prominence. On show alongside the machinery, were innovative, complex textiles
produced using the jacquard loom and also with copper-plate printed features incorporating added
block-printed colours [23,24]. Many of the exhibits were expensively produced and not easily
reproducible, and these would have had minimal influence on the dress style of working class women.
However, exhibits of brightly-coloured, woven, embroidered and printed ribbons produced in
Coventry, and also examples from Lyon created in silk, proved to be more influential in that these
items were to become highly popular in the dress of women from a wide range of backgrounds [25].
Thus, there was a variety of aspects of colour and its use in fashionable textile products around the
mid 19th century that set the scene for the widespread enthusiasm for the synthetically-dyed fashion
textiles that were to emerge in the years that followed.

The democratisation of fashion from the mid 1850s

A number of factors came together to influence the process of the democratisation of fashion in
Western women’s clothing which began around the mid 1850s. A significant influence was the
development of the railways, which facilitated not only personal travel but also the distribution of
goods. Other important factors included the growing availability of fashion magazines, the invention
and popularisation of the use of the sewing machine, the development of draft paper pattern systems,
developments in the ready-made clothing industry, the emergence of the department store and, not
least, the revolutionary innovations which made synthetic dyes available for textiles [26-32].
Fashion magazines played a highly influential role in raising the interest in fashion for a middle and
upper class readership during the 19th century [32,33]. The removal of the tax on paper in 1854 was an
important factor that facilitated the introduction of a number of relatively low cost fashion magazines,
which brought an awareness of fashionable styles to a broader range of society [6,20,34]. At the time,
it was evident that, irrespective of the cost of a particular magazine or of its target market (whether
aristocratic or lower middle class, British or American), the plates tended to illustrate idealised high
Parisian fashion. Godeys, an American 'fashion' magazine in April 1857 stated, “We are constantly
asked if Americana are not a year behind Parisian styles. This is no longer the case. Our principal

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importers have their partner or their resident agent abroad, and now that steam has shortened the
transit from continent to continent to a ten days jaunt, there is no reason why our fashionable ladies
should be more than two weeks behind the belles of Long Champs.” [35].
Although versions of the sewing machine had been around for some time, the Singer ‘foot-treadle’
model that became available in 1854 was more affordable for middle class domestic and small
business use [20]. While the expertise of the dressmaker retained importance in the creation of the
types of dresses that were in demand, machines increasingly took much of the labour out of the
production process, particularly for long hems and seams [36]. At around the same time, a range of
printed paper patterns became available, prepared using a variety of systems and often supplied
within the fashion magazines [20,37]. These innovations increasingly provided home and amateur
dressmakers and sewers with techniques that enhanced their abilities in garment production and gave
new groups of women access to stylish cuts which would transform their work patterns, their
appearance and their experience of fashionable dress [20]. Women who had previously been satisfied
with out-of-date clothing, or had struggled with the difficulties of the draping methods that were
traditionally used in home garment construction, found that they were able to draft new dress styles
more easily. In May 1896 ‘The Queen of Fashion’ publication reported, “The average woman, whether
on the farm or in the city, wishes to use everything to the best advantage, consequently there are very
few who do not renovate and make over their old dresses when they have grown too old to be
presentable.” [20]. Even if the systems failed to achieve a perfect fit first time, it was probably simpler
to make the necessary alterations than if the dress had been cut using traditional draping methods.
The home dressmakers probably also found the new processes more rewarding than those involved in
restyling an old dress [20,37]. The systems that were becoming available must have been especially
appealing to women with difficult fit issues who were unable to afford the services of a professional
dressmaker [20].
A further important factor in the fashion democratisation process during this period was the
emergence of the department store. These outlets made a range of wares more accessible to wider
sections of society, including textiles, and thus essentially de-specialised fabric retailing [10,28]. In
department stores, textiles were more attractively displayed in the bright daylight of the large shop
windows and in airier spaces, in contrast to the rather gloomy, restricted conditions generally
encountered in the premises of dressmakers or haberdashers [10]. Brightly-coloured fabrics and
goods were given particular prominence to attract customers [28,30,38]. In the department stores,
ready-made fashion items were not produced, stocked and sold in various sizes, as is the
contemporary norm, even in the case of ‘simple’ women’s dress of the time [7,10]. Fashion items by
the designers of the day, most notably Charles Frederick Worth, were commonly bought by
department stores and copies made up in-house in the client’s size and using fabrics bought within
same store [39], although Worth did design certain textile products which were manufactured for sale
through selected department stores [40,41].
In the manner that Worth licensed and distributed his designs commercially throughout the world,
he may be considered as the creator of the ready-made fashion industry [39,42]. He has thus also been
credited with the 'invention’ of the designer label [39,43]. During the 1860s, haute couture, which
involved the presentation of a collection of models from which a complete dress, or parts of it, could
be selected, came to replace couture a facon, or dressmaking for the individual. In couture de facon,
the dressmaker was generally a technician executing the production of an outfit with the design and
the fabric pre-selected by the client [43,44]. In haute couture, a design house supplied both the design
ideas and the selection of fabrics, often having fabric produced according to its own designs [43,44].
Within a single establishment, successful models and fabric combinations were repeated on occasions

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to be sold directly as personalised copies for certain clients, either immediately or at the end of a
season, or alternatively were made up into ready-made costumes [39]. Local dressmakers not only
copied Worth's designs, but also made up garments from textiles and embellishments used by the
house of Worth, either as exclusive designs commissioned by the house, or as fabrics distributed by
the textile manufacturers [11,40].
Charles Worth was without doubt an important influence on the democratisation of fashion, the
‘ready-made’ aspect of his designs encouraging a broader spectrum of society to indulge in fashionable
dress. The novel approach by an individual designer to create and influence factions within society
contrasted with the prevailing system where patrons dictated what they wanted to the dressmaker.
Worth occupied a position of superiority in that he created his own designs epitomising the
fashionable styles of the period rather than copying the designs of others. He was responsible for
clothing many members of European royalty and aristocracy, particularly Empress Eugenie of France
who was a fashion icon of the time, as well as the French upper class and the demimonde of
courtesans and actresses, who in turn served as fashion leaders [11]. He also had a significant range of
American clientele [12,40]. As a confirmed fashion leader, Worth’s use of bright colours and
combinations of colours, is of particular note. In a study by Coleman, there were many reports from
The Ladies Treasury (1870s-80s) that highlighted this feature, for example, “in the fall of 1882, a rich
damask - violet with old gold dahlias - was made up as a ‘Calypso’ evening dress. The colours - bright
aqua combined with peach and white and crimson and white - are certainly appropriate to the period”,
“the Parisians [wearing dresses by Worth] had discovered the secret of uniting the most rebellious
colours – plum and sky blue, yellow and bronze, pink and red, and blue and green – with the last two
joined together in nature so successfully, but elsewhere not always” and “knowing this taste for showy
colours, Worth combines his dresses for his Italian customers accordingly and thus, through a variety
of colours are at times combined in one dress they are so combined that they always harmonize” [40].

The development of synthetic dyes

Fashionable colours pre-1856

Textiles were coloured exclusively with natural dyes until the introduction of the first synthetic dye
produced on an industrial scale in 1856. It is a feature of natural dyes, that they generally provide
rather muted, dull colours. However, with selected dyes and with processing conditions optimised
over centuries, it was possible to obtain reasonably strong, brightly-coloured dyed textiles. Several
pristine examples exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, such as those illustrated in
Figures 1-3, provide a demonstration of this feature.
In a study by Cunnington, he expressed the belief that such textiles were not completely
prohibitively expensive, saying “It is singular that vegetable dyes should have at last have arrived at
such a pitch of excellence only to be driven from the market in the 60s by the aniline dyes. It will be
seen from the actual prices given in the annual summaries that materials were, on the whole, cheap,
and labour inordinately so.” [17]. However, other documents provide a contrast with this opinion
alluding to the expense of brightly-coloured textiles and the garments made from them pre-1856,
particularly those in shades of purple [36,41,45]. Interest in such colours was strongly influenced by
their exclusivity, for example as worn by royalty, especially as a result of reports in the emergent
popular fashion magazines [29,32]. Indeed, Worth's fascination for brightly coloured garments was
influenced by the fact that they were worn by aristocracy, both current and past [40,45]. By the mid

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19th century, the requirements of fashion trends emerged as a new determinant for the use of colour
in the textiles industry.

Figure 1 (left): ‘Promenade dress’ (bodice and skirt) in silk plush (1855), predating the introduction of
synthetic dyes, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Figure 2 (middle): Detail of the fabric and silk fringe of the dress shown in Figure 1 (1855), The Victoria and
Albert Museum, London.
Figure 3 (right): Pre-synthetic blue moiré dress trimmed with chenille (1858), The Victoria and Albert
Museum, London.

Textile dyes pre-1856

Textile materials have been coloured with natural dyes for many centuries [46-53]. Since most of
nature’s dyes are rather unstable, the dyeings produced in the very early days tended to be fugitive, for
example to washing and light. However, over the years, optimised dyeing procedures, often quite
complex, were developed using a selected range of natural dyes to provide dyeings of reasonable
quality on textiles. Since natural dyes generally have little affinity for textile materials, they were
commonly applied together with fixing-agents known as mordants. These agents not only improved
the fastness properties of the dyeings, but also in many cases were essential to develop the intensity
and brightness of the colours produced. The most important natural blue dye is indigo obtained from
plant sources, for example indigofera tinctoria found in Asia, and woad, isatis tinctoria, a flowering
plant grown in Europe and the USA [54,55]. Dyeing was carried out in a vat where the fermentation of
composted leaves took place in the presence of alkali from wood ash or limestone to produce dye
precursors which are converted by reaction in air to indigo on the fibre. In these ways, indigo
produces attractive deep blue dyeings of good quality, and without the need for a mordant. A related
product is Tyrian purple. This was for many years a fashionable, aristocratic purple dye extracted from
the glands of Murex brandaris, a shellfish found on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. It is said
to have required the use of 10,000 shellfish to provide one gram of dye, which no doubt explains why
the luxurious, bright purple fabrics were available only to the ruling class elite in early Mediterranean
and Middle Eastern societies, and also the consequent association of the colour purple with wealth
and nobility [56,57]. Natural red dyes were derived from botanical (madder) or animal (cochineal,
kermes and lac insect) sources. There is a wide range of natural yellow dyes of plant origin, one of the

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best-known being weld, obtained from flowering plant species such as reseda luteola. These red and
yellow dyes generally required mordanting. Natural green textile dyes proved elusive, because the
common plant pigments such as chlorophyll could not be made to fix to natural fibres and faded
rapidly.

Mauveine
In the 19th century there had been some experimentation with products of chemical synthesis
applied in the coloration of textiles. For example, picric acid had been used to provide bright yellow
colours, although with inadequate fastness properties. There had also been some adaptation of the
processes leading to the long-established synthetic inorganic pigment colours, including Prussian blue
and ‘laked’ products, to produce colours on textiles [58]. However, none of these processes came close
to having the impact on industry and society of the landmark discovery that was to follow. The
foundation of the synthetic dye industry is attributed to Sir William Henry Perkin on account of his
discovery in 1856 of a purple dye which was to become known as Mauveine [59-63]. Perkin was a
young, enthusiastic British chemist who was carrying out research not initially aimed at making dyes
but rather at developing a synthetic route to quinine, the antimalarial drug. Malaria was a devastating
condition at the time and natural quinine, often in short supply and expensive, was the most effective
treatment. Unfortunately, his attempts to this end proved unsuccessful. As an extension of his
research, he turned his attention to the reaction of aniline, a chemical which had become readily
available from the processing of coal tar, with potassium dichromate, another common chemical
material. This reaction gave a black product, which might have seemed rather unpromising to many
chemists, but from which Perkin discovered that a low yield of a purple dye could be extracted with
solvents. An evaluation of the new dye in a silk dye works in Perth, Scotland, established that it could
be used to dye silk a rich purple colour and give reasonable fastness properties. The manager of the
dye house was Robert Pullar. The positive response from Robert Pullar to the dyeing trials, and also
his technical assistance from his experience of the application of dyes to textiles, proved to be vital to
Perkin's decision on how to proceed with his discovery, since other traditional dyers of the time
proved more sceptical towards the revolutionary concept of using a dye from unnatural sources [62,
63]. The particular colour of the dye that had been discovered by accident was highly significant. It
offered a potentially low cost means to reproduce the rich purple colour which was formerly
obtainable from Tyrian purple, the use of which had been more or less discontinued centuries before.
The colour was certainly superior to the ‘false shellfish purples’ of the time, which were extractable
from lichens and to the dull purples associated with mixtures of red and blue natural dyes, such as
madder and indigo. Perkin showed remarkable foresight in recognising the potential of his discovery.
He took out a patent on the product and had the boldness to instigate the development of a large scale
manufacturing process, using his father’s life savings to build a factory at Greenford Green, near
London to manufacture the dye. Mauveine was launched on the market in 1857 and enjoyed rapid
commercial success. At various stages of its development as a commercial product the dye was
referred to as Tyrian Purple or as Aniline Purple. Later, it was re-named as Mauve, and later still
embellished as Mauveine, to convey a French flavour. There was evidently more perceived benefit in
marketing the product from the association with Parisian haute couture than with the purple of
antiquity.
The discovery of Mauveine in 1856, according to several accounts from historic sources, led rapidly
to a widespread fashion trend. John Pullar, Robert's father, was reported to have said to Perkin, “If
they [bourgeous ladies] once take a mania for it and you can supply the demand, your fame and
fortune are secure.” [45]. By May 1857, John Pullar was able to inform Perkin that ‘a rage’ had begun

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for the new colour to the extent that in only a few years it outstripped the competitor products based
on the natural purple dyes. Through its unique colour, it became highly desirable in the fashion
houses of London and Paris. As an example important to the marketing of the product, Queen Victoria
wore a mauve dress to her daughter’s wedding [53]. Even in Charles Dickens’s periodical ‘All Year
Round’, published in September 1859, he said, “As I look out of my window, the apotheosis of Perkin’s
purple seems at hand – purple hands wave from open carriages – purple hands shake each other at
street doors – purple hands threaten each other from opposite sides of the street; purple – striped
gowns cram barouches, jam up cabs, throng steamers, fill railway stations : all flying countryward, like
so many birds of purple paradise.” [62]. At the same time, some conservative commentators frowned
upon it. The British periodical Punch complained that London was afflicted with ‘Mauve Measles’
[45]. Examples of dresses dyed with Mauveine from the period are shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Figure 4 (left): Mauveine silk dress (1873), The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Figure 5 (right): ‘Home-made’ Mauveine striped dress with lace and machine stitching (1870s), The Victoria
and Albert Museum, London.

The development of synthetic dyes post-mauveine

In the next few years following the discovery of Mauveine, research activity towards the
development of other synthetic dyes intensified especially in Britain, Germany, and France. For the
most part, chemists concentrated on aniline as the starting material, and this resulted within a very
short time period in the discovery of several other synthetic textile dyes with commercial potential. In
fact the term ‘aniline dyes’ became for many decades synonymous with synthetic dyes. The most
successful product which immediately followed Mauveine was Fuschine, a rich red dye, also to become
known as Magenta, which was introduced in 1859 [62,64]. A costume from the period dyed with
Magenta is illustrated in Figure 6. Subsequently, and very rapidly, a range of new dyes, providing a
wide range of bright fashion colours emerged - yellows, reds, blues, violets and greens, as well as
browns and blacks. These dyes proved to be superior not only in colour to natural dyes, but they were
also found to be easier to apply and more economic. The new synthetic dyes that had been developed
were also superior in performance to Mauveine, and its production ceased after about ten years [62].

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Figure 6: Magenta dyed silk bodice, skirt, peplum and bow (1869-1870), The Victoria and Albert Museum,
London.

Following the trend set by Mauveine, fabrics dyed with the new range of synthetic dyes also became
fashionable. In the 1850s, Empress Eugenie of France was a fashion icon, her coveted style
documented in various texts, including the fashion publications of the time [65]. She was a primary
patron of Charles Worth and has been quoted as saying that the new mauve ‘matched her eyes’
[66,67]. In The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine of 1861, between May and October, the dresses of
the Empress Eugenie, coloured using aniline dyes, were described in detail in every issue. Queen
Victoria was also an aspirational figure in womens’ fashion. Her fashion choices were also extensively
disseminated through these media, notably the mauve dress that she wore to her daughter’s wedding
in 1857, as described in the Illustrated London News [67].
As in the case of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the new emerging middle class and sectors of the
working class were courted as important customers at the London Industrial Exhibition of 1862.
Again, one shilling tickets were offered and visitors exceeded six million. In contrast to the paradigm
of the 1851 Exhibition, which encouraged conspicuous consumerism through the display of
popularised technology and overly ornate and innovative products, the 1862 exhibition influenced the
colour choices of women in more tangible ways. Examples of textiles coloured with Perkin’s aniline
dyes were exhibited alongside jars of ‘black coal tar waste’. This was reported as a popular and
aesthetically pleasing display [68]. Queen Victoria was observed to attend the exhibition on ‘shilling
days’ and, on occasions, wore a mauve dress, in spite of being in mourning for her husband [69]. By
the 1860s, roller printing had been developed to a high standard within the textile industry and
printed fabrics were on show using up to eight colours, extravagant in nature and often based on
aniline dyes [70]. These features cemented the reputation mauve and its successors in the opinion of
the public.
From the 1860s onwards, the textile dye industry flourished and a host of new products were
developed and introduced. The innovations were facilitated by the dramatically enhanced
understanding of the principles of organic chemistry which was emerging. Not only was the use of
natural dyes disappearing rapidly, but synthetic equivalents were being developed, of higher purity,
less expensive and easier to apply than their natural counterparts. The introduction in 1868 of

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synthetic alizarin, which is the synthetic derivative of the main component of natural dyeing with
madder, made pinks available at a lower cost. This dye proved to have a longer lasting effect than that
of the more celebrated Mauveine and Magenta [17,41]. Indeed, most of these earlier dyes were
superseded in the 20th century by technically-superior products.

Fashionable colours after the introduction of synthetic dyes

The pervasion of the bright colours provided by the synthetic dyes for fashion was not always
received with approval, according to several documents of the time [17,36]. In the early 1860s, the
French writer Hippolyte Taine was repeatedly struck by the ‘outrageously crude’ colours and ‘want of
taste’ in the dress of British women. His Notes on England lists ‘violet dresses of a really ferocious
violet, purple or poppy red silks, grass-green dresses decorated with flowers, azure blue scarves and
dresses of purple silk, very shiny so that they reflect the light dazzlingly, or of stiff tulle on a
substructure of skirts, bristling with embroidery, immense shawls of black lace falling to the heels,
immaculate white or bright purple gloves. The glare and glitter is brutal’ [71]. The Englishwoman’s
Domestic Magazine of March 1868 recommended that there should be “no more than ‘two positive
colours in a lady’s toilet”, “very bright tints should be toned down with white, black or grey to prevent
a gaudy appearance” and that “two shades of the same colour were considered very fashionable,
particularly if the trimmings were of a contrasting fabric” [72].
The emergence of ‘democratic fashion’ was followed in time by a movement against the bright
colours with which it was originally associated, in a movement akin to cyclical modern fashion trends.
[6,11,40] It was noted, for example in fashion magazines, that the synthetic brights had become
popular in the dress of the lower classes and were used in garments of ‘inferior quality’ [20,37].
Godeys in 1872 stated, “Unmixed colours and all high colours, such as bright crimson, scarlet, clear
blue and green have disappeared from choice goods and are only found in cheap materials made for
the million.” [73]. Other authors suggested that consumers became disillusioned with the inadequate
fastness properties of some of the early aniline dyes [17]. The colours that became fashionable from
around the late 1860s were duller shades. It has been noted that antique and ‘exotic’ effects were
frequently sought after and the most desirable colours were described as ‘old-looking’, ‘strange’ or
‘indescribable tints’ [56]. Colours such as blacks, greys, ‘drabs’, ‘modes’ and unspecified browns and
blues remained popular throughout the period [17,20,56]. The trade publication Textile Colorist noted
in 1883 that ‘The bright colours, however, are out of fashion, and subdued shades which are produced
by mixtures are preferred’ [74]. Hummel advocated the use of mixtures of synthetic dyes to produce
such shades. He commented that ‘the most thoroughly pleasing and attractive shades of greys and
olives and browns were made by mixing brilliant colors, whereas, if they were confined to the old dyes
the colours of dress materials would be very dull and dingy’ [75].
The Aesthetic Movement, which was influential at the time, and their concepts of ‘natural’ colours
that were in harmony with their environment had an influence on the shades used in fashionable
dress, even if ‘rational dress’ designs did not pervade democratic fashion [17]. Writings on the ‘ideals’
proposed by this movement found their way into popular fashion magazines in simplified forms [20].
Mary Eliza Joy Haweis wrote for Godey’s in 1870 saying, “The truth of the matter is, a colour may be
too pure, and of late our manufacturers urged on by the vulgar craving for gaudiness, have so much
advanced in colour distilling and dyeing that our modern colours are hideous through their extreme
purity. Hence colours faded by age are often more beautiful than their pristine freshness.” [76].
Examples of costumes illustrating these fashion trends are shown in Figures 7 and 8.

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Figure 7 (left): Bodice and skirt in wool and silk in ‘antique’ shades (1885), The Victoria and Albert Museum,
London.
Figure 8 (right) : Detail of peach / terracotta woven silk skirt (1885), The Victoria and Albert Museum,
London.

The Arts and Crafts Movement had a fairly wide-reaching influence on fashion that culminated in
the particular garment shapes and colours that became prevalent at the turn of the 20th century [77].
Its practitioner, Edwin Godwin, took responsibility for the Liberty dress department in the 1880s, and
a consequence of his involvement was that models of the gothic revival, involving strongly but
naturally coloured garments, were sold in department stores throughout Europe and in New York
[78]. In addition to her writings in magazines such as Godey’s, Annie Jennes Miller published the
popular American journal ‘Dress’ from 1887 to 1897, dedicated to the reform dress movement with
paper patterns for artistic dress styles that could be made at home [79]. The American version of the
Arts and Crafts movement adopted a more commercial attitude and spread its ideals to a wider public,
while still eschewing the ‘truth to materials’ approach [80].

Changes in mid to late 19th century western fashion

While several distinct factors contributed to the democratisation of Western fashion in the mid 19th
century, the role played by colour stands out. This feature owes much to that fact colour provided such
a high level of visual impact and that it was easy to make changes using colour, contrasting with the
complexities of modifications through pattern cutting or garment construction, especially in the
ornate, elaborate garments for women that were characteristic of the time [36]. As a consequence,
colour preferences became a dominant feature of fashion, and they began to change at a faster pace
and become cyclical. In the second half of the 19th century, the roles and activities of women within
the home and workplace entered a state of flux, although rather less dramatic than occurred at the
turn of the 20th century. The changes that were taking place would often be symbolised in the detail of
fashionable dress, with colour as a vital factor. The 1850s were considered as an ‘age of display’,
showing ‘fashionable extravagance’ and ‘ornament’, where “the growing dimensions of the skirt
seemed to symbolise woman’s increasing place in the world” [6,7].

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The reduction in the cost of dyeing which followed the introduction of synthetic dyes, brought
about mainly by the economies of high volume manufacture, the fact that less dye was required and
the simplified application processes, enhanced the availability of brightly-coloured textiles and had an
obvious influence on their popularity. They became increasingly available to lower classes within
Western society that had previously been restricted to either simple, low quality garments in drab
colours, or faded second-hand goods, that inevitably and obviously appeared ‘out of fashion’. The
dyers who responded to the use of Perkin’s Mauveine and its successors in the production of textile
products were clearly aware of the opportunities that this provided [56]. The ability of the lower
classes to afford new garments that were similar in both quality and colour to those worn by the
higher classes, including their employers, began to pervade society [6,11]. A letter in a women’s
magazine from 1876 said, “My income is small but I have to keep up a good appearance and am
therefore obliged to keep two servants, a cook and a housemaid. The cook I have had for nearly two
years, and I have got on very well with her until the last few months. By degrees she has been getting
gayer in her dress of late, and last Sunday when she started off for church, she wore a black silk made
exactly like the new one I had sent home in the beginning of winter, and a new bonnet which I am
certain I saw in Madame Louise’s window in Regent Street marked 25s. She looked as if she had
stepped out of a fashion plate, all but her boots and gloves.” [6].
Items of clothing were the principal consumer goods that were becoming accessible to working-
class female employees, and they often spent substantial proportions of their incomes on them
[1,9,30]. Working women, even those in jobs where ‘sensible’ garments were preferable, were known
to wear fashionable, often impractical dress with corsets, tight fitting sleeves, bows and, in particular,
crinolines. In their leisure lives, young employed working class women often aimed to emulate
bourgeois clothing in an exaggerated manner, with bright, clashing colours as a dominant element [81,
82]. Stansell said of the women in the Bowery subculture of the late 1900s, “they were distinguished
by their self-conscious ‘airs’, a style of dress and manner which was a studied departure from
ladyhood, an implicit rejection of bourgeois female decorum. Genteel rules of gender dictated that
‘womenly’ women minimise what they saw in public of others and what others saw of them. The
respectable women on the street deflected, rather than drew, attention to her physical appearance. (...)
Muted colours, a costume that covered the flesh except for the face were the hallmarks for a lady.
Bowery fashions repudiated genteel principles of harmonious dress for their own internal logic of
colour, pattern and accessories. Women wore startling combinations of colours, a sharp contrast to
the modest pastels, grays and browns of ladies street wear” [81]. In Schreier’s study of young Jewish
immigrant workers living in New York, working in the garment industry in the late 1900s, he said, “for
these women, dressing in fashionable clothes was their way of showing their knowledge of American
culture, of rejecting their traditional ethnic culture, and of expressing their own identities. Although
they had little money, they competed with fellow workers to emulate the latest styles, particularly
favouring brash, brightly coloured outfits and preferred to be ‘intentionally overdressed’ to ‘put on
style’. Asserting their cultural agency, working class women actively created their own standards of
dress.” [83].
The cognitive perception of both wearers and observers of fashion, and the acceptance followed by
rejection of the brightly coloured fashions of the mid 19th century combined aspects of emotionally-
driven aspiration, in response to fashion and consumerism and, more instinctive, biological responses
to the ‘prettiness’ of the colour. Although ‘fashion’ was in its infancy, cyclical features involving
acceptance, rejection and ‘etiquette’, which are evident in contemporary fashion styles, began to
develop. This was documented, for example, in the British publication ‘Guides to Good Taste in Dress’
which informed the readership of the precise rules of colour, using persuasive terminologies of the

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period [17]. The fashion colour cycles mirrored the ideals of society at particular times. There was a
recurring swing from females being valued either as ‘carefree’ or ‘conscientious’ on the path to
emancipation. This observation accords with conclusions from Gosling’s contemporary research
which draws parallels of ‘fashionable dress’ with ‘openness’, ‘showy dress’ with ‘extraversion’ and
dark, plain, formal dress and refined appearance with conscientiousness and, conversely, neuroticism
[84]. In addition, cyclic choices in clothing were often an aspirational reflection of the personality of
the wearers and their perceived class status in society [17]. This is mirrored in Norman’s
contemporary research into emotional aspects of design, with fashion responding to customer
‘confusion’ and fulfilling individual emotional needs. Through fashion, the wearer can ‘suggest’ one’s
self image and place in the world, age, gender, outlook and ‘advertise to the rest of the world what a
superior, tasteful, ‘with it’ person you are’ [85]. Norman’s research has also identified the universal
cognitive perceptions of bright colours. Human beings are biologically attracted to bright colours on a
visceral level as ‘pretty’. In the world of design, ‘pretty’ is generally frowned upon, denounced as petty,
trite or lacking depth and substance [85]. This factor may have contributed towards the rejection of
bright colours for dark colours by more wealthy, ‘intellectual’ sections of 19th century society, as
described by Cunnington [17].

Conclusions

The concept of changeable ‘fashion’ for large, not always wealthy, sections of Western society began
in the mid 19th century. Working women and staff of the aristocracy commonly wore clothing that
may have been ‘fashionable’ at one time, but was in an altered, second-hand and perhaps faded state.
Inexpensive fashion magazines began to appear, and their popularity raised interest in the new
possibilities and directions that were becoming available. A range of other factors also raised the
profile and availability of fashion in society, including the introduction of sewing machines, draft
paper patterns and ready-made clothing sold in accessible department stores which were able,
through licensing, to copy designs by influential fashion ‘designers’. However, the introduction of the
first synthetically-dyed fabrics and the garments constructed from them had a special place in the
democratisation of fashion. As garments became easier to make and designer styles easier to access
and emulate, and as corsetry became cheaper, similarities began to appear in the nature of the
silhouettes of clothing worn by both the wealthy and lower classes. As ready-made, new clothing
became more attainable, individuals were able to add second-hand, fine ‘fripperies’, removing the
necessity to wearing entire, washed-out outfits, a further illustration of narrowing differences
between social class attitudes. Bright colours had long been associated with wealth and nobility and so
they were received wholeheartedly when they became reasonably available. As Charles Worth used
synthetically-dyed, bright colours in his designs, so his wealthy patrons and the stores that licensed
his designs followed suit. This was followed by a trickle-down effect to the lower classes, who found
that they could afford and copy the ‘look’, although commonly in a slightly lower quality of garment.
The new phenomenon of the levelling out of class differences in their attitudes towards Western
fashion appeared to lead, in response, to wealthier individuals seeking to set themselves apart by
rejecting the synthetic bright colours, or alternatively by combining them with other colours in a more
‘intellectual’ way. ‘Harmonies’, ‘tasteful’ combinations and palettes that corresponded with
surroundings, following the doctrines of the Arts and Crafts movement, became the ‘superior’ fashion.
It also appears that, after having been denied vibrant colours for so long, many individuals from the
lower classes wore them for longer and also exaggerated the colour combinations, as exemplified by

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the Bowery and Jewish immigrant workers, described by Stansell and Schreier,. This might have been
as a result of individual preference, through the development of peer-group fashion or from a lack of
understanding of Arts and Crafts tenets and the minutia of differences in shades, tones and colour
fusions.
Although, after the period when there was an initial blending of attitudes, during which Western
women from upper, middle and lower classes were participating in fashion, wearing the bright colours
of Mauveine and the other aniline dyes, there followed a separation of the classes based on ‘taste’.
Western women’s attitudes towards fashion began to splinter, not only between the wealthy and poor,
but also between groups with different ideologies, such as intellectuals and feminists, with different
commitments to their causes expressed through garment choices. Colour continued to have meaning
and expression in fashionable clothing throughout the 19th and early 20th century. For example, the
mauve shade continued to be regarded as an appropriate colour in which a widower might remarry.
Bright ‘violet’, when worn with green and white, has been suggested as conveying a secret affiliation
with the suffragette movement [86,87]. Perhaps most significantly, at the beginning of the 20th
century, Chanel ‘invented’ the ‘little black dress’, using inexpensive, synthetically dyed wool jersey, as
a response to the ability of colour, in fashion, to signify status.
Sir Willaim Henry Perkin’s contribution to society surrounds us daily. His efforts led to the start not
merely of the synthetic dye manufacturing industry and its contribution to textiles and fashion. This
was also the start of the chemical industry, leading ultimately to the growth of such industrial giants
as ICI in the UK, BASF in Germany and DuPont in the USA, and the immense range of products that
we have come to rely on as a society today, including cosmetics, perfumes, paints, plastics, detergents,
pesticides, explosives and pharmaceuticals. The subtitle of Garfield’s book, ‘Mauve – How One Man
Invented a Colour that Changed the World’, [62] does not exaggerate Perkin’s legacy.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Pasold Research Fund and the Carnegie Trust for funding towards
the research leading to this paper. We also acknowledge the cooperation of the Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, and Jenny Lister in particular for her time and expertise in assisting us to pursue
this investigation.

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