"Violet has the shortest wavelength of the spectrum.
Behind it, the invisible ultraviolet.
Roses are Red,
Violets are Blue.
Poor violet, violated for a rhyme."
-Derek Jarman, English Film Director

Lately several clients have been asking for purple in their interiors. It is a little wavelet of purplish yearnings washing my way. This has made me reexamine my own relationship to this color. Never have I thought of myself as a purple-lover, although I love my job because I deeply believe there are no bad colors, only bad combinations. With color, all IS relative.

Not that I have ever been opposed to purple. The Hayslip Design Associates logo is combination of red and deep purple, overshot with silvery lettering. This has been our logo for decades and I still am content that it expresses my approach to design….a philosophy that both contemporary and traditional designs are valid and a joy in working in either style to express each client’s style.

But for the most part, purple isn’t a dominant theme in my design work. Since I strive to avoid trends and stay away from the most “in” color palettes, fearing they will soon be dated, there is actually no dominate color scheme that I gravitate towards. Each project has its own look, its own hues, and its own story. However, it is intriguing and fun to revisit this royal color and play around with how it works.

Purple in Nature

I’ll start with the garden, because that is one place I love to use purple at my own house….purple and blue flowers against the soft greens of the landscape charm me. A purple passion flower plant growing like a spindly tree leaning against green painted bricks welcomes us home every summer. I love the way that tree lounges against the corner of the house and waits to be noticed morning and night. Our efforts at gardening are poor… we are never home, we don’t always practice what we preach regarding aesthetics, but that plant never criticizes us… it blooms year after year in the most delicate and tasty shade of purple violet.

And that is another thing about purple. It isn’t a color really, but a huge range of shade from pinkest lavender to blackest aubergine and everything in between… a cornucopia of color.

Purple in History

Purple has been used as a dye for textiles since for centuries. In ancient times, it was extracted from the Mediterranean sea snail Murex Brandaris. Supposedly, took 12,000 snails to produce fewer than 2 grams of dye. Because of this, it was so expensive that the historian, Theopompus said “Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver."

Murex Brandaris

Yet there was a craze for this dye as a status symbol. In fact, the Emperors of Byzantium made a law forbidding anyone from using it except themselves. The expression “born to the purple” rose from this practice, meaning those born into nobility. In ancient mosaics, the Emperor, Justinian I, is depicted dressed in a robe dyed with Tyrian Purple. Interestingly, unlike other dyes that faded in sunlight, Tyrian Purple would become darker.

In ancient China, Han Purple was used in decoration on the famed terracotta warriors.

Purple in Art

Perhaps art is the milieu that best elevates purple from its scientific basis. The purples are colors that are not spectral colors – purples are extra-spectral colors. In fact, purple was not present on Newton's color wheel (which went directly from violet to red), though it is on modern ones, between red and violet. There is no such thing as the "wavelength of purple light"; it only exists as a combination of other colors. But in the hands of an artist it becomes so much more… passionate, mystical, and sensuous.

Structure #96
Rothko

The Seine at Giverny, Morning Mists
Claude Monet

This desert glass installation by Dale Chihuly was part of a larger exhibit in the Desert Botanical Garden near Scottsdale, Arizona in 2009. I love how his glass mimics so many of the natural shapes found in the park. Many of the succulents and indigenous plants mirror the spiky and bulbous shapes Chihuly uses in his art.

Purple in Fashion

Trends in fashion come and go, but purple has become iconic. It is at once regal and playful.

Various shades on the red carpet.

Deep purple sapphire with diamonds (yes, please).
Harry Winston

Fun and colorful by Dior.

Lovely Louboutin’s

Purple in Design

A classical Dallas dining room by Hayslip Design Associates in rich shades of purple from dusty lavender to deep aubergine.

Fritz Hansen Swan Chair from their catalog.

In Tibet, the Amethyst is considered a stone sacred to the Buddha. In a contemporary pied-a-terre in Dallas, Hayslip Design Associates fashioned a table lamp from slice of a glimmering amethyst geode. I love that mysterious alchemy of the rough stone hiding the gleaming jewel inside.

Purple in Popular Culture

Haunting violet-eyed beauty, Elizabeth Taylor.

"But, luckily, he kept his wits and his Purple crayon."
--from Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crocket Johnson (1955)

That iconic LV logo in popsicle purple, patent leather (yummy).

“When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
and the stars begin to twinkle in the sky—
In the midst of a memory you wander back to me
breathing my name with a sigh... “
- from "Deep Purple"
by Peter DeRose (music) and Mitchell Parish (lyrics)

Comments

September 21, 2011 - 05:01 PM abigail

My favorite color is purple, i really appreciate this site

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