Re: Sumptuary Laws

[Robert J Welenc <rjwelenc@erols.com>]

Poster: Robert J Welenc <rjwelenc@erols.com>

I asked:
>
>>> was told that purple was a restricted color.  I see nothing in
>>> kingdom law about it; anybody know where this apparent Urban
Legend
>>> came from?
>
And Anarra (among others) answered:
>During our time period, Royal or Imperial Purple was regulated as a 
>royalty-only color in some countries in some timeperiods.  Even when

>such a sumptuary law was in place, people who could afford it could 
>flout it and pay fines.

As they did with many other sumptuary laws -- like what what fabrics
or furs one could wear.  But has anyone ever been scolded because she
was wearing velvet and mink?

>Murex Purple is obtained from the shells of the tiny murex
sea-snail.  
>It takes one heck of a lot of snail shells to dye a vat of cloth.
It 
>was expensive.  At times during the time of the Roman Empire, this 
>purple was reserved for Senators and the Emporer and his family.

And it wasn't what we call 'purple' now, I understand, but closer to
magenta.

Kathryn Rous:
>I would suspect the misinformation is a crossover from the corporate
>RenFaires, which do have restrictions prohibiting employees from
>wearing  purple.

Both of these were offered as explanation on SCAHRLDS also.

Next question:  what can we do about this misinformation?  Nobody,
expecially a newbie, should be hassled because of the color of their
clothes!  It only takes one or two such rude episodes for some people
to decide that they don't want to play with us.

Alanna
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