You know a history of fashion is good when it includes sentences such as, “Of course, this led to the total collapse of the mollusc population.” This particular line is delivered less than five minutes into the fourth episode of Torn, a BBC Radio 4 series airing daily over two weeks that explores the “mauve mania” of the Victorian era and how the introduction of new dyes changed our approach to wearing colour.
Kassia St Clair, author of The Secret Lives of Colour, is explaining how clothing production once relied on plant- and animal-based dyes, such as a shade highly prized in the Roman empire called imperial (or Tyrian) purple, which was made from a particular type of Mediterranean sea snail. The dye was extracted by cracking open the animal’s shell and extracting a couple of drops of liquid from one of its glands – and it took around 250,000 molluscs to produce a single ounce of dye. It became a symbol of power in the Roman era, becoming even more expensive as the sea snail almost died out and the industry collapsed.
Content from our partners
