A Revolution in Colour: Natural Dyes and Dress in Europe, C. 1400-1800

This major volume aims to re-colour the European world of dress, c.1300-1800. New dyes created one of the most important visual experiences of the period, yet their story has been side-lined by a focus on visual experiences shaped by the high arts. Meanwhile, theatrical productions and period films still abound with broad assumptions about the growing dominance of black clothing for elites during the period, while ordinary people are imagined having worn coarse greys and bleached garments. This volume presents clear evidence that even the clothing of the middle classes could be much more expensive than paintings, and that coloured clothing and accessories were ubiquitous across society.

Contributors shed new light on the economic, environmental, and cultural dimensions of colour in dress. The range of dyes expanded considerably in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, drawing on Asian and Mediterranean knowledge, new collections of recipes, and the greater diversity of plants available through New World trade. Working creatively with organic plant, animal, and mineral materials to make colours involved considerable knowledge, pleasure and skill. The creation of colour through dyes thus reveals a whole range of global agricultural and craft technologies that can inspire future material worlds and transforms our understanding of Europe s cultural heritage.

Maria Hayward is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Southampton, UK. She is the author of Stuart Style: Monarchy, Dress and the Scottish Male Elite (2020), Rich Apparel: Clothing at the Law in Henry VIII’s England (2009) and Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII (2007).

Giorgio Riello is Professor of Global History and Culture and Director of the Warwick Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the co-editor (with Anne Gerritsen) of Writing Material Culture History (2014; 2nd Ed. 2021).

Ulinka Rublack is Professor of Early Modern European History at Cambridge University, UK, and author of Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe. She is the author of Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe (2010) and co-editor (with Giorgio Riello) of The Right to Dress: Sumptuary Legislation in a Global Perspective, c.1300-1800 (2018) and (with Maria Hayward) of The First Book of Fashion (Bloomsbury, 2015).