Written by: Hannah Schmutzer
December 06, 2023
INTRO: To Wear Purple
I dressed the same for the first seventeen years of my life.
I wasn’t interested in fashion. I didn’t know what looked good on me. I didn’t want control of how I was going to be perceived. It wasn’t until I moved across the country for university, and then once again to another country, that I started paying attention. Paying attention to fashion, and paying attention to the narratives I associated with styles, with people, and with stereotypes.
Knowingly or not, I came to express these sudden thoughts and narratives physically through fashion. I went from the girl-next-door to dyed hair, seven ear piercings (still have to respect my Egyptian and Austrian parents’ loathe for facial piercings!), and Doc Martens as my everyday shoes. My physical narrative changed, and perceptions of me changed. A whole new world of intersections of judgements, biases, stereotypes, and preferences—my own, and those of others—revealed itself. Except this time, I wanted a say in my branding. I wanted to curate my physical expression of self through fashion.
Something that stuck with me was my grandmother telling me she preferred my purple hair over my previously dyed red hair. I had always liked purple, and I slowly but surely converted to purple-ism. I had purple cups, purple curtains, amethyst jewelry, purple pajamas and socks, and on top of it all, purple hair. Like I said, slowly but surely.
Having colored hair is already a physical narrative, but I began to think, “What was the narrative of my hair and accessories being purple?”
Let’s take a pause here for some self-reflection.
What narratives do you associate with the color purple?
What narratives come to mind when you see a purple satin bathrobe? A purple cardigan? A congressman wearing a purple tie? A chic fashion student in a purple monochrome outfit?
Does wealth and status come to mind?
Does spirituality come to mind?
Is there an air of individualism? Art? Religion? Politics?
Follow me down this rabbit hole to better understand the different narratives purple represents. To reveal how, in fashion, it becomes a narrative relayed without the use of language, a narrative rooted in contextual, social, and historical norms—and in individuals’ judgements, biases, and perceptions.
A Caste in Cloth
IMAGE: Detail from a Greek manuscript dated 879-883 AD, now held at the National Library of France.
Of Gods, Myths, and (Holy) Spirits
IMAGE: Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz presides over an observance of All Souls’ Day at the John Paul II Sanctuary in Krakow on November 11, 2018. (Photo by Joanna Adamik for the Archdiocese of Krakow.)
A “Pop” of Culture and Color
A museum patron admires some of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies paintings in the Musée de l’Orangerie. (PHOTO CREDIT: Adrian Scottow [CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED])
The Politics of Purple
British actress and producer Lillie Langtry. (SOURCE: Langtry illustration by Herbert Gustave Schmalz , circa 1900)
CONCLUSION: Weaving the Web
With all these different symbols and meanings of purple, what even is purple anymore?
Is it a marker of spiritual journeys? Of the road to enlightenment?
What about a symbol of wealth, status, and power?
Or how about purple’s expression of mysticism and wisdom?
Is purple as a signifier of political orientation? Of sexual orientation?
Is it a symbol of visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community? For women’s suffrage—and furthermore, for women’s rights?
Well, hopefully by now you can see that, firstly, purple’s meaning is socially contextual; secondly, it is influenced by our own personal biases and preferences; and thirdly, it can be whatever we make it to be!
The narratives of purple are vast and yet interconnected, like a spider’s web always being remade and rewoven.
At the center of the web is purple’s history, which is placed in an economic frame and tells a story of wealth and class.
But then it spins out—to religion and spirituality, to art and pop culture, to politics and social movements, and to our own personal narratives of purple.
So much of purple’s narrative is tied back to fashion—to the difficult natural production of purple dyes. And fashion is a form of self-expression. It is a physical representation of one’s social identity. It can relay narratives about yourself without the use of language, rooting itself in culture, norms, creative style, stereotypes, etc. It is like a personal branding.
The colors we wear, the shape of our silhouettes, the accessories that accompany our body share a story—they all share a story.
Purple shares a story.
So, what story of purple are you sharing?
Author Bio
Hannah Schmutzer is a is a fourth-year Honors College undergraduate with a Conflict Analysis and Resolution major and a minor in Global Affairs. She is currently pursuing a double concentration in Peacebuilding in Divided Societies and Cross-Cultural Communication and Conflict. She was also a Spring 2023 Peacebuilding Fellow at the Carter School. After moving across the country from California to pursue her education at GMU, she spent half of her first year studying abroad in South Korea. She aims to use creative outlets and narrative work to better understand diverse people in conflict and division.
HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE
Schmutzer, Hannah. (2023, December 6). “Purple palette: Weaving a narrative of color.” The Narrative Transformation Lab. https://tntlab.carterschool.gmu.edu/discover/rabbit-holes/purple-palette/.
Further Reading
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Black, D. (2023, June 12). Color purple: Symbolism, magick, dreams, associations & more. Witchipedia at Magickal. https://magickalspot.com/the-color-purple/.
Color of the Year 2018: PANTONE 18-3838 ULTRA VIOLET. (2018). Pantone. https://www.pantone.com/articles/color-of-the-year/color-of-the-year-2018.
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Echolls, T. (2017, September 29). Religious symbolism of purple. Synonym. https://classroom.synonym.com/religious-symbolism-of-purple-12086326.html.
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