Red fashion

Red fashion

Red and purple have been the most coveted colours in fashion history, becoming a symbol of royalty and the rich throughout most of the world.

When Spain conquered Mexico in the 1500s, they discovered textiles dyed vivid red. The Aztec’s secret was cochineal, a small insect (specifically the female) that was scraped off cactuses, dried, and then crushed. The Spaniards soon began exporting cochineal to Europe. Unlike the other sources of red dye at the time, it produced an intense, long-lasting colour. For a long time, these bugs were one of the best-kept secrets in the dye industry. The Spaniard’s monopoly on the colour’s source made it one of their most valuable exports from Mexico, second only to silver. 

The cochineal business continued to thrive until the 1900s when synthetic dyes, which were cheaper and less labour-intensive, began to be produced on a large scale.