Purple , The New Red

Mens fashions have come a long way over the past forty years . In the years before the wild hippies 60's came along the average man wore a white shirt , long black necktie , and a black suit . The swinging 60's changed all that and along with it , the necktie .

I have noticed a new trend recently of men all over the TV airwaves wearing purple neckties . Straight men , normal men , business men , men in politics everywhere are wearing the Purple ! It's the new Red . I saw Alistair Darling , the Chancellor of England wearing a purple tie just the other day while addressing Parliament on the banking crisis . Why even ole George W. was wearing one recently and he is a good ole boy from way back when !

Red was THE POWER COLOR since the 1980's in neckties . In fact I think it was a unwritten LAW in Washington that you HAD to wear a red necktie if you wanted to be noticed , lol ! But lately I am seeing more and more serious men wearing purple ties with lavender ( another unheard of color for a man just a few years ago ) shirts , or pink shirts even . I am all for this revolution ! So far I have only seen one man who should never wear purple ,lol , but other than him , the rest of the male population looks fantastic in this new red ! As a matter of fact , Neiman Marcus is saying that the NEW LOOK is "the gray suit , you can give it a pop with a shot of purple or lavender. The power look is a gray suit worn with a white shirt and a purple tie , all in slimmer cuts ."


I am sure you are asking yourself by now why all this fascination with the Purple , right ? Well , just think a little about the history of the color purple . In the ancient world only royalty or the very , very rich could afford to wear purple . It came from a tiny snails mucus secretion that was found ONLY in Tyre, Lebanon .


Then there was a whole taboo of ordinary people wearing purple . During the Roman times only the Senators or Caesar were allowed to wear it .Centuries later only women wore purple . And that started a different sort of segregation for the Color Purple . I heard not too long ago that right after the Gold Rush of 1849 in San Francisco there was such a shortage among the population of women that there arose a organization know as the Lavender Cowboys( a walking tour called "Cruising the Castro," which is led by a woman named Trevor. Trevor explains that prior to 1849, San Francisco was a small backwater town. But when they struck gold, 40,000 people, from all over the country, flooded the city. Trevor adds, "When you take into account that most of those 40,000 were 18 to 25-year-old men, well, need I say more?" According to Trevor there was even a group of gold miners that openly referred to themselves as "The Lavender Cowboys."). They silently help built the city up into the greatest city west of the Mississippi until the Great Quake of 1906 destroyed it .They were a underground movement that wouldn't find it's equal until more recent modern times .

But all this aside .. I just like all the different shades and hues of purple . And I find it fascinating that men are into the color now too . Think of all the nice foods that come in purple . All the music groups with the color purple in their names . What about that song by Prince .. Purple Rain ? And now in the US election they are saying that there aren't just Red states ( that means states that favor the Republican party in this election ) or Blue states ( that's the Democratic states ) , no .. now there are even Purple states . They are the states previously in favor of the Republican party ( red) but now are leaning toward the Democratic party (blue) or in other words... Purple . Now that's interesting don't you think when purple stands for royalty or prehappes Presidential ?

Here is food for thought .... Purple being such a amazing color , representing honor , royalty , rarity , and uniqueness , I wonder why there hasn't ever been a nation with their flag colored Purple ?