Fall Shades & Color History

Get the Look

Burgundy Dress: Charlotte Ruse

Timberland Boots: Savers

Sunglasses: Primark 

Gold Rings: Aldo 

Moon Necklace: Moonglow.com

Watch: DKNY

Choker: Stole from sister ;) 

With every season comes a new color. Fall is especially known as the time of year where colors such as: ox blood, aubergine (French for eggplant), pumpkin, and olive green are featured as if they were not something we have seen before. This fall season the color Burgundy seems to be what everyone is raving about. Last year the color maroon was the main color, the year before that it was aubergine, and a few years before that it was ox blood.

            Color has been a key element of fashion for many, many years. It has been used to define royalty back during the Elizabethan Era between 1558-1603, and it was a law that if you were not of Nobel blood you could not wear it. The purple dye used to create garments of this color was created by the crushing of thousands of sea sells. It would take ten thousand murex mollusks to make the dye for just one toga. In this era this purple dye was worth more than its weight in gold & this became the reason it represented wealth & power (Facts from: http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/color-purple.htm).

            Purple isn’t the only fall color we have seen dictating history however, olive green has been a very important color for years and years due to the Army. In fact, the army has actually been a HUGE influencer for both color, pattern (camouflage), and tailoring. You can see how we still use this influence in our modern day fashion culture. The color Olive Green was originally called “Olive Drab,” and was used as camouflage for uniforms in the U.S. Army since WWII, and has influenced fashion ever since.

            Every color has a history and it is so amazing how influential color still is today. Whenever we see those fall shades we are excited and awakened for all the season traditions to come. Apple picking, pumpkin picking, corn mazes, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Apple Cider, Pumpkin pie, etc. Fall is a very unique season in the sense that colors seem to go through a cycle and come back around every couple years. This is not as common in Spring, Summer, and Winter, although, of course it does happen.

            The other day my boyfriend and I visited a local farm and saw all the gorgeous colors that made us feel the autumn spirit. I think one of the obvious reasons we get excited about color more this season than others is because of the changing leaves. Fall is a time of a change in pace, and it is represented by the change in shades our fellow trees endure. It is something that people from all over the world come to see and bask in the beauty of nature.

            Just as fashion cycles through color so does nature, and the colors of fall fashion seem to emulate those we see around us. This season I want to challenge you to use those colors as an experiment. A lot of people are afraid of color and once the season hits we resort back to our all black everything. This year be a little bolder; engage yourself in the history behind the colors you see. Play around with different shades and see if you find something that defines and flatters you.

            Below I listed the definitions and some brief history behind some of our most popular fall colors in recent fashion history. When I took my fashion history course one summer in California I learned so many interesting facts about how much fashion really influenced our world. I think it is important to know why we wear the things that are popular in today’s fashion, because it always stems from our past.

            In the outfit above I wore a burgundy midi dress with my black choker, my black timberland boots, and this very special necklace from https://moonglow.com/ to which I will be writing a whole article about in the near future!

            I hope you enjoyed the little fashion history I wanted to share, and found it very interesting, as well. Fashion was something that used to be decided for us, now we have style and the ability to determine our own fashion. It is really cool to know the history of colors and fashion and know that it still influences what we wear now.

            The next time you reach for your all black ensemble try to encourage yourself to expand your horizons by adding a little burgundy, olive green, or maybe even aubergine? Remember that once upon a time you couldn’t wear purple unless you were of Nobel blood, or olive unless you were in the army. Times have certainly changed and given us the opportunity to choose our own style. It is a blessing we take for granted that is for sure, and we are lucky we no longer have to live by any “rules of fashion.”

Olive Green:  is a dark yellowish-green color like that of unripe or green olives. The first recorded use of olive drab as a color name in English was in 1892.

Burgundy: a reddish purple color; Burgundy is a deep shade of red. It is named after Burgundy wine. This wine is named after the Burgundy region of France.

Maroon: is a dark brownish red color which takes its name from the French word marron, or chestnut. 

Aubergine: Eggplant is a dark purple or brownish-purple color that resembles the color of the outer skin of European eggplants. Another name for the color eggplant is aubergine (the French, German and British English word for eggplant).

Ox Blood: The first use of the term oxblood as a color name in the English language dates back to 1695–1705. The name is derived from the color of the blood of an ox. The ox blood was used as a pigment to dye fabric, leather and paint. It is most commonly described as a dark red with purple and brown undertones.

(All definitions found on google.com)