I'm glad you like them! And I'm so grateful to everyone who threw advice and ideas and fixes at me, you have no idea.
... Okay, no, I CAN do quick dye breakdowns! Maybe quick.
First things first, remember it's a spectrum, not three categories (peasant, middle class, nobility); without sumptuary laws, a rich merchant's wife could dress better than the countess of a war-torn county.
Everybody could wear any brown. Just across the board. Brown was easy and durable and while it wasn't what you might call formal, sometimes a redhead just looks spectacular in a certain shade of brown.
Reds varied; tyrian purple is more like what we'd think of as burgundy or wine-purple, and was wicked expensive. Kermes red is that true gorgeous lipstick red... and was likewise wicked expensive, being made from the shells of tiny insects. Madder red is softer, not as true a red, sometimes more like a really dark pink (made from mushrooms), and that was was more readily available to all classes. (Pink is was also available to everybody, from madder or berries that don't quite stain things red.)
True saffron yellow was expensive, because saffron was-- and is!-- the most expensive dye and spice in the world (made from the pollen of saffron flowers, individually harvested by hand, even today). However, greeny-yellows were readily available from plant matter, and were regularly worn.
Green was expensive, because it was hard to really manage. Robin Hood is traditionally pictured in a color called Lincoln Green not because it was good camouflage but because it was a fairly famous dye from Lincolnshire-- quintessentially English. You could get greens y over-dyeing your yellows with woad, but it would be kind of a muddier green, not a bright true green.
Blue was available to most folk in different concentrations; you got it from woad (local in Europe) or indigo (imported from Asia, but stronger)-- both plants have the same pigment. And it is PERMANENT.
Purple is tricky; like I said, tyrian purple is actually more of a winey-reddish-purple, but a grape purple was also available from things like blueberries or over-dyeing madder with woad. It would be available to everybody, though.
Black has an awkward history. There were ways to achieve black-ish clothes; the Vikings made a sort of navy by over-dyeing black wool with woad, but most other places, iron and walnut were used when black fabric was wanted. However, that resulted in a garment that fell apart after a few years because the iron sped up the decay of the wool or silk fibers. After the discover of the New World, Spain got all up into Mexico and found a way to use mesquite as a dyestuff... resulting in a colorfast black dye that didn't degrade protein fibers. At that point black went from being a peasant color to being a rich color used by the nobility.
I don't know about orange.
And in general, the brighter the dye, the more expensive the fabric. More muted colors are very peasant-appropriate, but that's not to say some fine lady couldn't decide she likes how she looks in dove gray.
no subject
... Okay, no, I CAN do quick dye breakdowns! Maybe quick.
First things first, remember it's a spectrum, not three categories (peasant, middle class, nobility); without sumptuary laws, a rich merchant's wife could dress better than the countess of a war-torn county.
Everybody could wear any brown. Just across the board. Brown was easy and durable and while it wasn't what you might call formal, sometimes a redhead just looks spectacular in a certain shade of brown.
Reds varied; tyrian purple is more like what we'd think of as burgundy or wine-purple, and was wicked expensive. Kermes red is that true gorgeous lipstick red... and was likewise wicked expensive, being made from the shells of tiny insects. Madder red is softer, not as true a red, sometimes more like a really dark pink (made from mushrooms), and that was was more readily available to all classes. (Pink is was also available to everybody, from madder or berries that don't quite stain things red.)
True saffron yellow was expensive, because saffron was-- and is!-- the most expensive dye and spice in the world (made from the pollen of saffron flowers, individually harvested by hand, even today). However, greeny-yellows were readily available from plant matter, and were regularly worn.
Green was expensive, because it was hard to really manage. Robin Hood is traditionally pictured in a color called Lincoln Green not because it was good camouflage but because it was a fairly famous dye from Lincolnshire-- quintessentially English. You could get greens y over-dyeing your yellows with woad, but it would be kind of a muddier green, not a bright true green.
Blue was available to most folk in different concentrations; you got it from woad (local in Europe) or indigo (imported from Asia, but stronger)-- both plants have the same pigment. And it is PERMANENT.
Purple is tricky; like I said, tyrian purple is actually more of a winey-reddish-purple, but a grape purple was also available from things like blueberries or over-dyeing madder with woad. It would be available to everybody, though.
Black has an awkward history. There were ways to achieve black-ish clothes; the Vikings made a sort of navy by over-dyeing black wool with woad, but most other places, iron and walnut were used when black fabric was wanted. However, that resulted in a garment that fell apart after a few years because the iron sped up the decay of the wool or silk fibers. After the discover of the New World, Spain got all up into Mexico and found a way to use mesquite as a dyestuff... resulting in a colorfast black dye that didn't degrade protein fibers. At that point black went from being a peasant color to being a rich color used by the nobility.
I don't know about orange.
And in general, the brighter the dye, the more expensive the fabric. More muted colors are very peasant-appropriate, but that's not to say some fine lady couldn't decide she likes how she looks in dove gray.
I hope that helps!