E very color trend has an underlying message if you know where to look, but none shouts “bow down” quite like purple. If it needed a tagline, it would be “Let them eat caket ...

The dye in question is Tyrian Purple which became a highly prized pigment in the Bronze Age and retained its importance well into the late medieval period, stated CNN.The dye was prevalent amongst ...

In Tunisia, Mohamed cracks and scrapes at snails to make authentic Tyrian purple dye. Farther south in Uganda, Akello pounds and grinds nuts by hand to make silky, luxurious East African shea butter.

The much sought-after source of purple dye came from one of the glands of a sea snail called the murex. This particular shade, known as Tyrian, was unusual because it didn’t fade and became more ...