Why Prince loved the colour purple, and wore it all the time

What makes you the real you musical icon? Well, some of the same factors that can contribute to success in any walk of life: charisma, motivation, talent, opportunity, a chance fateful encounter that can also change the course of someone's life... However, it's not just about that. To truly stand the test of time and become a pop culture legend, it takes particular person. A sense of style. Those rare musicians who reach the very pinnacle of success have something special. They have a commanding look and an image that literally puts the audience in a trance.....

No doubt about it: Prince was an icon in the truest sense of the word. In January 1997, in an interview, emphasising his then identity as an artist known as a The Prince of Pophe put his hand round his luxurious property and said:

"As you can see, I'm not broke as rumoured."

By then, he had sold over 100 million records around the world, cementing his legendary status. Prince or not, there was something truly royal about that star, and that seemed to be part of why he enjoyed wearing it so much purple colour. So much so that some fans have even nicknamed him that: 'Purple'.

A little backstory: why Tyrrh purple is such an expensive hue

The world's nobility, royalty and other dignitaries tend to have a taste for the finer things in this life. This luxury is often associated with travelling in higher circles as, historically, the rich like to dress in purple.

Chief Librarian Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design, Jennifer Coleman Bracchi, explained the reasons for this association and how long ago it occurred. The fact is that the colouring agent known as Tyrian purplewas something more special than simple combinations of blue and red colours. Tyrian purple is reported to date back to the Phoenicians in 1200 BC. Snail slime was used to create this rare hue, and the process was so painstaking and expensive that it seems only the upper classes were worthy of it.

According to history, the leaders of the Byzantine Empire literally lived in Tyrian purple: they wore clothes of this colour, decorated their houses with it and so on. And some Roman emperors even forbade their men to wear this colour! But that was kind of silly and pointless. They didn't really have anything to worry about - Tyrian purple was so rare that only its shade was honoured, and its production was so expensive that the average worker could buy only a small amount of wool on his annual wage. What are we talking about?

To produce an ounce of dye required about 250,000 sea snails Bolinus brandariswhich made it clear that it was the very last word in luxury. Prince, being a superstar himself, seems to have loved purple for that reason. And his half-sister later confirmed it.

Not one, but two: whether Prince liked the colour yellow.

You may not have known, but Prince's name was his real name: Prince Rogers Nelson Was born in 1958 and grew up in Minneapolis to an African American family. Subsequently, he became a star attracting worldwide attention and it seems that his great love for wearing the colour purple is due to the royal image he created for himself.

In August 2017, already after the star's death, his half-sister Sharon Nelson discussed the topic. She stated that wearing purple "always made him feel like a prince," going on to say that "he especially loved the colour purple because it represented royalty." However, Nelson also noted that her brother had room in his heart for other colours. And perhaps for devoted fans who used to associate Prince's name with the "Purple."it became more than just a rant....

Tika Nelson - the musician's own sister, who visited the exhibition after his tragic death. "My name is Prince." (which opened in London in October 2017 and displayed a lot of memorabilia belonging to the icon). Among the rarities was a guitar Cloudwhich Prince used in his most famous performances... The models came in a variety of colours, but the most notable one was the bright yellow an instrument of which Tika said the following:

"It's weird because people always associate purple with my brother, but actually his favourite colour was yellow. Well, or at least it was another one of his favourite colours."

Sadly, the music maestro himself is no longer around to settle the dispute, but this statement is pretty much in line with that vibrant lifethat he was leading.