The Love of Purple

If anyone had asked me what my favourite colour was before 2008, I would have said blue. Still, I wasn’t a passionate colour fan – and I would probably have had to think for a few minutes before my answer. But some things happened in 2008 that changed that!

The Purple Gift that I received in 2008

In January 2008, I suddenly decided to take up an offer to teach in China, in the wonderful city of Shaoxing, which I had never heard about.  It was a crazy few weeks before I departed Australia, and crazier when I arrived there, for I had so much to learn about living there.

I taught several classes – working Monday to Friday in the College, (which became a university while I was there), and at the end of the semester, as we celebrated our hard work, one class of students gave me a gift that I treasure to this day.  I treasured all the gifts I received, especially from one class that gave me items in the colour purple.  I was curious and asked the students why they had chosen the colour purple.  They had noticed that I had a few items in purple.  I hadn’t realised that I had so many purple things, but the girls convinced me that purple was “my” colour.  And so it started that I would always seek purple items when shopping.

One of the items was a purple bowl (pictured above), in which tiny pieces of paper had wonderful words about me and my teaching in that semester.  when I feel sad or upset I unroll the little messages – all positive – and it makes me feel much better. 15 years ago and it is still very important to me!

Purple and Me – 2023

Purple is my colour of choice now – but it is not easy!  It is hard to find clothing in purple – some of the major dress shops have little or nothing in that colour.  I have fabric to make some myself – perhaps a task over the Christmas/New Year holidays.  But I do wear a lot – I’ve made purple earrings, I colour my hair purple, and I wear purple nail polish.  And as much purple as I can.

Me in purple

But there was someone who really did it well, and sadly today I learned that she had passed away.  I met Dale Spender many years ago – perhaps in the 1980’s, I don’t recall exactly when, but we met at several women’s events during that period.  It was before I was “outed” as a purple-lover, but she took it to the highest level – and was a great feminist, writer and speaker.  She really used the colour purple everywhere including lipstick and more.

Read here about her amazing life.

Why the colour Purple?

There is much written about the colour purple.  It is considered a colour related to the “royals”.  If you explore Google with purple as your search word you will learn many things about the colour.  It is made using red and blue colours – and red is seen as the power colour.  Does that ring any bells with you?

A famous film called “The Colour Purple” released in 1985, brought the colour into popularity.   You can read more about the movie here.  This article in Wikipedia is full of great information too.

Everyone loves Purple

While I like to see it as the colour for women, and everyone will see the colour at the time of International Women’s Day, and much of the merchandise the colour is used.  But many organisations use purple – it is not exclusive to women’s organisations!

Purple Jewellery and more

I have been making my own jewellery for years – and if I see any piurple beading in a bead shop, I will buy it.  I have plenty of necklaces and earrings.

More purple things

So my love of purple continues – my friends and family sometimes give me some funny comments about it, but it is me.  The more purple the merrier.

Oh, and I do wear purple eye shadow and occasionally purple lipstick!