Post by snacky on Feb 1, 2015 5:44:28 GMT
Today I was reading a memoir of the late 19th century that referred to the 1890s as the "Mauve Decade". I had to check Wikipedia for why. It was because of Perkin's invention of the aniline dye process, which created the sensation for mauve - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Perkin . I knew about Perkin because I did a paper about him in college (the mauve thing lead to all sorts of interesting developments in the history of technology from dye patent wars to the invention of mustard gas). The interesting thing was seeing a woman who lived *during that period* call it the Mauve Decade.
Actually she said it was only called the Mauve Decade in retrospect. At the time it was Fin-de-Siecle. She's the same one I mentioned who talks about how the novel Trilby set the fad in everything from clothing to food. She also talks about how everyone was into being modern and decadent. She cites The Yellow Book, Aubrey Beardsley, and also a San Francisco litmag called The Lark (origin of "The Purple Cow"). By the way she actually describes a visit by Oscar Wilde - apparently he was bored to death by Americans, though. She also describes dresses with a zigzag pattern (Julia's Manhattan dress?) as being more "modern" than "Parisian fashion".
What's interesting from a historical perspective is you don't get any of that "end of times" doomsdayism that you would get at the end of a millennium. At the same time there seems to be a very determined effort to escape the old and embrace the new. Conservatives would certainly be thought of as fuddyduddies while progressives were looking to Tesla to draw limitless energy from the atmosphere.
Actually she said it was only called the Mauve Decade in retrospect. At the time it was Fin-de-Siecle. She's the same one I mentioned who talks about how the novel Trilby set the fad in everything from clothing to food. She also talks about how everyone was into being modern and decadent. She cites The Yellow Book, Aubrey Beardsley, and also a San Francisco litmag called The Lark (origin of "The Purple Cow"). By the way she actually describes a visit by Oscar Wilde - apparently he was bored to death by Americans, though. She also describes dresses with a zigzag pattern (Julia's Manhattan dress?) as being more "modern" than "Parisian fashion".
What's interesting from a historical perspective is you don't get any of that "end of times" doomsdayism that you would get at the end of a millennium. At the same time there seems to be a very determined effort to escape the old and embrace the new. Conservatives would certainly be thought of as fuddyduddies while progressives were looking to Tesla to draw limitless energy from the atmosphere.
