A lady wearing purple as a sign of her femininity, whether she is girly and sweet, or graceful and mature. For millennia, purple was the traditional colour of nobility because it was one of the most difficult (and thus expensive) colours to make with naturally occurring dyes. In fact, the Romans went so far as to make it a crime for anyone not of the nobility to wear purple in public, cementing its status in many cultures as the colour of The Beautiful Elite. This changed some time after the Industrial Revolution kicked into high gear, when synthetic dyes became the norm rather than the exception — as it so happens, one of the first colors made by coal-based dyes was mauve. So formerly expensive purple dye was now just as affordable as any other colour, and thus lost much of its association with wealth.