Because that is another of the things that marked the change from early Victorian to Mid Victorian. We’ll focus on natural dyes – those made by nature and not in the chemistry lab like synthetic ones. This will take a bit, so we’ll find some dogs and cats to break it up.
In the beginning.. as far back as recorded human history, there were dyes. All the blues were plant based like indigo or woad. Purple came from murex which was a mollusk which yielded purpurea (purple).
(photo: The basic natural dye plants we will discuss)