Happy Tuesday everyone! This week’s color is a deep, magenta-purple originally pulled from the sea. It’s also the world’s first truly royal color and one of the most powerful status symbols in history.
Psychology
Psychologically, this ancestral magenta-leaning purple shade represents prestige, mysticism, intelligence, sensuality, and power. Its red base adds warmth, while its purple identity symbolizes wisdom and mystery.
Brief History
Tyrian Purple began in the Phoenician city of Tyre, where artisans discovered that murex sea snails produced a tiny drop of fluid that when exposed to sun, fermented into a vivid magenta-wine dye.
Kind of a brutal process, however, as more than 10,000 snails were needed for one singular gram of dye. The smell was also so intense that dye workshops had to be kept far from city centers.
Only the richest elites could afford this red-violet dye. Moreover, in ancient Rome, it became illegal for ordinary citizens to wear Tyrian — only emperors wore this color of divine authority.
Tyrian dye later stopped being produced from snails around the 7th–9th centuries due to it being so labor-intensive, costly, and stinky.
Purple still remained a royal color through the Byzantine era, evolving into a mark of imperial status as the empire shifted eastward. Their specific shade, however, became a more cool-toned blue-violet.
And today, Tyrian continues to resurface everywhere from runway collections and interior palettes, to luxury branding. Speaking of which, let’s get into some design applications!
Fashion
Burberry Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear
These two looks from Burberry’s Fall 2025 featured the shade across lush velvet and glossy leather, turning the magenta-purple into something tactile and unmistakably contemporary, yet still regal.
Alaïa Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear
And Alaïa put the purple into motion with the sculptural fringe skirt, paired with a black turtleneck bodysuit, sleek black boots and bold hoop earrings.
Interior Design
This shade undoubtedly wraps a space in both warmth and drama, with a depth that also adds sophistication.
In the first image below, you can see the velvety and cocooning effect of the walls along with the couch, while in the second the glossy Tyrian tiles feel luxurious and somewhat glamorous.
And here, the shade turns a bedroom into an inviting jewel-box with rich, enveloping walls that function as a regal backdrop against pops of brighter colors such as red, magenta, and green.
Branding
In branding, Tyrian works particularly well for fragrance houses, jewelry brands, boutique wineries, heritage printmakers, and any brand wanting to position itself as rare or ritualistic.
KVD Beauty
KVD Beauty, for example, uses a similar magenta-purple to further amplify its dark, romantic identity. Paired with black florals and high contrast, the shade helps create an unmistakably luxurious and moody atmosphere.
Pantone® & More
If you’re interested in working with Tyrian, I recommend Pantone PMS 216 C. I’ve also included HEX, RGB and CMYK details below.
HEX: #720345
RGB: (114, 3, 69)
CMYK: 0, 97, 39, 55
As always, thank you for reading, and hopefully you learned something new about today’s royal purple! If you enjoyed reading, please give this post a like so I know what you guys want to see more of :)
And tell me, which color should I feature next? See you next Tuesday!