Purple was in such vogue in the 1860s, thanks to William Perkin's synthetic dye Mauvine, that even Charles Dickens could not resist taking a note of it!
Charles Dickens wrote in 1859:
"As I look out of my window,
the apotheosis of Parkins’s purple seems at hand
purple hands wave from open carriages
purple hands shake each other at street doors
purple hands threaten each other from opposite sides of the street;
purple striped gowns cram barouches,
jam up cabs,
throng steamers,
fill railway stations, all flying countrywards,
like so many
migrating birds of purple paradise".