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When her husband claimed the Democratic presidential nomination, Michelle Obama chose to wear her signature pearls with a simple sheath dress – which was a rich purple colour. Across the pond, another woman behind a powerful man, First Lady of France Carla Bruni Sarkozy, also displayed a penchant for this plummy colour. For a state dinner at Elysée Palace, she wore a purple Hermès gown and she wowed the British public in a rich grape-coloured Dior coat when she arrived at 10 Downing Street for a state visit earlier this year.
"I do think that purple is the perfect symbolic choice for both women," said Renee Labbe, director of the Canadian division of Promo-Styl, an international trend and colour forecasting agency. "Like silently saying they are already royalty – worth a presidency."
Even young starlets in Hollywood have clued in that when it comes to the power of colour, purple reigns. Blake Lively, the actress on Gossip Girl, one of the hottest television shows right now, has been spotted soaking up ultraviolet vibes.
And, come fall, a full range of shades of this berry colour, from lilac to aubergine, is proving to be a hot hue in accessories and makeup.
"Purple amethyst is one of a few `gem stone' shades trending at the moment," says Labbe. "Many chose to use it as a luxury shade, bouncing off its origins as a royalty colour but others, such as mass retailers, chose to use it as an `energy' colour."
Through out history, power players have always shown a passion for purple.
The Egyptian queen Cleopatra so loved the colour, she purportedly had her servants soak thousands of Purpura snails to get a single ounce of Tyrian purple dye.
"The paler purples are soothing shades and are generally what I like to refer to as `Zen' colours – naturally therapeutic," Labbe says.
