Wearing green in the Renaissance

[isabelladangelo]

My maternity Ren gown was green.  Oh dear, what some must have thought!  My current gown (as seen in my avitar pic) is yellow- with a green underskirt!  Apparently I'm on a roll for the "whore" colors, huh?  LOL!  Actually, no one has ever said anything to me about my color choices, though I do remember hearing, once long ago, that a certain SHADE of green was "earmarked" for the, uh, "friendly" gals...

Like I said, total myth.   If anyone is horrible enough to say anything to you, correct them and give them a good verbal assault.   

[Celtic Lady]

My wedding dress was green. I never heard any of these sayings about wearing green... until now. [/url]
P9260126 by miz_greeneyed_dragon, on Flickr][/img]

[operafantomet]

My maternity Ren gown was green.  Oh dear, what some must have thought!  My current gown (as seen in my avitar pic) is yellow- with a green underskirt!  Apparently I'm on a roll for the "whore" colors, huh?  LOL!  Actually, no one has ever said anything to me about my color choices, though I do remember hearing, once long ago, that a certain SHADE of green was "earmarked" for the, uh, "friendly" gals...

Like I said, total myth.   If anyone is horrible enough to say anything to you, correct them and give them a good verbal assault.   

Yeah, total myth. YELLOW had various undesirable connotations to the period eye, mainly because it was considered the colour of the jews, and because of this it was often used to mark various outcasts of society. Apart from jews, which many places had to wear a yellow hat or star (not a nazi invention) outside the ghetto, yellow items were often mandatory for prostitutes. Hence nobility would stay clear of the colour. Orange-yellow shades was popular, but pure, strong lemon yellow shades was not.

I have not heard of similar cases when it comes to the colour green. Closest I've found is that green was - and is  - a holy colour within Islam. It was much used by muslim soldiers in the middle ages, and the main colour of the Fatimide caliphate, and for this reason it was very little used in European heraldry (that is, coat-of-arms of finer families). But it became all the more popular in the 15th century, and it was frequent in the 16th and 17th century (this based on studies of how often green appears in known coat-of-arms). I assume this view was carried into the aesthetics of dressing, though I have no specific sources telling this was the case.

[DonaCatalina]

If you could find a copy, "Nurnberger Kunstbuch" would be a cool book to have. It is a medieval publication which lists many recipes for dyes of various colors used during the second half of the fifteenth century. Green is the color most frequently mentioned. It should be noted that it was used primarily by convents and monasteries. Green was and still is one of the most common liturgical colors for 'ordinary' days in the church's calendar.

[isabelladangelo]

http://www.elizabethan-portraits.com/Elizabeth55.jpg  QEI wearing green.  :-)

[Merlin the Elder]

http://www.elizabethan-portraits.com/Elizabeth55.jpg  QEI wearing green.  :-)

That hussy!   

[Elennare]

Green was and still is one of the most common liturgical colors for 'ordinary' days in the church's calendar.

If by "the church" you mean the Catholic Church, green is *the* liturgical color for the ordinary days.  Occasionally a different color will be used during Ordinary Time ("ordinary" as in ordinal, numbered, not "normal"), but that's due to celebrating a feast day or some other occasion.

To stay more on topic, here's a picture of me wearing green.  I somehow still don't have any pictures of my current garb, and no good ones of the previous iteration.  This was for a costume contest, but I think parts of it will show up at faire eventually.