Hellfire

In Europe, red dyes were very expensive and rare until the mass cultivation of madder, a plant whose roots yield red dye, became possible. And when the Spaniards learned how to extract carmine, a red dye obtained from the cochineal insect that lives on cacti, from indigenous people in America, textile manufacturers started experimenting with new shades of red. In the late eighteenth century, a particularly popular color was the purplish-red hue that earned the vivid name ‘the color of hellfire’. It’s a bold, daring color that was, for the longest time, considered completely unsuitable for young and modest ladies.

Today, in the hexadecimal code used by designers, it is denoted by the value #CD212A.