I'm not entirely sure how to word the question, and I don't even know if this is the right sub, so sorry if this is but what I'm trying to ask is if there a cultural shift or revolution that happened where we started to wear brighter clothes. I've been looking up every phrase I can think of on my school's library search engine but nothing seems to come up. If anyone could point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate that but if not no problem. Thanks a lot
Also if this is the wrong sub for this type of question, what sub do you think could answer it?
Edit: Also if it helps I've been using Gale Virtual Reference Library, I have access to a bunch of other online resources so if you think a different one would be more helpful, that would also be appreciated.
The trouble is that I'm not really sure what shift you're talking about. Brightly-colored clothes have been acceptable throughout history, broadly speaking - there are certain periods and places where they were discouraged for certain people, and various colors have been in or out of fashion, but there's no time before bright colors and time after. Natural dyes don't just produce muted earth tones - indigo, woad, kermes/cochineal, brazilwood, and saffron, among others can produce very bright colors.
I can probably tell you more about the particular fashion changes you're thinking of if you can tell me when you were thinking that the shift occurred. Like /u/caffarelli said, there's the development of chemical dyes in the 1850s-1860s that resulted in electric blues and purples; there's also the Weiner Werkstatte and related avant-garde fashions of the 1910s-1920s that came after the relatively pale 1900s, and I can think of a few others.
This is a tricky question because color is subject to fashion like anything else! But I would argue that the invention of artificial dyes in the late 19th century was a big part, because it made dying fabric in bright colors cheap and easy. The British Victorians certainly saw a boom in bright fashions after that. There's two books cited in that link, one by me, and one by a commenter under me.
Are you writing a paper on color in fashion?
I was thinking something like the Harlem Renaissance had a big influence on this, but like I mentioned I can't seem to find anything that specifically mentions that. Any thoughts?