Historically, what's wrong with black leather (or black clothing in general)?

Is it because black dye is difficult to make? I know that something similar is true of purple. Is it down to cultural reasons, black being associated with mourning? Obviously, that's not much of an issue with regards to fantasy. I really am interested in why, when I read re-enactors writing about larp, there's invariably a comment along the lines of '...and so much black leather, LOL'.

-- -- --

Eos: Manius Shard. Upset.

FnH: Officious Guard no.1

Ascendancy LRP: Redvers Fenn-Cooper

Crimson Requiem: Crew

Real Life: Doug McKerracher

Quis custodiet ipsos custard?

Fame and Fortune; DT/Ref/4th monster

SkullDuggery; Baron Tamworth Grim

Faded Glory; Book Crossbowman "not a mage"

Black, as a dye, well as we all know Black isnt a colour, to get black during this time you would have to dye purple or indigo about 20 times, eventually it was so dark that it was black, this causes ALOT of problems obviously and became time consuming, as well as this, it appears it was something not worn much because of the culture, people often attempted to wear vibrant colours which were difficult to make, so although black could be counted in this, historically they just havnt found much items in black (And like stated above, using old methods, only Nobility could afford it).

You also have to look at the religious implications, social implications and mythological implications, an example or hypothosis for the vikings (my own) is Ravens are black, and Ravens were connected to Odin, who people didn't worship or speak about needlessly as many humans respected him, but feared him. Small things like this can well make Black a "No go" area colour wise for many people.

You also have to remember, that Eastern Europe / Italy / Greece (Byzantine) and Asia were more technologically advanced in some area's than say Britain and Scandinavia, so things like knowing how to dye black, make silks etc were often learned from these said regions. However again during the Dark ages many things were learned in an Oral tradition, not written, so knowledge was handed down person to person, so if someone died without that person passing on his wisdom, a ton of information could have been lost, or at least to that tribe of people, or that region.

I like the fact black is rare in this time also, as it does my nut in seeing it as a every day thing in LARP.

In regards to Black, I love the colour out of character, and wear it often. In regards to LARP if i am playing an evil character, i may well wear it, (like an Anti paladin) However, everyone wears it, everyone puts on there black leathers, and typical black leather armour, its a typical stereotype of LARP, and if everyone does it, then it stops being individual or having any serious thought process placed into your character (as a stereotype).

Long story short, black leather is fine, but when it dominates a larp system with the typical kind of black leather kit you get, it makes a group of people look like BDSM fanatics (Which i have no problem with personally ) but doesn't look as gritty and original sometimes as someone in more autum based colours.

At the end of the day, it depends in what larp system you are doing, but in my experiance Black leather in a dark age fantasy larp doesnt work too well.

I much prefer seeing a group of platemail wearing, white tabard templars, than a group of typical mercs who look a rabble and have just put black leather trousers on and black leather armour on, generally now, its un-original in my opinion.

Seaxe&Sorcery: HMS (IC) King Heimer.

Warbands: *Insert random dead character here*

Unforgotten Realms: Asvaldr

I'm of the opinion that any group that looks like it has a uniform looks cooler than one without, regardless of what said uniform is.

-- -- --

Eos: Manius Shard. Upset.

FnH: Officious Guard no.1