> For one, it costs more money to dye the plastic or paint/anodize the metal.
Ironically, I suspect the reason is exactly the opposite: that colour is now essentially free compared to grey/muted. I certainly don't think people are buying grey carpets, on balance, because it's cheaper.
It used to be that it was difficult to colour things significantly. In the long distant past, you can think of "royal purple" being so expensive that only the real elite have access to it. In early 20th century, that's no longer exactly the case but still I would expect colour fabric is somewhat expensive, so it's still the preserve of a richer class. When it become accessible in the mid 20th century, it becomes popular as people still think of it as being more premium. Finally, another generation comes along that doesn't think of deep colour as being a premium product (because everyone has it) and either rebels or just evaluates it on its actual merit.
None of the above is backed with any actual evidence. But that's certainly how elite clothing has progressed i.e. why world leaders wear grey suits today instead of elaborate coloured gowns.
> you can think of "royal purple" being so expensive that only the real elite have access to it.
Depends on the timeframe, those Purple Islands shellfish were juicy at the very beginning, I think got selectively bred (by accident) to have very very little purple. Purple was originally a substance, like cocaine or gold or blue paint. Later got called purple dye. At the beginning there was no other purple anything anywhere (porphyry marble but that's different, and not the same shade, same root though).
Not even the elite, the king and maybe his family too. Elites wore red, Patrician (one of the meanings, it's a double entendre) is those who wore red. During the Republic wearing purple was a death wish. Caesar I think didn't refuse fast enough at one point, something like that. Then during the Empire--I think right away--purple was back. At least in porphyry it was back. I think in clothes and perhaps statue paint? Late Empire it was by far the most expensive substance. Like a pound of silk dyed purple was worth twelve people's lives.
And there were different shades, not like now where it's like what's the RGB hex of that color squirt squirt squirt here it is, #123456, or #abcdef. It's not the real deal.
Yes, and nowadays we associate bright colors more and more with ads screaming at us for attention. This makes these colors feel cheap and tasteless, you don't want to look like an ad
Ironically, I suspect the reason is exactly the opposite: that colour is now essentially free compared to grey/muted. I certainly don't think people are buying grey carpets, on balance, because it's cheaper.
It used to be that it was difficult to colour things significantly. In the long distant past, you can think of "royal purple" being so expensive that only the real elite have access to it. In early 20th century, that's no longer exactly the case but still I would expect colour fabric is somewhat expensive, so it's still the preserve of a richer class. When it become accessible in the mid 20th century, it becomes popular as people still think of it as being more premium. Finally, another generation comes along that doesn't think of deep colour as being a premium product (because everyone has it) and either rebels or just evaluates it on its actual merit.
None of the above is backed with any actual evidence. But that's certainly how elite clothing has progressed i.e. why world leaders wear grey suits today instead of elaborate coloured gowns.