Styles: Violet Femmes

IN ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME, purple dye, extracted from a rare mollusk, was so expensive that only VIPs sported the saturated shade. The regal hue — the color of wine grapes, irises and emperors' robes — makes its inky stamp on fashion again this fall.

"There are all these types of purple that are rich and dusky," says Betsy Fisher, who's seeing customers gulp lavender shoes, eggplant skirts and violet shirts faster than glasses of good merlot. "Purple flatters most skin tones," she says.

Best of all, such grapey goods play well with cool-weather neutrals — blacks, grays, taupes. But bypass anything that suggests Barney the dinosaur, not Barneys Co-Op. After all, you wouldn't want to get kicked out of the fashionista forum.

Here, Jennifer wears an Anna Kuan jacket ($380, Betsy Fisher, 1224 Connecticut Ave. NW; 202-785-1975), Vera Wang for Kohl's skirt ($64, Kohls.com) and hoops from H&M ($4).

» FEELING PURPLE WITH ENVY? Click here.

Hair and makeup by Victoria Stiles, T.H.E. Artist Agency.
Model, T.H.E. Artist Agency.
Photos by Marge Ely.