I think there's a fundamental misalignment. The people who want to "retvrn" specifically want something stern and self serious, and do not want you or anyone else to have fun. They probably know on some level that all that Roman stuff used to be painted bright colors, but they present the stark white version because that's more in line with what they want.

Meanwhile the people who want something joyful and colorful have an abundant wellspring of modern and traditional examples to play with while designing clothes or doing paintings or whatever it is they do. Why intentionally limit yourself to a single historical period when half the fun is combining things together in unexpected ways?