Actually they knew that because of the huge social colour stereotypes back then too. If my memory serves me correctly, the women all wore head veils, the virgins were pale blue and the married women darker blue. Because they want to reinforce the virgin aspect of the birth, they usually depict her with light blue headscarf. Someone might know more about the actual shades etc... but that is my understanding of why she wore blue
Mary is consistently depicted in religious iconography to be wearing blue...apparently, she's wearing blue in the artwork/statues etc because the Church, who commissioned the art, had 'verified' several 'apparitions' of Mary - it's reasonable to expect that the Church would want her depicted accurately....although of course we have about as much surety that Mary wore blue as we do that Jesus, an Israeli, was white with dark blonde hair and blue eyes....
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