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I do wear color. As long as it is black, and if you think about it, a color hue can be as light as white and as dark as Diane Pernet's shaded view on fashion. The reasons why vary but in the end it is not a choice, but a matter of taste and "being".
After some research about color psychology and stuff that I tend to cling to for the mystery of it, I found out that black has several meanings in different fields ranging from religion to one's way of seeing life. The name "Power" is commonly given to black as an authority imposing color that exhales strength and toughness. For Christianity though, black is the color of modesty and subjection to the divine, meaning God, which is why nuns and priests wear black. Now insecurity is also a major characteristic of those who choose to wear it, always according to color psychology, and that's because black works as a shield against others' attempts to approach you in any way. Depression etc are also linked to it, but let's be adults here, I'm not depressed nor I want to die or marry death (even though that would mean an infinitive collection of seer black capes). For those mourning it has always been the only color, and also for those of humble origins who were expected to wear black as a sign of modesty and simplicity in contrast to their employers flamboyant attire. Chanel was the sinlge most important designer/style icon to promote it as a fashion choice rather than an occasional color that signifies something less that the luxury it was destined to stand for.
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| Right: Chanel's sketch of the little black dress, a piece that would mark the history of fashion when published in Vogue as the ultimate must have for every woman. |
Fashion-wise the single most flattering color, interwoven with terms like Parisian chic, punk and a whole bunch of different movements. Coco Chanel described it as the ultimate of choices for women, a color that along with white has it all. Then again fashion according to Anna Dello Russo has to be uncomfortable and as it seems very very colorful but not to overshadow her statements I feel the need to state that for the old-school fashion addicts black is the only way, and it is no rule but an utter choice. I had a conversation with the creative director of my fashion school last week (we were both in total black outfits by the way) and we were talking about people coming out of defiles dressed like crows in total black and it's really interesting if you think about it how people into fashion are out of it at the same time. That for a little few, for the rest are (as Suzy Menkes described them in her amazing article named "The Circus of Fashion") boosting peacocks, colorful and feathery with chains and caps all over. Dello Russo was one of them by the way. So having said that, I think that it comes down to what you wanna be in the industry that forces you to wear black. For Menkes a person in black is an observer. A lover of fashion that enjoys it as an art form rather than a "show-yourself" business in which the girl in the highest / more embellished heels gets the prize.
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In the end it comes down to what makes you feel better that you have to go with, and black does the thing for me. Besides we live in such a happy world, don't we?.. and black is such a happy color to match it with darling..
