(Direct translation from the Spanish edition of Vogue October 2009)
Have you ever stopped to count how many black garments are in your closet? If you answer average, 41% of the total should be black, and should have 3 pairs of black jeans, 3 shirts, 6 dresses, 6 sweaters, 12 t-shirts and skirts, 5 pairs of trousers and 12 pairs of shoes and boots. That is, at least, which concludes a study in a british newspaper whose results encouraged the English Janey Marshall to create last year, the online store dedicated only to clothes of that colour, basicallyblack. com.
As Janey Marshall said : “Let’s face it, we do not know any woman who do not like black clothes. ” A cast of women as stylish as influential in various sectors of the fashion help us to delve into why this dark devotion. “The colour black is discreet, timeless, has class and is a safe choice, both to give a picture as classical avant-garde, ” says the Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester. Spanish ForAmaya Arzuaga, “its elegant, more simple than other colours and it is easier to combine. “It is the colour of the models excellence, we usually take for the casting because its stylish and its neutral “, says the top Sheila Marquez. The young director of the Fashion Museum in Antwerp, Kaat Debo, adds a key observation: “Just look at figures like Kate Moss, the Olsen twins, Victoria Beckham, Erin Wasson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Diane Kruger and Carine Roitfeld, editor of Vogue Paris. Today, black is associated the fashionistas more than ever, perhaps because it supports better geometric silhouettes wide shoulder pad that both are carried, by rising designers such as Alexander Wang, Christophe Decarnin (Balmain) and Rick Owen “I think that 85% of my clothing is black. If I carry a very special dress, I like the total look, if that is easier, combined with supplements of other colour, “ says Amaya Arzuaga. Sheila Marquez estimated 70% of your closet may be black: “There are many basics like a blazer, a cap, a minidress, a jacket biker, some boots, sports kit. Martina Klein, the model also ensures that she receives many more flattering pictures when sh is in black: “In principle I like more colours and prints, but I’ve learned to ignore that my first instinct because experience has shown me that black gives me more strength. In winter I wear black almost every day and in summer, I save that for the night! “
Its no wonder that almost all designers use black as their base colour season after season, like the shops. “Always offer black, because it is versatile and eternally chic. Undoubtedly it is a commercial colour. Even designers who have not submitted it on the catwalk include it relentlessly in their collections for stores, ” says Kaat Debo, who has been documenting on the subject for an exhibition opening in 2010 dedicated to black in the museum she runs.
So is it true? Are we obsessed with the colour black when it comes to our clothes?
