black in fashion

BRITISH VOGUE

Black – serious black, gothic black, seductive black, restrained black, sculptural black – is back in fashion. At the turn of 2019, when designers were preparing their autumn/winter 2020 collections, the chic noncolour appeared an elegant proposal, suited to the growing taste for restraint and simplicity as we counted the environmental cost of overconsumption and grew weary of ricocheting trends.

today, dressing in black seems both a pragmatic and poetic choice. In these turbulent and transitional times, black has gained a poignant new edge.

“Although surges in black’s popularity can be attributed to periods of economic decline or political and social unrest, as a display of austerity and rebellion,” says Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu curator in charge at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City, “its fashionability also follows artistic and cultural trends. Black can be an expression of modernism, minimalism or abstraction, and its rise has also been driven by subcultural styles – by beatniks, punk, grunge and streetwear.”

“The prevalence of fashionable mourning attire during the 19th century – which was often described as alluring or becoming – paved the way for the increased use of black in fashion,” continues Bolton, who includes Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, Chanel’s black tweed, lots of Comme des Garçons, and Balenciaga’s Infanta dress – which was inspired by the paintings of Diego Velázquez

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s line-up for Valentino, which opened with a rope-tied black cashmere midi-coat over a high-necked sequinned polo neck and lug-soled boots, with glossy black lambskin poncho capes and tunic gowns to follow. “The collection stems from the desire to focus on the humanity of individuals, to depict and exalt their feeling and emotions, despite age, gender, race and disposition,” says the creative director, who looked to Marlene Dumas’s soulful black ink portraits, to the codes of classicism, and the black, blue and grey of tailored uniforms.

“When I watch somebody wearing black in the street, it’s like a drawing, an abstract shape in the space. You can focus more on the movement and attitude, there is a speed involved that I like a lot.”

Coco Chanel sought to perfect the little black dress and little black jacket throughout her career. The noncolour and the minimalist shapes of her nouveau pauvre chic provided go-anywhere clothing that could be livened up with costume jewels. “Women think of all colours except the absence of colour. I have said that black has it all. White, too. Their beauty is absolute,” she proclaimed.

Cristóbal Balenciaga amplified the drama of black with the architectural silhouettes of his bubble gown, trapeze dress and numerous iterations of the lace cocktail dress.

Japanese designers Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo made their mark in Paris in the 1980s with what became known as “scarecrow” style. Voluminous black gowns and raw-edged tailoring repudiated the bourgeois allure of the little black tailleur and challenged the very bedrock of Parisian chic only to become assimilated by it.

GOOGLE ARTS AND CULTURE

The dark suit was first created between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, and it later came to define the mainstream of menswear.At the same time women began taking up horseback riding, one of the only sports allowed of them. The clothes they wore for this noble pastime were strongly influenced by menswear. It was the first time menswear had directly affected womenswear.

An outfit comprising a tailored jacket and a crinoline skirt in which the skirt billows widely at the back, a look that was in vogue during the 1860s. The influence of men’s clothing in the mannish style of the jacket and the choice of black was initially seen in women’s riding wear, but this influence extended to daywear in the latter half of the 19th Century, and went on to develop into the tailored suit.

The gloss of high quality fabric without decoration accentuates the elaborative tailoring of these tight-fitting clothes. Plain but elaborately tailored in details, simple and functional men's clothes were made on the basis of the esthetic values of the "dandies," who emerged at the beginning of the 19th century. As a result, men's clothes became simpler and more stylized, and their designs established a standard that is still relevant today.

After World War I (1914-1918), women's social independence progressed remarkably. Women in the new age led new fashions, requiring functional dresses that matched their active life styles. The pursuit of functionality had begun. Black was highlighted as a modern color, although it had formerly been used for modest uniforms and mourning dress.

FASHION PUBLICATION RESEARCH

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