Winter wardrobe: Into the dark
When dark falls a short time after the school day and the north wind serves an Arctic Cocktail shaken over ice, I'm living in black, with occasional departures to charcoal or indigo.
Those black pieces are not identical, Duchesse says defensively: leather, jersey, silk, denim in different lengths, cuts, attitudes. On top, a sweater like one I'm wearing today, a pink Bompard button-turtle, but below? Dark as the bus stop at 5 p.m.
I've tried to break the habit; exceptions end up under-worn. Forget pale pants unless you have a dry-cleaner in the family. (Probably the most obvious money-is-no-object look I've seen here was a woman negotiating February's slush in oyster grey pants and coat with pale pink suede boots.)
In April, brights burst out of their garment bags, welcome as forsythia and tulips.
In my neighbourhood, two groups of women favour black. One are Hasidic Jews in modest skirts or dresses. They neither change their palette in spring nor punctuate it with a colourful top.
The other are locals in black jeans, dark dresses worn with long scarves, perhaps leavened by a dash of patterned tights or flying citron scarf. (This photo is from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but could easily be Montreal's Mile End.)
The convergence of the groups puts more black on display than a Goth festival.
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| Boden velvet skirt |
I wore a black skirt, ink sweater and chartreuse jacket to meet a friend for lunch. Waiting for her, I watched women bustle by in blacks and browns, punctuated by the flash of rebel red pants. Oh wait, that's a man in ruby cords!
Lynn arrived in head-to-toe black, leavened by her swath of platinum hair and rose lipstick.
Lynn arrived in head-to-toe black, leavened by her swath of platinum hair and rose lipstick.
So where are you with black? Embracing, resisting or hopping about on the colour wheel?
Comments
And I'm still laughing about Antique Ass. :)
I doubt the push to get women into pastels will seriously impact our wardrobes, at least not here - and most certainly not in Paris. But I'd love that skirt in a forest green, and find it hard to find such hues any more. It would then be worn with a black top, of course.
Sometimes there is little choice - I love all the deep "non-colours" - for me a certain deep, dusty violet, and a similar green - but they are extremely hard to find in the shops.
tabitha: I want the same, think less, enjoy more. So black stays.
Genuine Lustre: I think of true navy as nearly black and love it too. gray, of course, is pastel black.
Marguerite: I love charcoal but find many greys look more lifeless than black.
pseu: Dark on the bottom, whether black, bitter chocolate or navy can work with various colouring. Glad you can keep your favourite black pieces.
snada: It certainly makes me look thinner than my white jeans, for example, or a print!
I DO have other colors in my winter wardrobe--brown, the charcoal I've mentioned, dark purple, dark greeny brown, but black stands the test of time. I'm just not going to worry about it!
I don't know what my coloring would suggest, but probably something other than black.
I love how easy it is to wear.
I have embraced greys too and with all my colorful scarves I can get dressed in a flash.
White shirts and cashmere sweaters are important pieces in my wardrobe too.
I've been surprised that I've got through this winter without replacing my black jeans which had been a staple. But I've still got charcoal and then numerous dark denim, good enough to hide the inevitable biking-on-a-muddy-wet-road stains.
Your writing has even more sparkle than usual in today's post -- thanks for a good few chuckles to start my Tuesday!
Peg: One of my friends buys only red coats; she says they not only cheer her up, they cheer others as well.
Susan G: I adore taupe, which is elegant with black but also many other colours. Much harder to find than black, though.
hostess: Only one white shirt made it on this move to a small apt., but I love them on others. Thought I'd keep one for spring/summer.
chicatanyage: Bompard sale on now if you want to replace it, they have several styles (ribbed, button neck, classic polo) Black polo is a steadfast friend to me.
materfamilias: Just love you in that black velvet dress; I've found I can wear soft fabrics (knits, velvet, lace) more easily than hard-finishes near face. And on a bike, black is much hardier than khaki.
LPC: A client told me she waited to see if I ever wore anything on the bottom other than black- and I did not, for months. She was faintly critical but I was amused and unabashed. If Diana Vreeland went through a decade in black cashmere why shouldn't I?
Also, I believe if one looks at the same garment in black and in a color, the black one almost always looks more expensive/higher quality. Another reason to wear black.
Black is too harsh for me but I will not stop wearing it. My bottoms at the moment are black and dark denim. I love deep taupes and medium to deep grays that are neither too warm or too cool, but finding really good rich taupes and grays is quite difficult. So many seem flat and lifeless. The good ones are often expensive. A transition to mostly grays could take me years.
I think the light also affects what we wear. Further north black was the norm. Here, I see more color, mixed with the black. The light is different and black stands out more. At the moment, dark denim seems like a good starting baseline and I will work from there.
Now, with my silver/grey hair, some of the blacks are to harsh, so I like to wear charcoal bottoms.
Black also has it's different shades, so I try to find softer ones.
Speaking of cashmere, black is never a problem color for me...
I'm sitting here remembering winter in central Michigan, how bleak , cold, and grey everything was; grey sky, grey trees, grey snow. I also remember my Kelly green down jacket which cheered me up as I trudged to class across the frozen tundra of the campus!
Tops are all sorts -- my favorites being charcoal and muddy purple. No black next to the face without a scarf or other mitigation, though I'm so rosy-cheeked I actually welcome the black-induced pallor at times.
I feel lucky to have spent most of my working life outside of offices. Often I was working with children, who seem instinctively to dislike black. My work wardrobe was therefore full of pink and turquoise and lilac; black was reserved for evening. Like the other Summers who have commented, I look best in grayed blues and other soft cool colors, and pretty much live in those now. But black still feels more sophisticated to me than other colors; trousers and a sweater in black cashmere just seem dressier than the same outfit in gray. I could never give up black entirely.
C.
Mardel: I've commented on several other blogs lately about the difficulty of finding vibrant, rich greys. The ones I've found are usually verrry expensive.
Absolutely light affects what we wear, it is not just temperature that puts white and bright in the spotlight in warmer climes.
barbara: Calling a move from black to charcoal "a switch" is a move only a confirmed fan of black understands- and I do!
Northmoon: My architect friends wear so little colour that it is a shock when they do, and it is never bright, or predominant. Maybe an occasional rust or mulberry.
Jill Ann: I don't know about he others but I usually wear a colour (like one shown) on top- but there are days when I am in all black- but then with a scarf. As a fellow Michigander (Petoskey) I remember that effect, too. (My down was red.)
Rubi: For awhile I was running about even with black, navy, brown which took too much space. Orange shoes look fab with tobacco!
C.: Your palettte is so beautiful, colours that breathe. Wish I could see your choices.
Kathleen
My black dream bag arrived today! It's so exciting. I have to figure out how to use the tripod and remote to get a photo and a post up, maybe this weekend. Mater and LPC helped me select it and it is PERFECT.
I am with lagatta à montréal in looking for, but not finding, those indeterminate dark colors. I am a huge fan of murky green and deep aubergine, among others. I like them with grey or black. Nothing is more difficult than non-matching blacks in two favorite wardrobe pieces.
My personal style - I have worn black since before it was even a thing among my fellow teenagers to do so. It just looks nice with my complexion. If I want to be put-together and especially fancy, it's usually in all-black. Best of all a LBD, of course. If I am cut in two with a skirt or pants, black or maybe one of those super dark non-colors. Navy, if pressed, in the summer. I'm with Edith Head on that - no other way to deal with my Latvian ass. ! I have been known to wear entire dresses out of a bright color, but that is not for every day - more for playful moments. I also have a real weakness for a soft, dove or smoke grey. However, I have an uncanny talent for attracting stains in that color. Many a garment of that color has gone into the weekend pile.
lagatta's comment came through on my e-mail but they always go to my Spam folder. I mark them "Not Spam" and Blogger says "published" but then they seem to take forever to show up.
gauss: Some women go in and out of black and some of us stay with it. Life gets easier when we do not have to maintain several different colour stores.