The Peak’s fashion and watches editor on why she does not wear black

There are plenty of style myths floating about out there, but the biggest fashion fallacy, to me, is this — when in doubt, wear black. Attend any event that is the slightest bit dressy, and chances are that most attendees will be in black. Appropriate? Probably. Boring? You don’t say.

It’s not difficult to understand why the darkest colour on the spectrum is such a popular option when it comes to getting dressed: With its light-absorbing qualities that conceal rather than highlight contours, black is supposed to be slimming. As the darkest of all hues, black can help to make clothing look dressier. Then, there is also the popularly held notion that black goes well with all other colours. In short, black is supposed to be easy — and that is exactly why I seldom wear it.

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In a world of beautiful colours, patterns, and prints, it is a little tragic to think that people might be restricting themselves to that one solid hue simply to conceal lumps and bumps, poor-quality fabrics, or worse, a lack of imagination. This month, I spoke to colour analysts for a story on the growing trend of colour analysis.

One of them, Carmen Stevens of Carmen’s Colours, reveals that some of her customers come to her to break out of a chromatic rut. She says, “Some people gravitate towards colours like black, white, or grey a lot because they’re easy, but in the end, it bores them a bit.”

She also shoots down the notion that black is universally flattering. Quite the opposite, in fact. According to Stevens, only those whose colouring falls under a real “Winter” type look great in black, and even so, they usually look even better with the addition of other colours. She adds, “Black can be quite harsh, and it doesn’t have a lot of personality. If you wear it every day, it’s probably not going to lift your mood.”

At this point, I must emphasise that I do not actually dislike black in itself. In fact, I think it is amazing when used or worn with intention: In the hands of legendary Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto, for instance, black allows the sculptural forms of his clothing to take centre stage.

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For sure, there are stylish folk who wear black like they mean it. But many seem to default to black as an easy option, ending up in boring, monochromatic outfits 24/7. It is as if these wearers, used to being cocooned in the safety and anonymity of the hue, forget that there is — or how to wear — a world of colour out there. A fellow lifestyle editor, who is almost always in black and/or white, recently shared that she always wears black for formal events because she does not want to draw attention to herself.

In his younger days, my husband, a huge fan of metal music, used to have a wardrobe full of black band T-shirts. When I ask him why he used to live in black, his initial reply is, “Because it’s metal!” Then he admits, “It was also easy to pair with my bermudas. Oh, and black doesn’t show dirt.” These days, his chromatic tastes have expanded greatly. I’d like to think that he has been influenced by my love for colour.

With her well-documented aversion to full-on black ensembles, fashion’s queen bee and editor extraordinaire Anna Wintour is on my side. In a 2019 “Go Ask Anna” video by Vogue, the style icon — wearing brightly coloured necklaces and a patterned dress with dashes of bright green and navy — does not hesitate when someone asks her how to spice up an all-black outfit: “Just don’t wear all black.”